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One Day with Armenians in London: Culture and Good Food By Janet Samuelian Exclusive to TAR Int'l
HOKIS VOLUME MEG AND RBOUp to date in a wired world are four young Armenian Brits at Dukes Avenue Records: executive producers Armen Cholakian and Harout Bozadjian, Ara Bozadjian and Sasha Farhadian. They've just produced their first CD "Hokis Volume Meg," embraced worldwide by young diasporans. Eleven contemporary song track samples and performer profiles are found at their website www.hokis.co.uk.
In their Hammersmith offices, they rent out a studio with recording equipment, vocal booth, microphones, several guitars and keyboard, and giant mixing desk. "Besides a state-of-the-art digital hard-disc system with Pro-Tools mikes, we have a team to write and compose songs," says Harout. 'Our vocalist Natalie (Manukyan), 20, lives around the corner. She wrote her own song." They are grandchildren of genocide survivors. Harout is a graduate in computer science from University of Greenwich; Ara graduated from Demontfort University in Multi-Media and is a freelance web designer; Sasha Farhadian left Iran at age three and attended Ealing School of Music, produced the album tracks and Djs for dances, and spent almost three years in the British club scene.
It is the exuberant youngsters, professionals and non-professionals, who shine here in issues not generally heard on Armenian albums. One rap song over eight minutes long defines genocide with startling sound effects that move listeners; another is comic like the duet "Ko Hyrenut" about a couple who can't understand each other's dialect. Others are about courtship, marriage, overprotective fathers, etc. Armen composes rock and pop, Sasha plays instruments, and Ara does hip-hop and R & B.
"It's a fusion of many styles of music, ballads, rap, R & B, hiphop etc." Between songs are ten funny interludes of impudent, prank phone calls to Armenian businesses and homes by comedian Kev Orkian. "We want to take this album on the road, take it around the world because we have 15 dancers, musicians and comedians and would do it in cabaret or concert format -- we need financing. We're redefining Armenian music."
An independent London-based youth group collaborated with them, RBO, or red-blue-orange. Law student Gregory King-Underwood says, "We are non-profit, and no one is paid. Our goal is to bring Armenians together with monthly social events, day trips, and Armenian-speaking discussions at ICA after movie viewings. RBO is apolitical, non-partisan, and has grown in five years from ten to over 500 members in the greater London area where there are 8,000 Armenians. England has 12,000 in all." Check the website at www.rbo.co.uk for listings of Armenian shops, bookstores, cafes, restaurants, churches, photos from social events, archives business directory, and map. DINING OUT IN LONDON
Unable to meet the Armenian owners of The Vineyard Restaurant or Chelsea Brasserie in Hammersmith, I finally arrived at Jakob's Cafe & Deli, 20 W. Gloucester Road (between Kensington and Cromwell Roads) and was welcomed by Jakob and Ginger (Aydanian) Race and daughter Tanya. "Mother supervises the chef who is excellent, grandmother makes all the chutneys and crochets, knits loofahs. Food is visible and fresh, from family recipes of Nor Julfa plus gourmet foods from around the world." Who could resist the herb omelet with spinach, onion and coriander, the yalanchi dolma, pilaf, lentils and tomato, Shirazi cucumber salad, fresh juices and sandwiches? London food critics have cited their organic cooking in Time Out Magazine and they cater for charity fundraisers, Lots of celebrity traffic here with homes nearby of Madonna, soccer stars, and royalty, along with students from Imperial College medical school and American College. Just a short walk away is Iverna Garden where Caloust Gulbenkian erected the 1922 gem, St. Sarkis Armenian Church, in memory of his parents. Down the street are the Armenian Embassy, Hai Doon and Soorp Bedros at High Street, Kensington. One day was not enough.
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LONDON, UK - After all the hype in the American press, the Tate Modern here did not disappoint. Among the many impressive works in this huge museum dedicated to 20th-century art is Arshile Gorky's 1943 oil 'Waterfall." Placed in a third-floor gallery as part of Collection Displays 2000 under the theme of "Nature into Action," it states: "Artists here shattered the traditional landscape conventions to create convincing images of their surroundings. In the mid-'40s, NY-based Abstract Expressionists abandoned imitating nature. Rather, they, like Arshile Gorky, concentrated on the act of painting itself -- applying paint on canvas intuitively, spontaneously, they shifted away from depicting the external world towards an engagement with their inner nature." Displayed alongside Pollock, Krasner, Kline, and Rothko, the Gorky painting, with its serene spilling out of forms in green, brown, yellow and a dash of red, was purchased in 1971 and notes: "Born Armenia, worked USA, 1904-48; forced to flee Turkish persecution, settled 1920 in USA. Produced after 1942 a series of paintings that refer to natural forms. His amorphous shapes, drips of liquid paint suggest a waterfall's fluidity." Open daily, free admission, superb views of Thames River and the Tate's zany footbridge going across to St. Paul's Cathedral.
