CRUZAID

Vahan Artsruni’s official debut got a fair amount of notice from progressive, fusion and world music sources when it released in 2002. And rightfully so, given that the accomplished musician hailed from that mysterious and exotic place known as Armenia, and showed promise of being an emerging new source of ethnically-inflected modern progressive folk music. In fact though Artsruni have released very little since this initial studio release and for the most part what is available is in the form of live recordings or studio snippets that can be downloaded from the artist’s web site.

As for this album, the musicianship is crisp, detailed and top-notch in quality, but if you’re expecting something that reflects a strong sense of Armenian culture or some sort of reinterpretation of local folk classics, you’ll be somewhat disappointed with what is presented on the record.

To be sure there are some cultural signatures in the music, particularly in Arman Manukyan’s flute and the various light percussive inflections. But the meat in this music comes in the form of Artsruni’s acoustic (and Vahagn Amirkhanyan’s electric) guitar playing, and these both come off as much more jazz/fusion works than any kind of culturally-infused folk arrangements. In particular the chords on “Barev” sound very familiar to me but I can’t quite place them; and the two-part title track is a bit too fast-tempo and guitar-heavy for what I expected of the album. The second half of the title track does show eastern influences in the electric guitar inflections, but overall this could just as easily have been a few guys in Atlanta, London or Paris recording and I’m not sure I would have noticed much difference.

The latter part of the album is actually much more interesting and unique than the first few tracks though, and these are the songs that are really the saving grace of the disk. “Im Ser” features some of the same guitar-god soaring electric guitar passages as some of the earlier tracks, but it also has a number of tempo transitions that sneak up on the listener and serve to keep this from being simply background music. “Anush Garun” sounds a bit like a more earthy working of “The Lost Symbol” in some respects, and the very intricate flute arrangements and highly eastern-leaning electric guitar on this one are a treat. This is much closer to what I had expected when I bought the disk.

The closing “Call of the Wind” is a bit of an aberration as it includes vocals from Vahan Artsruni which were a bit unexpected. But he has a decent voice and this is still largely an instrumental affair except for the opening and closing minutes. But I wouldn’t rank this as one of the stronger works on the album.

I’ve had this CD for a couple years now and have to admit it doesn’t get played much. The initial rush of interest in a modern act coming out of Armenia faded pretty quickly after I picked this up and spun it a few times, and especially after not seeing much released to follow up the debut. But this is a very decent recording and a solid three star effort. Just don’t expect something that overwhelms you with exotic, ethnic charms – this is a well-executed studio session from several very professional musicians, nothing more, nothing less.

peace