Better known as the guitar-yielding musician Bedouine, Azniv Korkejian was born in Syria to Armenian parents, and grew up in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, before moving to America, living in Boston and Houston before settling in Los Angeles. During childhood holidays in Aleppo she would stay at her grandmother’s house while an endless stream of relatives dropped by for tea and trays of food, which they would enjoy on the balcony; she has blurry memories of tripping down cobble-stoned streets with her cousins; the last time she was in the city, before the war started in 2012, she recalls visiting the ancient Citadel.
Bedouine’s eponymous debut album was released via Spacebomb Records in 2017, and a follow-up is expected later this year. Korkejian spins thoughtful melodies that tell personal stories. Soft though they may be, her voice remains firm, her lyrics poignant. “Sun is always shining through shapes of the night sky/Don’t you even let them believe you’re not the light,” she sings in Mind’s Eye. Bedouine’s songs may just be the perfect antidote to the confused frenzy of the current political climate, resolute in their courage, yet gentle in their willingness to dream.