The new album of works by Mary Kouyoumdjian will support Armenian and Lebanese communities affected by social and political conflict
The Kronos Quartet will release a new portrait album of works by Pulitzer Prize-nominated Armenian-American composer and documentarian Mary Kouyoumdjian, called WITNESS.
Kouyoumdjian comes from a family that was directly affected by the Lebanese Civil War and Armenian Genocide. The new album aims to use a sonic palette to draw on her heritage, interest in music as documentary, and background in experimental composition to progressively blend the old with the new.
The label, Phenotypic Recordings, will donate all streaming proceeds from WITNESS to two charities supporting Armenian and Lebanese communities. Kooyrigs, which means ’sisters’ in Armenian, is a women-led non-profit organisation and NGO that spearheads projects and initiatives from humanitarian aid and advocacy to leadership camps and community art projects.
Proceeds will also go to the Lebanese Red Cross, which is acting on the frontlines of the response to the war in Lebanon.
A strong believer in freedom of speech and the arts as an amplifier of expression, Kouyoumdjian’s compositional work often integrates recorded testimonies with resilient individuals and field recordings of place to invite empathy by humanising complex experiences around social and political conflict.
On 11 March, ’Slave to your voice’ from Silent Cranes, is released, the second single from WITNESS.
Silent Cranes was composed in 2015, marking the centennial of the Armenian Genocide that led to the mass extermination of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks.
The work is inspired by the Armenian folk song ’Groung (Crane)’ in which the singer calls out to the migratory bird, begging for word from their homeland, only to have the crane respond with silence and fly away. It is dedicated to those lost and to those living who can promote change.
The first, second, and fourth movement titles quote directly from the folk song lyrics. Those who were lost during the genocide are cranes in their own way, unable to speak of the horrors that happened, and it is the responsibility of the living to give them a voice.
The prerecorded backing track includes testimonies by genocide survivors, recordings from the genocide era of Armenian folk songs, and a poem from investigative journalist David Barsamian in response to the question ‘Why is it important to talk about the Armenian Genocide 100 years later?’
Silent Cranes was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet with support from the David Harrington Research and Development Fund.
WITNESS is released on Friday 14 March 2025. Watch the video for Silent Cranes I. ‘Slave to your voice’ here:
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