Mockroot

Mockroot is the sixth album by Tigran Hamasyan, released 17 February 2015.^[4][2][1][7] The album mixes traditional Armenian folk music (and other styles such as rock and minimalism) with jazz, in the jazz fusion style.^[2][5][8][9] It features Tigran on synths, keyboard and vocals; Sam Minaie on bass guitar; and Arthur Hnatek on drums and electronics.^[5][1][10] It was the first album he released on Nonesuch Records.^[5][4][1] The album was planned to be released 26 January 2015,^[7][11] but was delayed and released on 17th February 2015.^[1]

Mockroot
Studio album by Tigran Hamasyan
Released	February 17, 2015[1][2]
Genre	Armenian folk music jazz fusion[2] jazz metal[2] progressive rock[3]
Length	58:17
Label	Nonesuch Records[4][5]
Tigran Hamasyan chronology
Shadow Theater (2013) Mockroot (2015) Luys i Luso (2015)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
All About Jazz	[4]
The Guardian	[5]
Sputnikmusic	[6]
musicOMH	[7]

Content

Mockroot features a variety of styles. The album opener "To Love," and the following track "Song for Melan and Rafik," are ballads^[2] featuring falsetto vocals over Hamasyan's piano.^[5]

The next few tracks, "Kars 1" and "Double-Faced," feature a turn towards a heavier sound, featuring breakdown sections some critics compared to those of Meshuggah. These are followed by the ballad “The Roads That Bring Me Closer to You" and the laid-back solo piano composition "Lilac." A similar balance between piano ballads and heavy djent-like tracks is followed for much of the tracklist, only interrupted by "Kars 2 (Wounds of the Centuries)," which takes a more minimalist approach.^[2]

The album features heavy use of uncommon time signatures and frequent meter changes. The track "Song for Melan and Rafik" is in the time signature ⁴²
₁₆, and is arranged for a quintet instead of a trio. "Double faced" features two separate pulses playing at the same time, described by Tigran as follows, "The idea was to use groupings of ⁵
₁₆ over 8 bars of ⁴
₄ in a way that it would make us feel like the ⁵
₁₆ is the pulse, even though the entire song is in ⁴
₄". The song "Entertain Me" is in a time signature of ²⁵⁶
₁₆, with a melody formed by a group of ³⁵
₁₆ played 7 times, followed by a single bar of ¹¹
₁₆. "To Negate" is in a time signature of ¹³
₈, and the penultimate track "The Grid" is composed in sections of 5, 5, 7, 5, 5, 5 sixteenth notes.^[12]

The final three named tracks, "To Negate," "The Grid," and "Out of the Grid," are among the heaviest on the album, described as "dissonant, post-modern, Armenian-infused post-bop, followed by angular djent-like jazz."^[2] "To Negate" has been described by Hamasyan as being "linked" to the opening track "To Love," both songs having been inspired by Armenian poet Petros Durian. The two songs are in the same key, though "To Negate" is in "an odd, Armenian mode."^[13] The album closes with a hidden track in waltz time, which had been written in 2009 and played live for years prior to its inclusion on Mockroot.^[13]

Hamasyan has stated that "Armenia looms large throughout Mockroot."^[13] In addition to the general musical style, this is reflected by the fact that several track titles reference locations in current or historical Armenia. "Kars 1" and related track "Kars 2 (Wounds of the Centuries)" are named for Kars, a region in modern-day Turkey that Hamasyan cites as the ancestral home of his maternal grandparents. Similarly, "The Apple Orchard in Saghmosavanq" refers to Saghmosavanq, a monastery near Yerevan.^[13]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Tigran Hamasyan.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"To Love"	2:06
2.	"Song for Melan and Rafik"	5:56
3.	"Kars 1"	5:26
4.	"Double-Faced"	5:30
5.	"The Roads That Bring Me Closer to You"	4:16
6.	"Lilac"	4:10
7.	"Entertain Me"	3:19
8.	"The Apple Orchard in Saghmosavanq"	4:22
9.	"Kars 2 (Wounds of the Centuries)"	1:34
10.	"To Negate"	5:17
11.	"The Grid"	5:56
12.	"Out of the Grid"	10:25
Total length:		58:17

Personnel

Musicians

• Tigran Hamasyan - Piano, Voice, Keyboards, Synths, Sound effects
• Sam Minaie - Electric bass
• Arthur Hnatek - Drums, live electronics
• Gayanée Movsisyan - Vocals (track 5)
• Areni Agbabian - Vocals (track 2)
• Ben Wendel - Saxophone (track 2)
• Chris Tordini - Bass (track 2)
• Nate Wood - Drums (track 2)

Production

• Cover Artwork - Vahram Muradyan
• Producer, Composer, Arranger - Tigran Hamasyan
• Photography - MirzOyan
• Recording and mixing - Antoine Gaillet
• Assistant engineer - Clément Gariel
• Mastered by Nate Wood

Recorded at Studio de Meudon, Meudon, France