Lucine Musaelian & The Khio Trio: Music from Armenia

The Khio Trio play World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens on Friday 6 November, as part of the Silk Road Concert Series sponsored by The Cockayne Foundation. The evening is led by Armenian vocalist Lucine Musaelian, who builds an intimate soundscape that blends traditional Armenian music with contemporary sounds, accompanied by viola da gamba, kaval, clarinet, piano, percussion and vielle. The Khio Trio, with Fred Thomas and Oliver Dover, explores the music of Armenian life, casting a contemporary light on ancient stories of land, diaspora and spirituality.

The repertoire draws on 10th-century chants and traditional mountain dance music, pairing them with songs of love and exile. Alongside those, the trio has assembled its own book of Armenian music that blurs the lines between old and new, so the set moves from centuries-old liturgical and folk sources into their own arrangements. It's a broad reach for one evening: the early chants, the dance tunes, the songs of exile, and the new material they've put together.

Musaelian's voice is the centre of it, and the instrumentation around her is a mixed bag of early and folk sounds — viola da gamba and vielle sitting alongside kaval, clarinet, piano and percussion. The Khio Trio, with Fred Thomas and Oliver Dover, provides the backing, and together they work through that range of Armenian music, from the 10th-century chants to the mountain dances.

Doors open at 6:30 pm, with the music starting at 7:30 pm. Tickets are £16 or £20, and the venue is World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens, 3 Ponton Road, London SW11 7BD.