• Music

    Shono – Kolkhozoy Traktor

    June 14, 2023 - By 

    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…

  • Music

    Ayanga Ensemble – Erkhuu Khoto: Songs of Buryats from Irkutsk

    November 29, 2022 - By 

    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…