Musicians Aram Bajakian, Alan Semerdjian Release ‘The Serpent and The Crane’

The newest contribution to the ongoing conversation about the Armenian Genocide and its effect on the generations that came after is here in the form of an evocative poetry and music collaboration between Vancouver-based guitarist Aram Bajakian and NYC writer/musician/educator Alan Semerdjian, two artists who are grandchildren of survivors. The collection is comprised of mostly extemporaneous and highly imaginative guitar compositions over dramatic readings of poems by writers who were killed in the early deportations (Daniel Varoujan and Siamanto), as well as contemporary voices such as Pulitzer-Prize winner Peter Balakian, Diana Der Hovanessian and original poems by Semerdjian himself. While suggestive of the tradition of the spoken word genre, the pairing between Semerdjian’s voice and Bajakian’s guitar is unique in that neither outshines the other. Instead, they come together to create something new—at times fierce and other times tender—and always in service of the urgent relevance of one of history’s most horrific and complex chapters.