Two New Albums In Modern Armenian Folk Music: ‘O’ and ‘Acoustic Armenia’

East Coast Voices

But new voices in modern Armenian folk music are also now emerging on the US East Coast. Raffi Wartanian’s “Critical Distance” has already been reviewed in this paper. ( https://mirrorspectator.com/2020/02/06/on-new-album-wartanians-experiment-goes-the-distance/)

Another of the new albums in the field is “Acoustic Armenia,” the product of the musical mind and soul and especially of the enthralling voice of Karinné Andonian, a young Armenian-American singer from the Philadelphia area. Unlike Medz Bazar’s work, Karinné’s is solo art, for the most part. Though her repertoire consists of mostly well-known, traditional Armenian folk songs, she does not allow the familiarity of her material to restrict her to familiar interpretations.

“Avant-garde” is not a word that would be used to describe Karinné’s music, but the word “vivid” immediately comes to mind, as do “authentic” and “moving.” Vivid, in the truest possible meaning of the word – alive. Authentic, because Karinne sings from the heart. Moving, because her voice moves us with emotion. Karinné’s voice is that of a young mother improvising songs for her children, of a person for whom music and singing is a part of daily life, and of whom the emotions, joys and sorrows of her own real-life world are reflected in her vocalizations. But it is also the expression of a woman whose musical ideas are profound, whose emotions are palpable in her singing, and who has been endowed with a superb, beautiful singing voice. Karinné shared with me that in fact, her young children comprised one of her sources of feedback, and that the song Kisher Pari was in fact a lullaby written for them.

A labor of love some 10 years in the making, Karinné has taken a list of mostly well-known and well-loved songs and has created brand-new arrangements for practically all of them. Her arrangements give a fresh, living feel to these songs without losing the moods or emotions associated with each of them. Sometimes, the arrangements are surprising, new, and refreshing. Throughout, we hear Karinné’s own inner musical voice and ideas, as well as the power of her singing.

Karinné, while accompanying herself on guitar on many of the tracks, has also enlisted the assistance of oudist, Roger Mgrdichian, Jr., guitarist, Vahe Sarkissian, and dumbeg player, Haig Hovnanian (her brother). These three have also contributed in part to the arrangements, but I was surprised when Karinné told me that she even wrote some of the guitar and oud solos. Even more impressively, she said she had essentially come up with all the parts of the arrangements by singing to herself, saved them by recording them onto her phone, and sent them to the other musicians.

“My voice is my instrument” says Karinné, and that extends even to her arrangements for other instruments, for which sheet music was apparently superfluous.

Perhaps at this point we should add that Karinné’s father and grandfather, Steve and Jirair Hovnanian, respectively, have both been featured vocalists with the Vosbikian Band (Karinné’s grandmother was a Vosbikian) and that Roger’s namesake father was a member of the Philadelphia Gomidas Band along with his uncle, legendary oud player Udi George Mgrdichian. The influence of years of Philadelphia Armenian music history is strong here, and the presence of these past and present figures is felt in the album as well.

It’s important to note that Vahe Sarkissian is a first generation Armenian-American who grew up with the Armenian folk music and language and has been a highly talented guitarist on the American scene.

The genesis of this album lay in Karinné quest to find the origin of a beautiful song her grandfather Jirair sang to her grandmother, she said in an interview. With no success, she decided to record the song for posterity herself (track 2, Grandpop’s Song). With this song in mind, she crossed paths with oudist Roger, when they both participated in a local group that performed Jewish music. Despite their family connection, they had not met previously, at least to their recollection. Karinné shared her musical vision with Roger, who was interested in recording an album of new versions of Armenian folk songs. World-famous oudist Ara Dinkjian also encouraged Karinné in her dream to create what became “Acoustic Armenia.”

Aside from the delicate beauty and romantic aura of Grandpop’s Song, some of the outstanding moments of the album are the use of acoustic guitar solos by Vahe Sarkisian and oud solos by Roger Mgrdichian, both instruments close to her heart. Voice doubling is used to great effect on Oror Oror and Anoush Karoon. For the latter song, Karinné chose to reinterpret the melody, as she didn’t care for the traditional piano accompaniment originally written for this song. In her version the melody stands alone, but in a slightly different interpretation and phrasing than the original. She explained taht with many of these songs, she learned them from the many Armenian song books she had access to as a child. She would take what she liked and create something new from it. The arrangement of Sari Siroon Yar, for example, a childhood favorite of the artist and a staple of Vosbikian Band performances, is totally new and features surprising rhythmic changes probably never envisioned by the author, Ashugh Ashot, and aided by brother Haig’s dumbeg. Karinné’s wordless vocalizations add to the charm of the song here as throughout the album.

The Gomidas Medley (Karoun A, Gakavig, and Shogher Jan) features excellent guitar accompaniment by Vahe and more vocalizations by Karinné in addition to her excellent arrangement and vocal interpretation of the trio of songs. Kherovadz Er, interpreted with only Haig’s dumbeg for accompaniment, has a more Middle Eastern feel, which gives way to the masterpiece of the album, Sareri Hovin Mernem. Karinné’s exquisite performance of this Armenian folk classic is delivered with her signature breathy and enthralling vocals, in a free meter style, accompanied by Roger’s oud obbligato, allowing her to focus on her phrasing, which eventually gives way to more open-vowel vocalization as Roger joins her in oud improvisations. As the song ends on a perfect note, one would think the album was over, but Karinné returns for a sort of encore, a gentle, heartfelt lullaby, Kisher Pari. Just as in the song, Karinné promises her children “ardoon ge desnuvink,” we hope that we will soon again hear more of Karinné Andonian’s immense musical talents on record.

Collectif Medz Bazar’s album is available on all streaming platforms: Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music, etc.

Andonian’s album is available on Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music, can be viewed on YouTube, purchased directly from CDBaby or from Karinné herself.