Turkish-American composer Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol directs Schola Cantorum, Ensemble Trinitas, The New England Mehterhane and five different DÜNYA ensembles in a sumptuous history of Istanbul/Constantinople via music from the Byzantine and Ottoman periods.
Ialoni are a female traditional music ensemble hailing from Georgia, and they offer on this album, as the title implies, 50 tracks of absolutely stunning renditions of folk material. A keeper.
Though it’s been four years, the loss of Jóhann Jóhannsson due to an overdose has left a massive hole in contemporary classical music, drone, experimental music, post-rock and so many other genres his work touched on. This opus, performed by the legendary Paul Hillier and backed my ACME, is as close to heaven as some of us might ever get. The vocals are haunting, mournful, but sound totally in place since we begin the Western Holy Week as celebrated by Catholics and non-apostolic churches. Bleak and beautiful.
The York Waits are a group out of York, England (no surprise there, right?), who specialize in Renaissance music from the 14th Century. This album is a reissue of a 1996 album where they paired with vocalist Deborah Catterall, who, 25 years after the release of this disc, served as Choral Director at Higham Hall, Cumbria and Voice Teacher at the Royal Northern College of Music before embarking on a private career. The music is not badly recorded – perhaps a bit compressed for choral music, and not as bright as it could be, but otherwise, the tunes are well-played…
Two places I have been enamored with for at least half of my life are Brittany in France and Naples, perhaps my favorite Italian city. Breizh Napoli, as the name clearly indicates, combines both Breton and Neapolitan music seamlessly. This is a fine demo of choral music that brings out the best of both cultures, and it’s my hope that the band continues to mine this particular strain of folk music.
Out beloved friends at CPL-Music have released another fascinating album of Russian folk music! Merema hail from Saransk, which is the capital of Russia’s autonomous Republic of Mordovia. The music is beautifully documented by CPL Records and the documentary work of professor Ekaterina Modina. The tones of the voices are dulcet, and it sounds unlike most Russian music as the languages of the region have far more in common with the Finno-Ugric family than it does with Russian. Utterly worthy. For a more complete review, consider checking out a full album analysis at WorldMusicCentral.org or at WorldListeningPost.com.
To our Eastern Orthodox friends, we wish you a blessed Pascha. Christ is Risen! To celebrate the day, we have the legendary Lebanese singer Fairuz singing the paschal greeting in Greek and Arabic.