NEWEST RELEASE

REMEDY

Listen to Remedy on all streaming platforms

New album Remedy draws from Armenian folk traditions, jazz and classical music

Returning with Remedy, the third album from ZMQ — a deeply personal collection shaped by reflection, transformation, and emotional resilience.

The sound blends jazz, classical music, and Armenian folk traditions, and over the years we've built an international reputation for a cinematic, narrative approach to composition. Our debut, Transition, earned an ARIA Award nomination for Best World Music Album, and 2022's The Road brought our music to a wider audience.

With Remedy, ZMQ turned inward. These pieces were written over several years of personal change — from the birth of my son to the upheavals of recent years. This is one of the most personal records I've made yet. It holds so much pain, love, reflection, and reconciliation — within myself, and with what's happening around the world.

A few pieces especially stand out: "Kintsugi," featuring flamenco guitarist Damian Wright, is inspired by the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. Just like Kintsugi, when we're broken, we have the chance to heal and become something even more beautiful than before. "Indifferent World" features trumpeter Phil Slater, whose haunting solo evokes the voices of people suffering in wars around the world — those whose cries remain unheard.

PREVIOUS RELEASES

The Road

Variously described as “ethno-jazz”, “world-jazz”, and “folk-jazz fusion”, Zela Margossian’s music rises above all these labels as a product of her own unique constellation of influences and lived experiences.

Raised in Beirut of Armenian heritage, her childhood years were marked by the conflict and political instability of the region; themes she would later explore in her music. In her early twenties, Margossian moved to Yerevan, Armenia to study classical piano at the Komitas Conservatorium. But it was after class, in the local jazz-clubs listening to artists of the likes of Arto Tunçboyacıyan and Vahagn and the Cats, that her love for jazz was stoked. A move to Australia some years later saw her take the bold step to fully transition from her classical roots and find recognition among her jazz peers, as a composer and improviser of note.

In 2017, the Zela Margossian Quintet (ZMQ) was formed and quickly found a warm embrace in the Sydney jazz scene. Comprising of renowned, versatile performers: Stuart Vandegraaff (woodwinds), Jacques Emery (double bass), Adem Yilmaz (percussion) and Alexander Inman-Hislop (drum kit), the band has appeared on Australia’s mainstages and internationally including at: the Beirut International Jazz Festival (2018), SIMA’s Sydney International Women’s Jazz Festival (2017, 2019 and 2020), Wangaratta Festival of Jazz & Blues (2020), the Sydney Opera House (2020), and Sydney Festival (2021).

In 2019 the band’s debut album, Transition, was released by Art As Catharsis to critical acclaim, also receiving an ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) nomination for Best World Music album.

The Road is their much anticipated second album, promising the rich instrumental textures, the distinct compositional voice, as well as the narrative and thematic depth Margossian is known for.

Released February 25, 2022 on Ropeadope.

Transition

Art As Catharsis is proud to announce the release of the Zela Margossian Quintet’s debut album Transition – a richly textured progressive world jazz album with heavy Armenian influences. 

Margossian draws influence from an elaborate range of middle-eastern music, resulting in melodies that juggle speed, calculation and experimentation alongside a sometimes soft, windswept mood. Armenian jazz from the likes of Vahagn Hayrapetyan and the Cats, The Armenian Navy Band, traditional Armenian music, the works of Tunisian composer, singer and oud player Dhafer Youssef and Tigran Hamasyan are all listed under Margossian’s main inspirations, taking form in music with a complex sound, shape and technique.

From start to finish, the songs on Transition bear many hidden traits that make it all the more enjoyable. Margossian’s stop-start style of fast, accurate piano, coupled with the quintet’s wild percussion and drumming, soothing clarinet and double bass are all perfectly complemented by a clean, authentic production style – allowing each instrument to breathe and be appreciated to their fullest. With plenty of toe-tapping beats and polyrhythmic interjections, Transition’s successes come from perfectly balancing technical prowess next to a foreign, almost mystic mood.