The singer/songwriter talks about expulsion and loss with great warmth.
Azniv Korkejian has been carrying a mortgage since 2017. At that time, the venerable New York Times believed it had recognized her as a “future legend”. The singer/songwriter, who calls herself Bedouine, has been chasing this prophecy ever since, but – as she once again proves with NEON SUMMER SKIN – she has developed an astonishing calm. The rhythms are downright soporific; even “Always On Time” is not a hectic paean to punctuality, but sounds more like a lullaby.
Whether it’s a piano ballad or a mid-tempo melodrama, this music rests within itself, and the sound is warm and comforting, like a warm hug. This effect is enhanced by the more lavish instrumentation. After a rather spartan beginning, in which Bedouine’s voice was often accompanied solely by piano or guitar, string arrangements and synth pads now bolster the mood.
But things are bubbling beneath the comfortable surface as Korkejian comes to terms with a dramatic escape story that led her family through Armenia, Syria and Saudi Arabia to the USA. The fact that the 40-year-old was most recently in the Middle East retracing her roots hasn’t had a dramatic musical impact; Arabic influences can’t be heard at all on NEON SUMMER SKIN. But their impressions from countries that are still torn by war resulted in texts that tell of loss and new beginnings, of uprooting and self-discovery, of the pain of letting go and the difficulties of new beginnings – but all in an astonishing calm.