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ABOUT
ARAX
BY TEMRAZ
HOVSEPIAN
Australian
Armenian’s favourite band “Arax” didn’t just
pop-up out of nowhere overnight. The band was founded by the
singer Karnig Bedrossian twenty years ago in 1979 and has been
chopped and changed ever since to arrive at it’s present day
format. Hovik Markarian the band’s musical leader joined in
1986 and organised the group’s loose ends musically. Jack
Demirjian brought his guitar into the outfit in 1989 and has
never looked back. James Mirza added his rhythm to the band in
1994 and is still as excited about joining Arax as he was then.
Although Arax has recorded in the past, they had never intended
for their albums to go international, since the past recordings
were mostly cover songs or originals made for fun.
In early 1997 Arax decided it’s about time they recorded an
album of originals that best describes their musical style. An
album which will take Armenian music out of the seventies and get
things rolling towards the new millennium. With Hovik’s
composing experience (Hovik has been making and assisting in
scores for movies) and Karnig’s great lyrics the album
started to take shape very slowly due to the band being very
particular about what they are going to distribute under their
banner for the first time in the marketplace. Three years later
in mid July 1999, after a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of
sacrifices, both family and economical, Arax finally recorded,
mixed and mastered the album which they think is original, fresh,
modern and is a mix of Jazz, Rock and Reggae with touches of
traditional Armenian music to spice it up.
The album is called “Made in Armenia” and consists of
nine songs including the never recorded favourite “Yerevan”.
One of the songs in the album called “Armo 2000” is
currently being played by the DJ network at Melbourne in
Australian night clubs and is getting a good response with the
dancing youth.
This is an
extract from an article printed in Sydney's Garoon Armenian
Monthly Magazine.
Copyright
Garoon October 1999
