Remi Chauveau Notes
André Manoukian’s new album La Sultane turns jazz into a journey through Armenian memory, blending ancestral tenderness with improvisational elegance to create a deeply immersive cultural experience.
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André Manoukian Continues His Armenian Exploration with New Album La Sultane

10 October 2025
@andremanoukian_ LA NOUVELLE SULTANE !! Talima reprend mon morceau et se l’approprie tellment bien … Gros coup de coeur ❤️ Merciiii @Talima C ♬ son original - André Manoukian

La Sultane: Memory, Music and Heritage

In La Sultane, André Manoukian deepens his ongoing exploration of Armenian memory by weaving jazz with oriental modes to honor the tenderness, resilience, and cultural intermingling carried by generations of Armenian women; inspired by the affectionate nickname “ma sultane” used in his family, the piece becomes both a personal homage and a broader meditation on identity, ancestry, and the emotional landscapes shaped by Armenia’s history, perfectly aligning with the article’s portrayal of Manoukian’s artistic journey as a continuous return to his roots, where music becomes a bridge between past and present, Orient and Occident, intimate memory and collective heritage.

🎶 🎹🕌🌄🎶✨🧿🌬️🪘🌙📜 🔊 La Sultane - André Manoukian



André Manoukian’s new album La Sultane invites listeners into a world where jazz becomes a passport and memory becomes a landscape.

It’s a journey that blends ancestral echoes with improvisational freedom, offering both sonic depth for jazz lovers and cultural immersion for travelers seeking meaning beyond the map.

🧭 A Jazzman as a Traveler of Memory

Manoukian approaches Armenia not as a destination but as a living archive of emotions, stories, and musical textures. For jazz aficionados, this album feels like a suite of improvised postcards — each track shaped by modal colors, wandering melodies, and the quiet pulse of ancestral rhythms. For travel lovers, it’s an invitation to step into a place where geography dissolves and heritage becomes the true terrain.

🕌 La Sultane: A Tribute to Feminine Tenderness

The album’s title draws from the affectionate nickname “ma sultane,” used in Manoukian’s family to honor the women who carried tenderness, resilience, and cultural memory across generations. Musically, this translates into delicate piano lines, oriental inflections, and arrangements that feel like silk moving in the wind. It’s a sonic portrait of the women who shaped his lineage — intimate, luminous, and deeply rooted in Armenian emotional landscapes.

🌄 Armenia as a Soundscape, Not a Backdrop

Rather than using Armenia as exotic décor, Manoukian treats it as a resonant ecosystem where jazz and tradition converse. Duduk‑like timbres, modal scales, and subtle percussive textures evoke mountains, monasteries, and the quiet breath of high plateaus. For listeners who travel through sound, La Sultane becomes a form of slow tourism — an immersion into a culture through its vibrations rather than its monuments.

🎹 Jazz Improvisation Meets Ancestral Modes

What makes the album irresistible to jazz lovers is the way Manoukian blends improvisation with Armenian modal heritage. His piano navigates between freedom and structure, weaving blue notes with oriental ornaments in a dialogue that feels both ancient and modern. It’s the kind of music that rewards deep listening — the kind that reveals new layers with every return.

🌍 A Journey for the Ears, the Heart, and the Imagination

La Sultane is more than an album — it’s a bridge between worlds, a cultural itinerary, and a meditation on identity. For those who travel to feel, taste, and understand, Manoukian offers a journey without borders, where music becomes the most intimate form of exploration. Jazz aficionados will savor the craftsmanship; travelers will feel the pull of a homeland rediscovered through sound.

⭐️ Unleash Your Inner Sultane

The Sultane Improvisation Challenge: To celebrate the release of La Sultane, André Manoukian is launching a creative TikTok contest inviting listeners to reinterpret the track in their own style — through music, dance, visuals, or any artistic spark the album inspires. Just share your creation using the hashtag #lanouvellesultane, and join the wave of artists already exploring the emotional landscapes of this new album. Ça y est, je découvre vos créations sur mon album La Sultane… Et si vous deveniez La Nouvelle Sultane ? ⭐️

#LaNouvelleSultane ⭐️ #JazzVoyage 🎶 #ArmenianVibes 🌄 #CreativeSultane ✨ #SultaneChallenge 🎤

Emotional Ancestral Archaeology

Uncovering the Ancestral Pulse of La Sultane
One subtle thread running through La Sultane is that André Manoukian isn’t just exploring Armenia — he’s quietly mapping how jazz can become a form of emotional archaeology, a way to excavate buried family memories through sound. This idea isn’t spelled out anywhere, but it’s present in the way he blends modal improvisation with intimate storytelling, turning each track into a small act of cultural recovery. It’s the hidden layer that makes the album resonate so deeply with listeners who travel not only across places but across time.

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