A Hauntingly Futuristic Soundscape that Takes Its Cues from the Past

Shulman stands next to his painted photo of Armen Ra

Armen Ra (nee Armen Hovanesian) is a hauntingly beautiful theremin virtuoso with a wicked sense of irony.  The bewitching androgene once described the “look” to me as “Ursa from Superman II crossed with a 1920s lesbian, and dressed in Thierry Mugler pant-suits” – and s/he was right on the money.  Roughly a decade ago, Armen took-up the theremin – an obscure electronic instrument from a more exotic time and place, (ironically, rather like Armen).  Naming the instrument “Yma” (after multi-octave vocalist and Exotica queen, Yma Sumac), the craft was honed around New York before s/he moved to Hollywood.  The delicious irony in the name alone, Plays the Theremin is utterly Armen: taunting the public with a deceitfully simple and in-your-face “Duh…” yet silently signaling that there is so much more.

The music is what one would expect from the artist known for years as HRH Princess Leila Scheherazade Dovima Stradivaria Zoraya.  Bewitching.  Hypnotic.  Mesmerizing.  Beautifully sorrowful.  Simultaneously hauntingly perfect and perfectly haunted.  All the while, like the artist, the music gleefully toes the line between futuristic melodies that give their due to the classical operas of Giacomo Puccini, and a spiritual hold-over from that same long-ago era who has broken through to the Space Age by way of the mid-century exotica movement.

Regardless, both Armen Ra and the music of Plays the Theremin are fabulous, unique, and actually surpass all expectations; and it would not be reaching to say that the self-taught Ra has become the premier thereminist of our day.  Of course, s/he would have us expect nothing less.

Armen Ra – Plays the Theremin
Available for Download at i-Tunes and Amazon.com

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