Yeraz Brings Together Armenian Artists For a Cause

In Armenian, yeraz means “dream.” It’s a fitting title for the first compilation from Los Angeles-based record label and artist management company Critique. Yeraz is a ten-track album, out digitally on February 19 and on vinyl in May, that brings together Armenian and Armenian-American artists with contributions ranging from theremin player Armen Ra to indie electronic producer Melineh. It’s a stylistically varied collection, but one that’s united in a cause. All net profits from the album will benefit Kooyrigs, an Armenian, intersectional feminist-led coalition that’s been providing humanitarian relief on the ground in Armenia and the neighboring, ethnic Armenian enclave of Artsakh during a critical time. 

For 44 days last fall, Artsakh, known internationally as Nagorno-Karabakh, was under fire. In late September, Azerbaijan launched an attack, leading to an all-out war, with Armenia coming to the defense of Artsakh, which is not internationally recognized as an independent nation. In the midst of this, ethnic Armenians and allies came together in an unprecedented way, leveraging social media to bring awareness to a situation that was getting very little news coverage while also raising funds for humanitarian relief and holding protests in cities across the globe. 

Karine Eurdekian, who founded Kooyrigs in 2018, had just moved from Michigan to New York when the war began and was coordinating relief efforts with the team in Armenia. In Los Angeles, Zach Asdourian, who founded Critique, was working with GL4M, an artist who had released the single “Lusavor” to benefit Armenian relief organizations. One of these was Kooyrigs, which prompted Asdourian to reach out to Eurdekian on Instagram. 

Eurdekian says that she and Asdourian bonded over the “cultural consciousness” of each other’s content. They began working on collaborations, which led to Yeraz. Eurdekian describes the project as similar to swapping bracelets at a rave. “It’s just sharing our talents, sharing our creativity with one another and creating impact,” she says. 

Yeraz is, in part, a means to spread awareness in communities that may not have heard about the events of last fall. “We’re trying to really expand the outreach and expanding into the music community is natural, because the underground music scene is just an accepting community,” says Eurdekian. “It’s an empathetic community, and it’s one that I’ve grown up in and Zach’s grown up in and hundreds of people in Armenia are currently growing up in.” 

Meanwhile, Asdourian had heard San Francisco-based DJ and producer Lara Sarkissian drop “Lusavor” in one of her sets online. “It was honestly a dream come true to see this contemporary Armenian artist including my artist’s single in her mix, so I got in touch with her and we began talking,” he recalls. 

Sarkissian came in as a creative director for Yeraz. She says that the compilation presented a “good opportunity” to connect artists in the U.S. and those in Armenia. Sarkissian has played in Armenia, where she got to know local artists like Melineh. 

“It’s something very new, but something very present and the vibe is very active,” says Melineh by phone from Yerevan, the country’s capital city, of Armenia’s electronic music scene. 

Melineh is a Yerevan-based electronic music producer who contributed to Yeraz.

For the country in general, though, times have been difficult in the aftermath of the war. “The damage is huge and the traces are everywhere,” she says, adding that locals are trying to help in whatever ways they can. Artists, in particular, are doing what they can to help relief efforts, she says. 

On the surface, the war may have appeared as part of a long territorial struggle between Armenia and Azerbaijan. However, standing in Azerbaijan’s corner was Turkey, who continues to deny the genocide of Armenians that took place a little more than a century ago. For those in the diaspora, the war was a reminder of historic trauma and a real fear that what’s left of Armenian’s indigenous homeland would be lost. 

“I was disgusted and horrified and shocked,” says L.A.-based Armen Ra of the news from Artsakh last fall. “It’s still like a pain in my chest. It’s primal. It hurts my soul.” But, Ra adds, “out of these horrors comes so much love and attention.” He says, “I try to focus on the people who are helping.” 

For Yeraz, Ra contributed his version of “Crane,” from the Armenian composer Komitas. It’s a poignant contribution; Ra opened his debut album with the same song as a means of pointing to the “core” of his musical influences. It’s also significant in light of the Armenian experience. Komitas was an ethnomusicologist who worked to preserve Armenian musical heritage and was one of the intellectuals arrested at the start of the Armenian Genocide.

Armen Ra contributed his rendition of “Crane” to Yeraz.

For Natalee Miller, who provided the cover art for Yeraz, helping became her focus during the war. An illustrator who has made posters for bands like Khruangbin, Miller draws inspiration from her own Armenian heritage and has an Armenian following online. “I just felt like they had given me so much, it was like an obligation,” says the artist, who is based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. “It was now my time to give back and and the only way that I can do that is to make art.” 

Asdourian surmises that the combination of the war and our reliance on online communication through the COVID-19 pandemic led to a “strong sense of solidarity and unity.” The war might not have made the nightly news in many cities, but if you’re an Armenian on Twitter or Instagram, it was probably dominating your timeline. “We were already on our phones so much that we were so much more prepared to get in touch with each other,” he says. 

Plus, it unified Armenians who had been working for social justice in their own communities. “It brought together a lot of Armenians who’ve been creating an intersectional language already between Armenian movements and causes and other people’s movements,” says Sarkissian.  

While the war has ended, the work to aid those impacted by it continues. Kooyrigs has several initiatives on the ground, the most recent of which, “Project Mayreeg,” helps pregnant people from Artsakh. 

Beyond its goal to raise funds for Kooyrigs, Yeraz also serves to amplify the voices of Armenian artists, both in the country and diasporic communities. “I want our non-Armenian people to learn that there is so much more to our history than pain and suffering,” says Asdourian. 

“Hopefully, this will catch interest for people to start supporting Armenian artists and see what they’re up to, what new sounds they’re creating,” says Sarkissian. “I think that’s also really important, to support these artists and look into other Armenian electronic artists.” 

Order Yeraz now via Bandcamp.

ARTIST OF THE MONTH: Deradoorian

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In an industry where countless musicians toil night and day to develop a specific sound, that thing that will set them apart from the pack and place them in a category all their own floats up Angel Deradoorian, the self-identified lepidopteran vocalist, songwriter and multi-instrumental artist.

Deradoorian, as she’s mononymously known, was a longtime member of the indie-rock cult darlings Dirty Projectors. And her vocals have such a unique quality that immediately evoke the ethereal memory of that infamous project. Only here on her debut solo LP, The Expanding Flower Planet, there is an intimacy breathed into the tracks that promises sincerity, genuine hope and connection. Deradoorian has poured herself into the album in such a way that her being is indistinguishable from the music. Listening to the album all the way through is an exciting and spiritually-laced journey you take with her guiding you down the path of her creation.

We reviewed her debut album at length earlier this week, and on the heels of it’s release I caught up with her to pick her brain on a bit about her story in music.

AF: What prompted your move to a solo project?

D: I’ve had a solo project since I was about 17 years old, but didn’t deeply focus on it. It was either doing another album cycle with Dirty Projectors or hunkering down to work on my own stuff. The timing seemed right for me to take a break from the band to explore my own work.

AF: What experiences in your career to date are you bringing to The Expanding Flower Planet?

D: All my musical experience since childhood.

AF: Where else did you draw inspiration for the album?

D: I draw inspiration from everywhere. Visual art, nature, music, my friends.

AF: Can you describe a bit your process in the creation and evolution of a song.

D: Each song is created in its own way. Written on different instruments and pieced together, some are written on just one instrument.

AF: Does the album read as one compelling piece or is it a series of vignettes?

D: I’d see it more as vignettes, but with a thread binding them together.

AF: What aspect of the album release are you most excited for?

D: For the music to be public and to be heard.

AF: How would you define the music mood of the moment?

D: I live in Los Angeles right now. The mood of music seems pretty broad to me right now. I feel there is a lot of crossover in genres and between independent and major sounding music. Seems like a time of fusion.

AF: Are there any other projects that you are really digging right now?

D: I’ve been enjoying the Badbadnotgood/Ghostface album.

AF: What’s your current jam?

D: Allen Toussaint, “From A Whisper To A Scream”.

AF: What else can we expect from you in the months to come?

D: Tour tour tour.

https://soundcloud.com/anticon/deradoorian-komodo

 

Deradoorian Tour Dates

Aug 28 – Queens, NY – Trans Pecos (Record Release Show)

Sep 11 – Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right #

Sep 12 – Richmond, VA – The Camel #

Sep 13 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle Back Room #

Sep 14 – Atlanta, GA – Drunken Unicorn #

Sep 15 – Tallahassee, FL – Club Downunder #

Sep 17 – Austin, TX – Holy Mountain #

Sep 18 – Dallas, TX – Three Links #

Sep 20 – Albuquerque, NM – Sister #

Sep 21 – Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom #%

Sep 22 – Los Angeles, CA – The Echo #

Sep 23 – San Francisco, CA – Brick & Mortar Music Hall #

Sep 25 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge #

Sep 26 – Seattle, WA – The Vera Project #

Sep 29 – Minneapolis, MN – Icehouse #

Sep 30 – Chicago, IL – Schuba’s #

Oct 01 – Detroit, MI – Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit #

Oct 03 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s #

 

# with Laetitia Sadier

% with Destroyer