Anton Davidyants
“Avalanche”
(2023)

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The Moscow-based Jazzist label has released “Avalanche”, the debut album by world-renowned bass player Anton Davidyants. The six-part suite was recorded by Davidyants on bass guitar along with Evgeny Lebedev on piano, Ignat Kravtsov on drums (both being LRK Trio members) and the OpensoundOrchestra soloists. The release was sponsored by Dr.Head.

“I wanted to do something unusual,” says Anton Davidyants, “which is why I chose not to do the standard funk/fusion/soul thing that bass players often do. Recently I’ve been in love with classical music, so I saw fit to do something close to that realm. The music was written by my friend and mentor Vardan Hovsepyan. For me, he’s one of the best pianists and composers in the whole world, a perfect blend of academic music and jazz. I asked him to write athematic work, taking into account my technical capabilities and musical preferences. Using my favorite pieces as an example, we discussed what music should be like, and in the end Vardan came up with the quintessence of everything that I love. In terms of genre it’s a kind of crossover or, if you will, a third stream thing.”

For journalist Iouri Lnogradski this work “is more of a multimedia self-portrait than a debut album. The paradox is that it’s both photographically accurate and, at the same time, accentuated on what is not usually noticed. The album is so full of different narratives and meanings that it would take a musicological thesis to separate them from one another. You want to not only listen to “Avalanche”, but look at it from different angles, finding more and more screws tightening the whole structure.”

1. Movement 1
2. Movement 2
3. Movement 3
4. Movement 4
5. Movement 5
6. Movement 6

Music by Vardan Ovsepian

Anton Davidyants: bass guitar
Evgeny Lebedev: piano
Ignat Kravtsov: drums

The soloists of OpensoundOrchestra
Stanislav Malyshev: violin, conductor
Inna Zilberman: violin
Irina Chepizhnaya: violin
Darya Filippenko: viola
Olga Kalinova: cello
Mikhail Kalashnikov: cello
Darya Vershinina: clarinet, bass clarinet
Evgeny Solovey: clarinet
Alexey Serov: French horn

Recorded and mixed by Andrey Levin at Mosfilm Music Studios
Assistant: Sergey Kruglov
Mastered by Anatoly Ryassov

Design by Victor Melamed
Executive producer: Araik Hakobyan

Sponsored by Dr.Head.

Jazzist, 2023
JZT 009