Something Else! Reviews
Feb 14 2015
Aram Bajakian, Music Inspired by ‘The Color of Pomegranates’ (2015): Sneak peek
Aram Bajakian consistently find inspiration for his music from places
few or no one else thinks to look. Kef applied a good ol’ fashioned
American avant-rock twist to Armenian folk songs, while Dálava
restored to life the nearly-lost traditional music of the central
European Moravia region.
Come this spring, the former Lou Reed and Diana Krall guitarist will
again put forth an album of music sourced from an exotic place, but
this time, the ‘place’ isn’t a physical location but rather, a motion
picture.
The great Soviet filmmaker Sergei Parajanov made an innovative
biographical film of the Armenian musician and poet Sayat Nova, The
Color of Pomegranates (1969), which is widely considered his
masterpiece. A richly colorful film that contained no moving cameras
or real dialog, the lush visual tapestry of Pomegranates seems a prime
subject for which to apply a new ‘soundtrack’ of sorts motivated
directly by the footage (the original score, by the way, was by the
Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian).
That’s where Aram Bajakian applies his art. Armed with only a solo
acoustic guitar, he plays this brief piece (of which I don’t have the
name handy) from the upcoming album in an arpeggiated, classical style
that closely matches the accompanying imagery.
Aram Bajakian is quickly gaining a reputation as one of the most
creative and adventurous guitarist/composers around and it is all but
assured that this latest venture will only enhance that reputation.