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Arthur Meschian - vocals, guitars,
keyboards, violin
Levon Melikian - guitars
Grikor Nalbandian - drums, percussion |
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The
history of "Apostles" has always been a
strangeland for Armenians. Due to the nature
and contents of their lyrics, Soviet censure
did its best to muffle the Apostles. But
whatever managed to penetrate through in
form of sporadic concerts, demo tapes and
amateur recordings, found a lot of affection
from their fans. Apostles were certainly the
embodiment of Armenian musical world through
late 60's, early 70's, when the whole
country was wrapped into the iron curtain,
closed from the "outside world". That was
the very reason that the voice of "Apostles"
did not sound so loudly at its time. And
only now, decades later, we reveal to
ourselves the reality of those years. In mid
60's three students studying architecture at
the Yerevan Politechnic Institure started
playing a very unique blend of Armenian
folklore, gothic music and modern rock.
First known to many people simply as a band
from Politechnic, they later became famous
as "Apostles". Meschian and "Apostles" were
singing about pain and sorrow, the
historical heritage of the Armenian nation
was very often present in their lyrics,
endowing listeners with feelings of grief
and pride wrapped into some kind of a
magical blending of Armenian folklore and
modern art rock. Meschian's lyrics touched
philosophical questions of life's meaning,
pain and mercy, joy and pride. Some of their
songs were written for the lyrics of a great
Armenian poet Musheg Eschan. "Apostles"
never released any official albums, however
they had many demo-tapes, some of which are
considered rare. The only recording, which
was planned, "Requiem", never appeared to be
released. The band never made it to 80's, in
fact, after Meschian left with his family to
Boston, it became clear that the history of
"Apostles" will always stay in our memories
as the legend of 60's and 70's. Since then,
one of the Apostles, Grigor Nalbandian
passed away, Levon Melikian still lives in
Yerevan. |