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Instrument: Band / ensemble / orchestra
Levon Eskenian: Giving Voice to the Sacred Lineage of Armenian Music
by Nenad Georgievski
It is not often you come across a musician whose work feels like a bridge--between cultures, centuries, and inner worlds. Levon Eskenian, the Armenian musician and artistic director behind the Gurdjieff Ensemble, is one of those rare figures. Through his thoughtful arrangements and deep cultural understanding, he has led the Ensemble in reimagining the music of Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff and Komitas--not as museum pieces, but as living, breathing works that still resonate today. Over the past decade and a half, ...
Continue ReadingThe Gurdjieff Folk Instruments Ensemble: Komitas
by Nenad Georgievski
When Armenian arranger and composer Levon Eskenian took on to reimagine the music of Armenian mystic and philosopher Gurdjieff for the Gurdjieff Ensemble's debut record on ECM, he touched upon the wealth of melodies that Gurdjieff initially heard and was inspired by during the travels he undertook during his lifetime through the Caucasus, the Near East and Central Asia, and eventually were hummed to pianist Thomas de Hartmann. And it was Eskenian's fertile imagination, deep knowledge and understanding of both ...
Continue ReadingThe Gurdjieff Folk Instruments Ensemble: Music of Georges I. Gurdjieff
by AAJ Italy Staff
Personaggio importantissimo per la rinascita mistico-spirituale nel ventesimo secolo, Georges Ivanovic Gurdjieff era presente nel catalogo ECM fin dal lontano 1980, quando Keith Jarrett incise la sua personale interpretazione di una selezione dei suoi inni sacri, composti a partire da melodie tradizionali raccolte nel corso di numerose peregrinazioni in medio oriente, e consegnate al mondo occidentale attraverso la trascrizione per piano realizzata da un musicista suo discepolo, Thomas de Hartmann. Quella pianistica è rimasta finora la versione più conosciuta e ...
Continue ReadingThe Gurdjieff Folk Instruments Ensemble / Levon Eskenian: Music of Georges I. Gurdjieff
by Nenad Georgievski
Philosopher, traveler, mystic, spiritual adventurer, teacher, musician and a fervent seeker of esoteric knowledge, G. I. Gurdjieff and his legacy are still of interest to many. His early years shrouded in mystery, he wandered through Central Asia and Middle East while still a young man, absorbing the spiritual and philosophical ideas of the religions he encountered, before making his way to the west, where he began formulating a synthesis (The Forth Way) of what he had learned using a series ...
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