Buryatia – Music You Need To Hear

Shono – Kolkhozoy Traktor

Our dear friends at CPL-Music will be releasing some solid music from Buryatia in Eastern Russia. From the bio sheet:

“Unheard sounds from Buryatia: Shono revive the ancient rituals of the vast Eurasian grasslands. The autonomous Russian Republic of Buryatia is located in the far east of the country, bordering Mongolia and encompassing the eastern shore of Lake Baikal. Today, less than one million ethnic Buryats live in the republic. Under Stalin’s rule, many Buryats were persecuted and murdered.

Shono (translated as wolf, by the way!) was founded by Alexander Arkhincheev in 2014. The Buryat musician lives in Irkutsk, is a master of throat singing, is considered an expert on Buryat legends and epics, and masters many different traditional Buryat and Mongolian instruments. He is also active as a teacher. The four-member ensemble Shono combines his love for traditional Buryat music with a passion for western rock’n’roll. The first album “Hunters” convinced with a variety of different styles of throat singing. Arkhincheev also contributed original songs to the album.”

A fine blend of traditional music and rock. Solid. This will be released on June 23, so prepare yourselves.

Ayanga Ensemble – Erkhuu Khoto: Songs of Buryats from Irkutsk

Antonovka Records produced one of my favorite records of 2022, covering music from the region of Buryatia in Russia. From the label’s Bandcamp page:

“”Erkhuu Khoto” is the Buryat name of the Irkutsk city, where “Khoto” means “City”. Buryats are the indigenous people of this area.

The ensemble “Ayanga” (“Melody” in Buryat) was founded in 1998, the leader is Tsybigmit Damdinzhapova.

The band performs mainly songs of the Irkutsk Buryats, some of which were directly inherited from their ancestors. For example, Evgenia Baldynova learned song 4 from her grandfather. And song 5 was passed on to Petr Saganov from his grandmother Lilia Zhebadaeva, who, in turn, learned it from her grandfather Danchi Nikolaev, born in 1875. And Evgenia and Peter are the oldest (86 years old) and the youngest (27 years old) members of Ayanga respectively.

Some of the ensemble participants moved to Irkutsk from Buryatia and Transbaikal, so particular songs come from there. For example, Onon is a river in Transbaikal territory.”