A world music of a rare richness, which reinvents what is too narrowly called Balkan folklore, and which dynamises – if not dynamites – the Anglo-Saxon pop format.
This is the secret of Ladaniva’s music, which can also be summed up in an improbable meeting, one evening, when two stars decided to link their musical trajectory: Jaklin and Louis. Their story is as intense as their music and in April, they will be bringing their mesmerizing live show back to the U.S. for a trio of headline dates in Los Angeles, Toronto and Montreal (dates below).
Jaklin and Louis might well have never met. And then it took only one night, in a bar in Lille transformed into a jam scene, for the latter to fall in love with the voice of the former. She is Jaklin Baghdasaryan. Born in Armenia, raised in Belarus, she has always sung, as far back as she can remember. At the age of six, she started playing the piano. At seven, she enrolled in a music school.
But after the baccalaureate, her artistic studies did not satisfy her, as they were not sufficiently devoted to singing. With her mother, she left Belarus for a better life in France. It is not easy, despite the support of the Armenian community. But Jaklin knows that here she can – literally – find her voice.
While living in a hostel for single women, she decides one night to break curfew to go to a jam session… That night, they won’t talk, even if her performance wowed Louis Thomas. He started playing the trumpet at the age of seven. His mother is a pianist, and he attended the music school in Quesnoy-sur-Deûle before becoming an illustrator. However, this multi-instrumentalist is addicted to jamming, so much so that he decides to devote himself fully to it.
Active in several bands, he travels, bringing back sound memories from Mali, Colombia or Reunion Island – which he will later introduce to Jaklin. It was in the corridors of the Lille Jazz Conservatory that these two met again and became closer.
One day, Jaklin spontaneously sang traditional Armenian music, and Louis knew that this rich and intense repertoire was the place to be , without forgetting everything that united them.
From Louis Armstrong to the Mysteries of the Bulgarian Voices, from Chopin to Elle Fitzgerald, from Rachmaninov to Brassens. Reggae, gnawa, maloya… and, of course, the great Armenian singer Komitas.
The whole thing is sucked in, transcended, skilfully crafted by Jaklin and Louis, both penning and composing. Their single “Kef Chilini”, released in 2020, has been seen more than 26 million times on Youtube and has become an anthem that is sung at every party in the Armenian diaspora.
It was the trigger for the group’s worldwide recognition, and in 2023, they toured the United States, at the South by Southwest festival in Los Angeles. Thanks to Voyou, Louis’ long-time accomplice, they were spotted by Pias. In the process, they met a tour manager through the director of their video clip “Vay Aman”, and performed in concerts throughout France, and even in Armenia in the middle of Covid.
The pandemic is barely over when they start working on their first album. Which will simply bear the name of the band they chose on a whim, the day they posted a cover (in their own way) from the Armenian folklore corpus on Youtube.
Ladaniva, named after a Russian 4×4 popular with Armenians, which Jaklin’s father drove… but also, surprisingly, Louis’ father! Colourful, kitschy and offbeat, it fits perfectly with the duo’s contrasting vision. Half traditional, half pop, mostly Armenian and sometimes infiltrated with French.
Hybrid and mixed, it preaches Balkan melancholy as well as Creole groove, and, filled with hip hop echoes and reggae atmospheres, boldly revisits Armenian folklore. Produced in Ghent by Jasper Maekelberg (Balthazar, Warhaus), Ladaniva has a sound that is both alternative and crystalline, making musical variations that might seem too complex, too far away, accessible.
And if you don’t understand Armenian, you are quickly seized by Jaklin’s vocal energy, freed from the constraints of her upbringing, who claims her joy of being in the world. Voluntarily metaphorical but never borrowed, the writing expresses values shared by the duo: the discovery of the other in all his singularity and the possibility given to all to be free transpire in each track of Ladaniva.
From the haunting opening track “Manoushak” to the sumptuous, dreamlike finale of “La Montagne”, the eleven tracks on the album feature both ultra-expressive horns and driving rhythms. Revealing the duo’s love for studio experimentation, it heralds some great live shows to come – the stage being one of Ladaniva’s favorite territories.
