You know that you’re getting the real deal of Armenian music when the album label is Pomegranate Music.
Arsen Petrosyan has an album subtitled “Music For Armenian Duduk,” an instrument which is sort of a pre-western clarinet. It has a mourning sound; it was made famous on Mel Gibson’s The Passion. Here, Petrosyan delivers a rich tapestry of sounds that take you to various times and places. His breathy vibrato teams up with a harp on a celestial “Tapna Kervan” and dreamy “Hairenik” while percussion adds Middle Eastern mystery on “Hazar Ernek.” His instruments sighs and dances on “Naz Par” while with simple guitar accompaniment you’re taken on a star lit journey on “Lullaby for the Sun.” A Mediterranean hammer dulcimer takes you to the Aegean sea on “Kessabi Oror” and he teams up with a second duduk player (as if one weren’t agonizing enough) for longing refrains on “Eshkemet” and “Hairenik.” Sonic moods of the mystic.