Longed and longed for

Kamo Hovhannisyan: Kantsnen Orer (Star Records)

The sound of the eighties in Yerevan was called Rabiz. People danced to the genre's hypnotic songs at weddings and restaurants, and bootleg cassettes played in taxis. The name comes, at least one explanation goes, from the Russian term rabotscheje iskusstva (worker's art). This catchphrase of the Soviet 1920s, which referred to the new proletarian culture that was being created at that time, was - one must assume - taken up again decades later with a certain irony. Rabiz was created in the working-class districts of Yerevan, completely apart from official Soviet culture, and was a genuinely pop-cultural phenomenon with its mix of Armenian folk music, Middle Eastern influences, synthesizers and danceable beats. To this day, the genre still has an image of being a rogue - and to this day it seems to be the favorite genre of taxi drivers and at wild parties.

He stayed away from official labels, instead playing concerts in restaurants and at private parties, where he sold self-produced cassettes.

The Californian label Star Records, which specializes in Armenian music, recently released “Kantsnen Orer,” a kind of compilation with old songs by one of the most interesting Rabiz musicians: the singer Kamo Hovhannisyan, who died in 1989 at the age of 30. The Discotchari label, which also previously re-released his music, describes him as a kind of soul legend of the Soviet Armenian underground: He stayed away from official labels, instead playing concerts in restaurants and at private parties, where he sold self-produced cassettes. His sound is unmistakably from the eighties: synthesizers, almost psychedelic sounds at times, then beats like from a funk band. And of course, with Hovhannisyan's unique voice, there is pining and longing until the end: "I loved your black eyes / Your black eyes, my beloved..." There is no better way to accompany a journey back in time to a summer in Yerevan.

Kamo Hovhannisyan: Kantsnen Orer (Star Records)