Catalog entry: "The Bird of a Thousand Voices" by Tigran Hamasyan
Thoughts
Tigran Hamasyan is an Armenian jazz pianist who grew up listening to rock and metal, and it shows. Dropping the needle on any given song of his will transport you to one of three places: the Armenian countryside, a dimly-lit jazz club, or the mosh pit of a metal show. He wears his influence on his sleeve, and his music pulls equally from his Armenian upbringing, his jazz studies, and his love of heavy rock and metal music. "The Bird of a Thousand Voices" is no exception to this - it's a gorgeous 91-minute concept album inspired by the Armenian folktale Hazaran Blbul. While I think it's a fantastic entry to Hamasyan's discography, I actually wouldn't recommend it to first-time listeners--it's a lot. Hamasyan's earlier album "Mockroot" is a lot more digestible (though both are great in their own ways).
"Similar" acts
N.B. Tigran is truly one-of-a-kind -- there really isn't anybody else in the space doing anything quite like him. That said, if you like Tigran, you may dig these admittedly differently-styled acts:
Gogo Penguin feels like if Tigran grew up listening to electronica instead of rock, but also minus any sort of world folk influence at all.
BADBADNOTGOOD is, I dunno... Tigran if he grew up playing video games instead of listening to rock. I'm spreading this analogy too thinly.
The Bad Plus have a career spanning 20 years. I have to admit that I haven't listened to them in quite a while, but their old material a la "These are the Vistas" is definitely more Tigran-adjacent.
Sungazer has a very similar vibe to Tigran, but their music doesn't really sound anything alike. That is to say, Sungazer is made up of a bassist and a drummer with plenty of synth and electronics on top, with a good amount of horn features, and their music is typically higher energy, but also not as heavy. Still, if you like one, you'll probably like the other. This is Adam Neely's band, for whatever that's worth.