Mockroot
| Mockroot | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | February 17, 2015[1][2] | |||
| Genre | Armenian folk music, jazz fusion and other styles[2] | |||
| Length | 58:17 | |||
| Label | Nonesuch Records[3][4] | |||
| Tigran Hamasyan chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| All About Jazz |   [3] |
| The Guardian | [4] |
| Sputnikmusic |  [5] |
| musicOMH | [6] |
Mockroot is the sixth album by Tigran Hamasyan, released 17 February 2015.[3][2][1][6] The album mixes traditional Armenian folk music (and other styles such as rock and minimalism) with jazz, in the jazz fusion style.[2][4][7][8] It features Tigran on synths, keyboard and vocals; Sam Minaie on bass guitar; and Arthur Hnatek on drums and electronics.[4][1][9] It was the first album he released on Nonesuch Records.[4][3][1] The album was planned to be released 26 January 2015,[6][10] but was delayed and released on 17th February 2015.[1]
Content
[edit]Mockroot features a variety of styles. The album opener "To Love," and the following track "Song for Melan and Rafik," are ballads[2] featuring falsetto vocals over Hamasyan's piano.[4]
The next few tracks, "Kars 1" and "Double-Faced," feature a turn towards a heavier sound, featuring breakdown sections some critics compared to those of Meshuggah. These are followed by the ballad “The Roads That Bring Me Closer to You" and the laid-back solo piano composition "Lilac." A similar balance between piano ballads and heavy djent-like tracks is followed for much of the tracklist, only interrupted by "Kars 2 (Wounds of the Centuries)," which takes a more minimalist approach.[2]
The album features heavy use of uncommon time signatures and frequent meter changes. The track "Song for Melan and Rafik" is in the time signature 42
16, and is arranged for a quintet instead of a trio. "Double faced" features two separate pulses playing at the same time, described by Tigran as follows, "The idea was to use groupings of 5
16 over 8 bars of 4
4 in a way that it would make us feel like the 5
16 is the pulse, even though the entire song is in 4
4".
The song "Entertain Me" is in a time signature of 256
32, with a melody grouped in 35
16 that plays 7 times before it resets. "To Negate" is in a time signature of 13
8, and the penultimate track "The Grid" is composed in sections of 5, 5, 7, 5, 5, 5 sixteenth notes.[11]
The final three named tracks, "To Negate," "The Grid," and "Out of the Grid," are among the heaviest on the album, described as "dissonant, post-modern, Armenian-infused post-bop, followed by angular djent-like jazz."[2] "To Negate" has been described by Hamasyan as being "linked" to the opening track "To Love," both songs having been inspired by Armenian poet Petros Durian. The two songs are in the same key, though "To Negate" is in "an odd, Armenian mode."[12] The album closes with a hidden track in waltz time, which had been written in 2009 and played live for years prior to its inclusion on Mockroot.[12]
Hamasyan has stated that "Armenia looms large throughout Mockroot."[12] In addition to the general musical style, this is reflected by the fact that several track titles reference locations in current or historical Armenia. "Kars 1" and related track "Kars 2 (Wounds of the Centuries)" are named for Kars, a region in modern-day Turkey that Hamasyan cites as the ancestral home of his maternal grandparents. Similarly, "The Apple Orchard in Saghmosavanq" refers to Saghmosavanq, a monastery near Yerevan.[12]
Track listing
[edit]All tracks are written by Tigran Hamasyan.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "To Love" | 2:06 |
| 2. | "Song for Melan and Rafik" | 5:56 |
| 3. | "Kars 1" | 5:26 |
| 4. | "Double-Faced" | 5:30 |
| 5. | "The Roads That Bring Me Closer to You" | 4:16 |
| 6. | "Lilac" | 4:10 |
| 7. | "Entertain Me" | 3:19 |
| 8. | "The Apple Orchard in Saghmosavanq" | 4:22 |
| 9. | "Kars 2 (Wounds of the Centuries)" | 1:34 |
| 10. | "To Negate" | 5:17 |
| 11. | "The Grid" | 5:56 |
| 12. | "Out of the Grid" | 10:25 |
| Total length: | 58:17 | |
Personnel
[edit]Musicians
- Tigran Hamasyan - Piano, Voice, Keyboards, Synths, Sound effects
- Sam Minaie - Electric Bass
- Arthur Hnatek - Drums, live electronics
- Gayanée Movsisyan - Vocals (track 5)
- Areni Agbabian - Vocals (track 2)
- Ben Wendel - Saxophone (track 2)
- Chris Tordini - Bass (track 2)
- Nate Wood - Drums (track 2)
Production
- Cover Artwork - Vahram Muradyan
- Producer, Composer, Arranger - Tigran Hamasyan
- Photography - MirzOyan
- Recording and mixing - Antoine Gaillet
- Assistant engineer - Clément Gariel
- Mastered by Nate Wood
Recorded at Studio de Meudon, Meudon, France
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e Dickson, Claire (February 23, 2015). "A Mix Of Old And New In Armenian Jazz Pianist Tigran's 'Mockroot'". The ARTery - wbur. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g Norton, Ben (March 28, 2015). "Review: Tigran Hamasyan - Mockroot". Can this be even called music?. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
- ^ a b c d Turner, Mark F. (February 26, 2015). "Tigran Hamasyan: Mockroot". All About Jazz. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f Fordham, John (January 22, 2015). "Tigran Hamasyan: Mockroot review – a personal take on songs from Armenia and beyond". The Guardian. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
- ^ Schroer, Brendan (February 12, 2018). "Tigran Hamasyan - Mockroot (album review)". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
- ^ a b c Christophers, Dom (January 26, 2015). "Tigran Hamasyan – Mockroot". Retrieved May 18, 2019.
- ^ West, Michael J. (June 9, 2015). "Tigran Hamasyan: Mockroot". Retrieved May 18, 2019.
- ^ kirsch, matthias (February 25, 2015). "Tigran Hamasyan - Mockroot". ginalovesjazz.com. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
- ^ Harris, George W. (March 5, 2015). "Tigran Hamasyan: Mockroot". Jazz Weekly. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
- ^ Flynn, Mike (November 26, 2014). "Tigran tears it up on Nonesuch debut album Mockroot". Jazzwise. Retrieved May 18, 2019.
- ^ "Mockroot by Tigran Hamasyan".
- ^ a b c d "Mockroot Track by Track from Tigran Hamasyan". Nonesuch Records. Archived from the original on December 4, 2020. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
