Things We Saw @ Moogfest 2018 – Armen Ra

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]From Persian gardens to the Pyramid (on Avenue A), Armen Ra has lived a life worthy of Shahrazad. He is a master thereminist and a vision of real glamour, whether playing in a dive or a palace. He enters a room and it fills with sunlight. His music is golden.
Goodie Magazine
[/perfectpullquote] If there’s one thing we learned about covering Moogfest, its that some of the festival’s best performances take place at First Presbyterian Church. Exhibit A – last year’s back-to-back performance by Colleen and Marisa Anderson:

This year marked some equally awe-inspiring performances we had a pleasure to witness – one by US-born/Vienna based Pamelia Stickney (aka Pamelia Kurstin) and the other one by Persian-Armenian artist Armen Ra. Armen Ra’s long list of credits includes appearances on records by Current 93, Gwen Stefani, Selena Gomez, but this night was all about him and his amazing theremin skills.

Post-show conversation Petridisch had with Armen Ra revealed that the artist believes he never played a flawless show. We tend to disagree as the performance we saw that night was about as close to perfection as it gets.
Don’t take our word for it, however – here’s a number of tweets we collected to confirm that Armen Ra’s performance was, indeed, something to behold:

Day 2 @Moogfest was theremin day with a real Lev-built theremin that inspired us to finally get a Theremini (to keep my Etherwave company) at the Moog Modular Marketplace across the street from our hotel and then later that evening an aether-awesome performance by @ARMENRA … pic.twitter.com/isKkf6AyPP

— will rourk (@rezn8r) May 19, 2018

@ARMENRA just gave what may be the most beautiful show of @Moogfest 2018 #Theremin #Moogfest2018 #Moogfest pic.twitter.com/VfWvcNmv2Y

— Cup of Moe (@Cup_Of_Moe) May 19, 2018

Watching Armen Ra’s precise hand movements in playing the theremin at #Moogfest, I wondered if anyone has tried using sign language to speak/sing while play theremin? I’d love to see someone try that!

— Doug Schepers (@shepazu) May 19, 2018

Worth mentioning too is 2014 documentary called “When My Sorrow Died: The Legend of Armen Ra and the Theremin”, a a deeper look into the life and evolution of the artist.