Haunting and exotic, Visions of Nar’s second record, Awakening, takes us on a tone-colour trek across cultures. Armenian piano modes combine with Indian tabla, echoed, looped sax, and atmospheric electric guitar flourishes to create a modern ethno-jazz sound that also sounds as old as the spice road.
Of Armenian and Lebanese descent, Zela Margossian immersed herself in Armenian music at the Komitas State Conservatory before moving to Sydney to continue her studies and later formed the award-winning Zela Margossian Quintet. Jeremy Rose is a distinguished bandleader and educator at the forefront of Australia’s contemporary jazz community. Rounding out the lineup are featured guests renowned tabla master Bobby Singh, accomplished jazz composer and guitarist Hilary Geddes, and Kurdish percussionist Adem Yilmaz. Visions of Nar formed in 2021 and released their debut, Daughter of the Seas, in 2023. Drawing on their diverse backgrounds in significant and surprising ways, their new release unfolds like a memorable journey.
Like sunrise, with the road ahead, Rose’s soprano saxophone opens the record on “Cri de Coeur”, playing a long, flowing melody with his trademark breathy tone. Margossian plays a simple, repeated figure underneath, soon joined by Singh’s restless tabla, with all three providing different rhythmic textures—meshing while staying resolutely separate. As the piece unfolds, each player builds improvised variations, serving as an apt introduction to what is to come.
Margossian’s influences are on special display on the album’s first single, the sumptuous “Gorgeous Nothings”. A distinctive feature of Armenian modes is their symmetry without the leading tone of Western music. This makes the music seem to loop without an obvious beginning, creating a sense of hypnotic timelessness. Sometimes a scale has both a minor seventh and a major seventh degree, creating beautiful, exotic sounds that radiate from Margossian’s piano. Providing rhythmic harmony under Rose’s restless lines, she doesn’t comp like a traditional jazz pianist, but adds voices of her own, sometimes competing, sometimes complementing, but always flowered with that inimical Armenian thing.
Also atypical is the players’ approach to soloing; mostly they seem to play independently of each other—basically soloing all the time. In “Let’s Play in the Fields”, Margossian plays a more conventional solo, highlighting her Armenian roots and exploring musical places “outside”, but never without Rose’s commentary.
Frantic tabla and echoey bass clarinet by Rose create an exotic base for a spice-redolent piano tune on “Eat Chaos”, as the pace of travel picks up. “Don’t Wait to Be Introduced” opens with a cascade of piano notes reminding me of Keith Jarrett‘s Köln Concert. Another circular melody, Rose’s virtuosic improvisations rise and soar above the polyrhythms. It concludes with a short, punctuating Singh flourish.
Throughout, Rose creates an astonishing array of timbres and moods through his reeds, even evoking the didgeridoo sounds of an imaginary outback. Margossian’s breezy, fresh piano is the starch, the spice, and the engine, sitting comfortably in the middle of the mix. Singh’s tabla adds even more exotic sounds and gives the music a restless energy. Geddes’ guitar is less prominent than on the debut, but it remains a subtle flavour.
Compared to the first record, the pieces here seem less consciously arranged and more organic. I was reminded of Argentinian-born pianist Emilio Solla, who combines sax, flute, and bandoneon to explore the tango. Together, the diverse voices of Visions of Nar are virtuosic without ever sounding so, and rich without ever being hard to digest. Satisfyingly musical, Awakening stays with you long after you’ve swept the road dust away.