The Bird of a Thousand Voices

アルメニアに伝わる『火の鳥』伝説を様々なサウンドと伝統のメロディで壮大に描くプロジェクト

2023年、ティグラン・ハマシアンは、アルメニアの伝統的な物語に着想を得た『The Bird of a Thousand Voices(千の声の鳥)』をつくった。これは、2024年6月8日にオランダ・フェスティバルで、2つの野心的な映画ミュージックビデオ、ドキュメンタリー・ミュージックビデオ、オンラインゲームで構成されるトランスメディア・プロジェクトとして上演され、大きな話題となった。
『火の鳥』の原作は、何世紀にもわたって様々な国や文化の中で口承で伝えられてきた。この魅力的な物語を芸術作品に仕立てるためには、多層的かつ学術的なアプローチが必要となる。千の声を持つ神秘的(神話的)な鳥は、つながりや調和を求めながらも、様々な危機に直面する現代を象徴する美しいメタファーである。コーカサスの古くからの伝統が持つこの美しい音楽物語を、新たな手段で伝えようとする試みは、世界の好奇心と多様性の動きと重なってくる。ティグランの『The Bird Of A Thousand Voices(千の声の鳥)』も、こうした文脈から生まれた。
ティグランは、同世代で最も注目されるジャズ・ピアニストであり作曲家の一人である。彼は即興演奏と祖国アルメニアの豊かな伝統音楽を融合させている。10年前、ティグランと受賞歴のある映像作家ルーベン・ヴァン・レールは、パリのシテ・ド・ラ・ミュージックでのコラボレーションで出会い、映像音楽体験「シャドウ・シアター」を創作した(ARTE)。その後、ふたりはいくつかのミュージックビデオを共に制作してもいる(Cave of Rebirth & Fides Tua)。
アゼルバイジャンは現在、アルメニアの修道院にねむっている古文書の焼却を命じている。

Pianist, composer, and keyboardist Tigran Hamasyan is no stranger to musical eclecticism. His catalog offers complex, intricate albums that transcend most genre boundaries. While best known as a jazz pianist, it is but one dimension in his musical character. The various folk and sacred music traditions of Armenia provide inspiration for compositions that crisscross jazz, folk, indie pop, classical, prog, and metal. Since the 2010s, he has been collaborating with filmmaker Ruben Van Leer. They realized the visual musical experience Shadow Theater in Paris, and have worked on various music video projects together. The Bird of a Thousand Voices is another one. Hamasyans most complex compositional work, its based on an Armenian folk tale about a princes quest to find the bird whose song heals those cursed by indifference. The pianist began this 90-plus-minute, 24-track work in 2019, completed it in 2023, and premiered it at the Holland Festival in June 2024. His collaboration with Van Leer extends here to two cinematically ambitious music videos, a documentary, and an interactive online game. Hamasyan has also created a unique website for the release. He is assisted by drummer/percussionist Nate Wood, vocalist Areni Agbabian, bassist Marc Karapetian, Swedish-Ethiopian singer Sofia Jernberg, and classical vocalist Vahram Sarkissian. Hamasyans instrument choices include a host of analog synths and piano. These compositions range across and often combine synth-heavy prog metal and ambient electronica, jazz improvisation and ethereal pop with melodic Armenian folk music as the thread that binds them. Opener "The Kingdom" commences with gauzy synths (think Jan Bang) in circular patterns, slamming blastbeat drumming, and Agbabians sublime wordless soprano guided by Karapetians bass. Hamasyan sounds like hes trying to adapt prog metal without using guitars. The single "The Curse" commences as a folk ballad on piano with whistling bass and drums before exploding into thunderous prog and then segueing into the mysterious title cut, full of economical classical piano, atmospheric synths, and wispy wordless vocals. Hamasyan sings on several tracks here, including the intimate piano ballad "Aregs Calling." "The Quest Begins" offers a piano intro and circular harmonic pattern that recalls the work of modernist composer Edvard Mirzoyan. "Red, White and Black Worlds" is a questing collision between prog, metal, and jazz improv, and "Prophecy of a Sacred" weds folk and vanguard classical piano before a choir of ethereal wordless voices claim the fore. While "The Well of Death and Resurrection" offers a complex rhythmic and harmonic base worthy of Frank Zappa, the third from last track, "The Eternal Bird Sings and the Garden Blooms Again," joins ELP-esque prog, indie pop, and jazz syncopation in framing Agbabians vocal that transforms these disparate parts into a canvas of resonant beauty. Despite the stylistic menage here, Hamasyan manages to realize the most cohesive, focused, and liberated work in his catalog to date. He has issued many fine recordings -- Red Hail, Mockroot, and An Ancient Observer, among them -- but the stunning, kaleidoscopic Bird of a Thousand Voices towers above them. ~ Thom Jurek