“Working with the rhythms was complicated for the choir. For instance in ‘Ov Zarmanali’ they are singing chords in 13/16 and I'm improvising on it – not only do they have to keep the metre going and be very precise, but they have to accompany a soloist, with everything that's going on in my solos, as well as all the metric modulation.” Armenian pianist Tigran Hamasyan isn't kidding when he says that the process behind Luys i Luso (meaning ‘Light from Light’), his debut ECM release, is challenging. The 14 twinkling, tender, resonant cuts here – real musico-spiritual will-o'-the-wisps – are arrangements for piano and voices by Hamasyan of Armenian sacred music from the fifth to the twentieth century: the work of Nerses Shnorhali, Grigor Narekatsi, Grigor Pahlavuni, Mkhitar Ayrivanetsi, Komitas and Mesrop Mashtots is featured. It's fascinating to hear Hamasyan improvising within such constraints – he's surely one of the most interesting talents to emerge in the past decade, and, in the centenary year of the Armenian Genocide, it's also good to hear him bringing a rich and largely unfamiliar repertoire to jazz-attuned ears.