Listening to Bedouine feels like riding a bike down an empty street on a warm evening. L.A.-based singer-songwriter Azniv Korkejian makes peaceful folk songs that move with ease. On her second album, Bird Songs of a Killjoy, she picks up where her 2017 debut, Bedouine, left off, combatting the harshness of heartbreak and loneliness with softness.
Similar to Bedouine, the movements of Korkejian's melodies and steady guitar picking are heightened by accompanying strings and wind instruments. For Bird Songs of a Killjoy, it's hard to not make a connection between the song's motions and how birds move. Like a maple tree dotted with red buds in early spring, birds flock to this record. Their presence is a constant, emphasizing the freedom that Korkejian sings about: "I'll look away so that you can fly away," she sings on the stunning "Bird."
Another constant is how sublime Korkejian's voice sounds. A warmth radiates from her as she fluidly moves between sadness and playfulness. On "One More Time," a relationship ends and loneliness feels enormous as she sings, "I don't think I could really say leaving has felt different from staying." But when the chorus hits, her grief turns into acceptance and she lightly repeats, "I'm gonna let you be."
On brighter-sounding tracks like "Sunshine Sometimes," "Matters of the Heart" and album highlight "When You're Gone," Korkejian moves buoyantly alongside bouncy instrumentation, determined to get somewhere, but willing to enjoy the journey along the way. And what a beautiful sounding journey it is.
(Spacebomb Records)Similar to Bedouine, the movements of Korkejian's melodies and steady guitar picking are heightened by accompanying strings and wind instruments. For Bird Songs of a Killjoy, it's hard to not make a connection between the song's motions and how birds move. Like a maple tree dotted with red buds in early spring, birds flock to this record. Their presence is a constant, emphasizing the freedom that Korkejian sings about: "I'll look away so that you can fly away," she sings on the stunning "Bird."
Another constant is how sublime Korkejian's voice sounds. A warmth radiates from her as she fluidly moves between sadness and playfulness. On "One More Time," a relationship ends and loneliness feels enormous as she sings, "I don't think I could really say leaving has felt different from staying." But when the chorus hits, her grief turns into acceptance and she lightly repeats, "I'm gonna let you be."
On brighter-sounding tracks like "Sunshine Sometimes," "Matters of the Heart" and album highlight "When You're Gone," Korkejian moves buoyantly alongside bouncy instrumentation, determined to get somewhere, but willing to enjoy the journey along the way. And what a beautiful sounding journey it is.