''An Ancient Observer'' is the 8th album by

Tigran Hamasyan Tigran Hamasyan ( hy, Տիգրան Համասյան; born July 17, 1987) is an Armenian jazz pianist and composer. He plays mostly original compositions, which are strongly influenced by the Armenian folk tradition, often using its scales and mod ...

released 31 March 2017. Two of the tracks on the album are developments of traditional Armenian melodies and all tracks have influences from

Armenian folk music Armenian folk music is a genre of Armenian music. It usually uses the duduk, the kemenche, and the oud. It is very similar to folk music in the Caucasus and shares many similar songs and traditions with countries around Armenia, namely Georgia a ...

. Tigran also draws inspiration from

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

and

Rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...

, as well as the natural landscape of

Mount Ararat Mount Ararat or , ''Ararat''; or is a snow-capped and dormant compound volcano in the extreme east of Turkey. It consists of two major volcanic cones: Greater Ararat and Little Ararat. Greater Ararat is the highest peak in Turkey and th ...

. This was Tigran's second album on

Nonesuch Records Nonesuch Records is an American record company and label owned by Warner Music Group, distributed by Warner Records (formerly called Warner Bros. Records), and based in New York City. Founded by Jac Holzman in 1964 as a budget classical label, Non ...

. The album is mostly solo piano, however, there is sparing use of electronics and vocals. Tigran considers his next release, the EP '' For Gyumri'', to be a companion work to this album.

Track listing

References

2017 albums Nonesuch Records albums Tigran Hamasyan albums {{2010s-album-stub