Oaksenham recording at FireWall Rock Festival - October 10, 2003 at Yerevan Puppet Theatre - The tunes are Gentle Giant-covers

Oaksenham is an Armenian symphonic prog band whose sole release, Woden's Eve Live captures a concert perfomance in June of 2002. They are a six-piece band playing traditional guitar, bass, drums and keyboards augmented by a flautist and violinist. Their style reminds me quite a bit of early Camel, due to the way flute is used, but also in the overall feel. There's some of the gentle, "verdent countryside" feel of Jethro Tull's more pastoral offerings, and also a bit of classical counterpoint stylings á la Gentle Giant (in fact there's a nicely-done GG tribute cut, "Talybont / Three Friends" on this album). In addition to this, there's some fusiony guitar, bass and drum sections and folkish violin work.

But of even more interest, Oaksenham now has a studio album of their work available. It's titled Conquest of the Pacific after the "side long" epic that makes up the second half of the CD. As good as Woden's Eve Live was, it only hinted at what this band might be able to do in a studio setting. Conquest of the Pacific contains studio versions of several of the Woden's Eve Live pieces, plus much more newly composed for the album.

Vahagn Papayan bass
Anna Adamyan keyboards
Valery Tolstov flute
Koryun Bobikyan - violin
Vardan Gasparyan guitar
Ashot Korganyan drums (less info)