But Renaissance has its price. While the centre of the city was flooding with marble pavements in front of every restaurant, while Heineken bars and Pizza Di Roma became popular attractions, the overall economic situation in the country wasn't getting much better. Re-launch of Metsamot nuclear power plant brought light into Armenian homes and filled buildings with a warmer temperature. However... Rich were getting richer, while average were getting poorer. Lack of money forcing search for outside income and severe military drafting operations extremely reduced the number of males in the country. Still, after the apocalypsis of 1991-95 and long war with Azerbaijan, the year of 1996 made a big difference, and people were simply happier than before.

Some of the musicians in Armenia also emmigrated abroad, mainly either to Russia or United States. Only very few of them were able to continue their musical career far from motherland. Many got drafted into the army putting a halt on their bands activity. The famous Gaudeamus of 1996 was also the last one as the main organizers had to serve their military duty.

All of a sudden Arthur Meschian comes back from the US with grandiose plans. Having already release 4 albums in the United States, Meschian's love for motherland forced him to try something at home one more time. With a new band of American musicians behind him, Meschian delivers a remarkable show in the Opera house. First part of the show featured his old and new hits, and the second part introduced a new symphonic piece which left music fans speechless. As Meschian's band musician Joe Feloni recalls, "to experience such a spiritual and emotional response to what we were playing was wild considering we didn't know what the lyrics were expressing. But you don't have to speak the language to feel how there was something awesome going on in the auditorium."

The music in Armenia truly resurfaced. If 6 years ago there was only a handful of bands, end of 90's saw new talents rising and adding new force to the bandwagon. In came Rouben Hakhverdian with new songs, Armenian KVN teams also indulged with musical movies... A well-neglected actor Michael Poghosian put together a number of musical shows discovering that besides acting he can sing quite well. "Bards" like Zorikian and Artsruni released albums. And most importantly, first digital CDs were finally recorded in Armenia. The pioneers here were "Empyray" and "Hieronymus Bosch". "Empyray" alongside with "Vostan Hayots" and regrouped "MDP" remained one of the very few survivals still rocking on. Forsh finally recorded his first official album in 1996 which came under the name "The Night" - a phenomenal collection of melodic songs with superb arrangement.

With resurfacing of music as a whole, both pop and rock styles gained a lot of momentum. New talented pop stars like Grisha Aghakhanian, Hayko, Sona Avagian, Hasmik, Sirusho released successful albums. Ara Gevorgian, multi-instrumentalist and composer created a new trend in Armenian pop: so-called "Armenian new age music" combining elements of folk, jazz and electronic music. Nune Esayan brought back the popularity of pure "Haykakan Zhogovrdakan" folklore stunning diaspora all around the world with brilliant performances. Especially applauded was her tour with Jivan Gasparyan. Alla Hovannisyan successfully blended Celtic rhythms into Armenian folklore. What a combination! Jivan Gasparyan's magical duduk became world-renowned and his music was used in movies like "Last Temptation of Christ" and "The Gladiator". A new rap talent Grisha Aghkhanian's famous "Top Ten Rabiz" compilations released in collboration with KVN "New Armenians" team were extremely successful for many years. Photo: Artists of 90's (left to right, top to bottom): Alla Hovannisyan, Sona Avagyan, Nune Esayan, Forsh, Lilit Karapetian, Grisha Aghakhanyan, Hasmik, Hayko, Shushan Petrosyan

Veterans and old-timers were not idle either. Rouben Hakhverdian returned to recording and performing after a short break due to severe illness. Luckily, Hakhverdian had a lot of fans in Armenia who helped him sponsor a complicated surgery in Europe, and shortly after Rouben returned to the stage with new songs like "This is Yerevan", also contributing music to new movies like "Khatabalad" and "Yerevan Blues" starring Michael Poghosian. He managed to team up with rabiz singer "Dzakh" Harout and produce a controversial album "Song is also a prayer", which got mixed response from the crowd: after all, Hakhverdian was never viewed as a rabiz singer, therefore this collaboration with aging "Dzakh" Harout was received more with a confusion. Arthur Grigoryan, another old timer, who had his show on national TV at one time, remained in the spotlight with melodic inspirational songs celebrating his love to motherland. Photo to the right: Collaborative work of Rouben Hakhverdian and Mikayel Poghosian

Jazz was flourishing in the town. Poplavok being top outdoors jazz spot, it attracted not only foreign stars like Chick Corea, but brought in domestic artists like Danielian Trio, Karen Gasparian, Levon Malkhasian and the Band sharing the heritage of late Simon Vratsian and Co. Armen Martirosyan (See photo on the left), one of the most progressive jazz musicians, plays a unique fusion of armenian national melodies with classic jazz. And most definitely, how is it possible not to mention "Chico and friends" led by the veteran jazz player Armen "Chico" Tutunjian whose concert tours in Yerevan proved to be very successful.

Rock and roll also saw new names. With oldies like "MDP", "Hieronymus Bosch", came the rookies. Some concentrated more on their image than music. Satanic "Alk Zaraat" made the audience wail and howl "Lucifeeeeerrr!" at the concerts, while "Tush" liked to shock people with something totally unexpected. "Via im. John-a Trlinsky" liked to gimmick their performances by solving crossword puzzles on stage and in general do everything but their original purpose - playing music. Interestingly enough, the audience usually bought all of that. Yet other newbie bands delivered a very profound and professional rock and roll. "The King's Cross" is one of the promising new bands, in 1999 they released their debut album called "Pillows on the grass" (See photo of their cover album on the left). "Amber" is another young and progressive band with a good potential. "Bambir" - another promising act with a wonderful arrangement of Komitas music and crafty instrumental compositions. "Lav Eli", Kirovakan's own breed, got a lot of radio airtime. Also, some older groups like "Angels" and "Ass kissers" got more visibility than before.

Left: Gor Mkhitaryan ("Lav Eli"): "Yeraz" (CD), 2001 Right: "Bambir": "Quake" (CD), 2003 Listen to the music of Gor Mkhitaryan Nothing Listen to the music of Bambir Dondig Yar

"Strangers" broke up in 1998 after the founders of the bands split their ways in different geographical and spiritual directions.

In 1999 after returning to Armenia few times and working as Yerevan's Chief Architect, Meschian finally decides to call it quits. He returns to Boston and stops every recording or performing activity. Later, in 2002 he would re-release his 4 previous albums remastered with one primary goal: to fight against recording companies' piracy which (sadly enough) is still a major issue especially among LA-based companies. Speaking of Los Angeles...

...It would seem most logical for the newly founded LA Armenian diaspora to produce quality records. But given into consideration the demand for rabiz-type music in the LA-LA-land, most of the artists over there were doing rabiz music. No brainer. However, Armenian musicians in America never lose their visibility. Talk about popularity of "The Apex Theory", or "I/O" or "1.5" and of course "System of a Down" - Armenians quartet famous all over the world.

The Apex Theory, USA	System of a Down, USA	Krematorium, Russia

"Apex Theory" released their second album in spring of 2002 marking their entrance to the big metal arena. "I/O" had an interesting record named "Interstellar Overdrive" - not exactly Pink Floydish follow-up, but judging by the length of their 15-minute track, you could honestly believe the band is out of ordinary. And is it even necessary to talk about "System of a down"? While their first self-titled album with the hit-single "Sugar" was cheered mainly in California, the second album "Toxicity" (2001) brought the world to its knees. Almost all of the bands have a strong dedication to their motherland. "System" for instance takes on the issue of 1915 Genocide Recognition by the US. The voice of Armenians sounds as loud as ever and not only inside Armenia itself, but all around the globe. And never before has the music been so powerful in delivering its message to the rest of the world.