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    Categories: 2023

Music: TmbaTa Orchestra electrify Armenian folk tradition

Chicago, IL – March 23 2023
Armenian folk music has retained its compelling singularity for centuries, through all the tribulations faced by the nation and its people, but TmbaTa Orchestra show that a deep respect for this tradition does not preclude reinventing it. The band, whose name derives from a musical exercise, grew out of an education program launched a decade ago by guitarist Arik Grigoryan at the teen-oriented Tumo Center for Creative Technologies in Yerevan. In the spirit of that youthful energy, TmbaTa titled their 2019 album ZarZ’ng’, which translates to “ring the bells”—short for the even more enthusiastic phrase “ring the bells so we can dance all night long.”

Here, electric guitar and bass re-create the type of lines traditionally made by ancient strings, such as the oud and kanun, while arrangements for clarinets and brass transpose Indigenous woodwinds, including the double-reed apricot-wood horn called the duduk. While TmbaTa’s driving rhythms take their cues from rock, their melodies adhere to long-standing Armenian modal lines that occasionally echo Middle Eastern idioms. Similar to their more folkloric peers, such as Armenia’s Shoghaken Ensemble, TmbaTa’s repertoire mixes such upbeat tunes as “ZarZ’ng’” with quieter devotional pieces. 

In 2021 TmbaTa self-released Fantastic Komitas, titled in honor of Komitas Vardapet (born Soghomon Soghomonian), an Armenian priest and musicologist who collected thousands of folk songs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. TmbaTa adapt a selection of those songs for this record, and their version of “Ampel a Kamar” (“Heaven Has Become Clouded in Arches”) features serene vocal harmonies over a slow, enthralling beat. If Komitas could time travel to the present, he might not quite recognize the tune in its modern, electrified state, but the orchestra’s spirit and dedication nonetheless embody what his work was all about.

https://chicagoreader.com/music/tmbata-orchestra-electrify-armenian-folk-tradition/
Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS