A.Meschian and Apostles

Razbirat.com presents a page dedicated to...
Arthur Meschian and Apostles

Strange, strange creation is a man
With heavy chains tied to his neck,
He will attempt to immitate flight of an eagle,
Will fall down on the ground,
But never believe he has failed...

Apostles' REQUIEM

Arthur Meschian - vocals, guitars, keyboards, violin
Levon Melikian - guitars,
Grikor Nalbandian - drums, percussion

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. As to Meschian, he worked as an architect in Yerevan, designed a number of famous projects such as Zvartnots airport and occassionally made performances just within a small group of friends. In 1989 as he moved to live in Boston with his wife and two sons, the music of Apostles came back to its original popularity. Even though it was more than a decade that the band didn't perform together, old fans along with new young listeners started re-discovering to themselves the art of their music.

This all made Meschian come back to his music and started recording again. In 90's he recorded and produced several albums such as "Wander", "Catharsis", "Monologue of a Crazy Violinist". They contained mostly new material and some old songs performed originally by the Apostles. The new songs like "Stars", "The city is the same", "Days" quickly became classics. Meschian started touring through America, and in 1996 finally returned to perform in Yerevan. All of his concerts received a sold-out response from the fans. In 1997, while performing with a symphonic orchestra, Meschian made a decision to move back to Armenia for a while. The same year he was offered a position of Chief Architect of Armenia and accepted it. Due to a number of unfortunate circumstances, he didn't stay in Yerevan for too long and returned to Boston next year. The latest news is that Arthur Meschian took a hiatus from writing and performing and concentrates on his job and family.

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