“Beautiful music. When I hear it I feel a tickle in my head and start to smile” -- BUIKA It’s easy to make things sound complex. What’s much harder is to make complexity sound easy. In Imagined Frequencies, his latest recording scheduled for release on September 8, Los Angeles-based guitarist and composer Vahagni weaves in both, his playing and his compositions, strands from several styles and traditions — flamenco and classical music, Armenian music and jazz. Yet the overall result has a rare, easy-on-the ear quality that belies its many influences. Imagined Frequencies, which features a program of original compositions and one strikingly fresh arrangement of the Armenian traditional song “Hov Arek Sarer Jan” interpreted by Afro-Spanish singer Buika, who also appears in the video, covers a broad musical ground, subtly and elegantly. It is his third album as a leader and, says Vahagni, it’s a true snapshot of himself as composer, player and producer. Imagined Frequencies includes traditional instruments and performances but also extensive post-production “sound design.” This includes the use of pre-recorded material such as bits of an interview by Spanish painter Salvador Dalí (heard on “Sketches of Dalí”) to taking a section of a piece and, through sound manipulation, creating an entirely new song, as in “Ghost Ships” featuring Sebu of the indie pop group Capital Cities. Vahagni recorded Short Stories, his first album under his own name, in 2008, and in 2012 released Solitude, an album that featured 11 original tracks and an arrangement of an Armenian folk song. In 2014, his work caught the attention of Afro-Spanish singer Buika who was looking for an exceptional guitarist, versed in flamenco but with a modern global sound, to accompany on her world tour. It was, he says, “a great experience. I was working with one of my favorites and learning a lot. We played every continent except Africa.” In Imagined Frequencies, Vahagni distills all his musical and cultural influences into a soulful yet elegantly uncomplicated sound. “It’s just music,” he says. “I don’t want listeners to think about what makes this fusion. It’s just music. As long as you enjoy it, you can call it anything you want to.” The clash of civilizations never sounded so good! jazz weekly It's atmospheric brilliance, a breath of fresh, cold air which introduces new sounds and textures to jazz. La weekly guitarist extraordinaire stay thirsty magazine Imagined Frequencies is an impressive release by a highly creative skilled guitarist who bridges the European continent, connecting southern Spain’s passionate flamenco with the mesmerizing Eurasian sounds of Armenia. worldmusiccentral Vahagni can spin layer upon layer of note-flurries on the fretboard that are precise as ice-crystals but gentle as snow. La weekly Over forty-minutes and eleven tracks represent a wide range of music from Vahagni that is highly-praised for good reason. inside world music