Review | Songlines

The Art of the Duduk

Rating: ★★★

View album and artist details

Album and Artist Details

Artist/band:

Haïg Sarikouyoumdjian

Label:

Ocora Radio France

April/2021

The glorious 11th-century Varagavank monastery on the front of this CD shows that architecture is one of the great achievements of Armenian civilisation. The other is the duduk, the plaintive oboe-like instrument hollowed out of apricot wood. Its mournful tones seem to epitomise the history and suffering of these resourceful people. The monastery (in Turkey) was largely destroyed in 1915 and the photo dates from a couple of years before that.

Djivan Gasparyan is the big name in Armenian duduk playing and, internationally, put the instrument on the map. Thanks to him there are many younger players like Haïg Sarikouyoumdjian. He was born in 1985 and studied with Araïk Bartikian, a pupil of Gasparyan, and has collaborated with Jordi Savall on several of his albums. Sarikouyoumdjian has become interested in duduk making as well as playing and this has given his instruments a real richness of tone.

The duduk is a simple double-reed pipe with a range of a little more than an octave and not suited to fast virtuoso music. What it does best is slow, melancholy and expressive. On this record Sarikouyoumdjian performs solo duduk, accompanied by drone player Artur Kasabyian and the occasional dhol (drum) from Tigran Hovhannisyan. What makes his playing stand out is the way he explores different modes that really link Armenian styles to the nearby traditions of Turkish and Persian music. Some of the most enticing are in ‘Melodies from the Region of Artsakh’. It's a shame the modes are not specified. The disc ends with ‘Tsirani Tsar’ (The Apricot Tree), a real gem paying tribute to the wood from which the duduk is carved.

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