New Hamasyan video gives inside look at European tour (video)

 October 3, 2017 - 17:57 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Jazz musician and composer Tigran Hamasyan launches a European tour, featuring music from his new album, "An Ancient Observer", with a performance at the Philological Association of Parnassos in Athens, Greece, on Saturday, October 7, Nonesuch Records says.

The autumn tour, which continues through the end of November, makes stops in France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Luxembourg, and Hamasyan’s home country of Armenia.

To mark the start of the tour, Hamasyan has released a video giving an inside look at the first leg of his tour following the release of "An Ancient Observer" on Nonesuch Records earlier this year.

"An Ancient Observer" includes ten new compositions, two of which are based on Armenian melodies. Some are through-composed and completely written out, while others are composed with ample space for Hamasyan to improvise. He cites a wide range of influences—from Baroque dance to hip-hop grooves adapted to piano—and the sounds of his native country of Armenia are present, as always. DownBeat exclaims: "It's simply breathtaking."

The Huffington Post calls Hamasyan "one of jazz's most dynamic artists ... [T]he influences of the music are manifold ... though the Armenian influence, which makes his music so uniquely outstanding, is prominent."