You deserve a vacation. If only you could visit what some have dubbed the “Armenian Machu Picchu.” Oh, and also if you could, like, fly. And there was a sick music performance happening.
Use your imagination, cue up this green-saturated film, and you’re there.
Armenian producer Hayk Karoyi mixes Caucasus musical traditions with newer international elements and electronic techniques, yes. But it’s also worth saying that Hayk is deep into thinking about the connection with the land and environment. So this is also very much about his own presence and voice – and the choice of location has some significance.
Hin Khot is a 3000-year village that had been inhabited even in this generation – the current village of Khot was located there until the 70s.
Hayk writes of the trip:
During those 2 days we’ve recorded lots of sounds there, have shared a meal with animals and people passing through the trail, have praised the nature.
Hayk has made an album inspired by the place, and mixes those with other albums and the words of 10th-century monk and poet Grigor Narekatsi, mystic and author of the Book of Lamentations, as read by Vazgen Gevorgyan. (For once, the Catholics are onboard, too, though to them you’ll probably know Narekatsi as St. Gregory of Narek, and you’re probably not reading the original Armenian. Sorry, Create Digital Medieval Mystics…)
I really like as it gets deeper around 19 minutes in. But I’m positive you’ll enjoy the scenery.
Details:
Director, DOP, also location scout: Davit Abrahamyan
Cameraman: Mushegh Mamikonyan
Technical Assistant: Sam Shahinyan
Editing, Color Correction: Karen Kocharyan
Artist: Hayk Karoyi
Album: Hin Khoti
Hayk was involved with us with some unique music that unfolded thanks to Goethe-Institut Georgien’s Glacier Music project, out on Establishment, and spanning the Caucasus over to Georgia: