Star Scene

By Elie El Khoury

Whoever said that music is the only universal language is a wise wise man (or woman). On Friday November 13^th, I had the chance to attend the Beirut Rock Festival on its second night to witness Yan Tiersen’s opening act; Eileen Khatchadourian and her band.

The young Armenian vocalist performed songs mostly of her debut effort “Midan” which literally translates to “Home”. The album ia a compilation of Armenian folk songs repackaged and reinterpreted with a rock twist for a younger generation who is slowly phasing away from its heritage.

The performance was truly impressive. The singer’s refined vocal abilities were complemented by her band’s aggressive guitar riffs, thumping kicks and hypnotizing synthesizer loops. The VJs projected clips and abstract images added a visual dimension and inspired various interpretations compatible to the music.

Khatchadourian was kind enough to translate every song’s title and give the audience a heads up on the theme of each piece which rendered the whole “foreign language” deal quite a plus since I was literally feeding off the projected images and melodic progressions to paint the picture in my head. My brain was accenting the picture at times and mellowing it at others depending on the vocalist’s tone and delivery.

By the mere folk nature of the project, the track listing covered every possible topic from the call to come back to the mother land with “Caravan”, the urge to rise up and fight the oppression with ”Zarti Vortyag” to the very sweet and soothing sounds of a lullaby with “Oror” which served as the artist’s closing act.

As the final words of “Oror” were pronounced, the crowd’s roaring masked the young artist’s thanks and wishes for a “truly inspiring night”.

This experience was a true eye-opener for me. Whoever claims that rock should remain in the west is definitely missing out on this genre’s ability to serve as a powerful medium of translating people’s struggle from an almost forgotten past to the ground shaking present; a criteria that perfectly fits Eileen Khatchadourian and her band.