• Music

    Various Artists – Antonovka Records: Made in Davlekanovo: Russian and Chuvash Songs from Bashkortostan

    March 12, 2024 - By 

    The brilliant folks at Antonovka Records continue to amaze and delight with their travelogues across Russia, Moldova and the Balkans.  This particular recording covers an area I have ready plenty about, but have not yet passed through.  From the label’s Bandcamp site for this release: “The album features Russian folk songs in stage arrangements, as well as a couple of Chuvash ones (tracks 5-7). These are performed by musicians from the Davlekanovsky district of Bashkortostan, a republic in the southern Urals within Russian Federation. Some of the songs (for example, 3) are traditional of local origin, some are Cossack ones…

  • Music

    Cristina Godoroja – Ciob​ă​naș Cu Oile: Songs From Moldova and Romania

    November 27, 2023 - By 

    Antonovka Records, once based in Russia but now ensconced in Moldova, continues to release some of the most seminal music to ever come out of the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, and their reach seems to keep expanding.  This album covers the work of traditional singer Cristina Godoroja, an ethnomusicologist and singer based in Moldova’s capital, Chișinău.  The works hail from Bessarabia and also feature Romanian-language songs.  A worthy addition to any world music collection.

  • Music

    Auļi – Ķekat​ā​s

    August 25, 2023 - By 

    Six pipes, three drummers, a bassist and a massive wall of sound are what Latvian band Auļi offer, and this album shows the band collaborating with a score of modern musicians updating a powerful ethnic sound.  According to the Bandcamp site, “this album is dedicated to the Latvian masquerade traditions in winter. Starting from the Winter Solstice and ending with Meteņi.”

  • Music

    Yunchi Ensemble – Aleksandrovka, Milyanfan: Dungan Music from Kyrgyzstan

    July 22, 2023 - By 

    Yet another amazing collection has been released by Antonovka Records, now based in Moldova.  This collection features a Chinese Muslim ethnic group called the Dungan who live in the passes between Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, and surprisingly, they don’t write in Chinese, but in Cyrillic! From Antonovka’s Bandcamp site: “Most of the members of the ensemble Yunchi (“Happiness”) live in two Dungan villages in the Chuy region of Kyrgyzstan – Aleksandrovka and Milyanfan. Aleksandrovka is located in the Moskva district to the west of Bishkek. The village was named after the Emperor Alexander II of Russia, during whose reign the Dungans…

  • Music

    Santeri Dobrynin, Egor Masaltsev, Olga Plekhanova – Karjalan Jouhikko: Karelian Instrumental Music

    June 5, 2023 - By 

    This release from our friends at Antonovka Records features three players of the jouhikko, a local stringed instrument: Santeri (Alexander) Dobrynin and Olga Plekhanova from Karelia and Russian Egor Masaltsev, who moved to the region.  There are 22 tracks of charming interplay between the three and individually.  All the tunes are traditional Karelian, except: 7 – traditional Swedish, 10 and 11 — by Olga herself, 18 — two tunes of traditional Russian songs from Karelia, 19 — by Karelian musician Leo Sevets, 20 — a tune from the play “Sampo: The Magic Mill” based on the Kalevala (author Maxim Gutkin), 22…

  • Music

    Brìghde Chaimbeul – Carry Them With Us

    May 22, 2023 - By 

    A big and hearty thanks goes out to my dear friend and brother in music, Hubert, for turning me on to this album.  Brìghde Chaimbeul plays smallpipes, a wonderful instrument criminally neglected in comparison to its more famous cousin, the Highland pipes.  These smallpipes have a more ethereal sound to them, and in the hands of a master piper like Brìghde, they sound as elegant as any orchestral instrument.

  • Music

    Petar Vujačić – Made in Ovto​č​i​ć​: Songs from Montenegro

    May 11, 2023 - By 

    Amazing.  The ever excellent Antonovka Records are now producing music outside of the former USSR.  We have a description of the recordings below, courtesy of the label’s Bandcamp site: “Gusle (not to be confused with Russian gusli) is a Balkan (mainly Montenegrin and Serbian) bowed instrument. There is only one string on the gusle, but it is always decorated with rich carvings. Those are usually long epic historical songs that are performed with the gusle. Petar Vujačić comes from the village of Ovtočić (both ‘č’ and ‘ć’ are pronounced roughly as ‘ch’), located in the mountains between the Adriatic Sea…

  • Music

    Kink Gong 2017 – Uyghur In Moyu Southern Xinjiang China

    May 1, 2023 - By 

    I don’t know much about Kink Gong, though maybe they have some relations with the legendary Sublime Frequencies record label, but I do like that they’re busy releasing some amazing music from neglected parts of the world.  This installment comes from Xinjang, in the news for all the wrong reasons, yet a fascinating culture worth delving into.  The music shares much in common with fellow Central Asian Turkic groups like the Kazakhs or Uzbeks, but also carries some elements of Mongolian, Persian, and of course, Chinese music.

  • Music

    Moughenda Village – Calling the Spirits: Missoko Bwiti Music of Gabon

    April 12, 2023 - By 

    This Moment Records is a record label, “… which is dedicated to producing and promoting field recordings from around the world, in addition to crafting innovative soundscapes for relaxation and meditation,” at least according to their Bandcamp site. As we have never reviewed any music from Gabon before, I looked forward to what I would be hearing, and was, of course, not at all disappointed. Again, from the Bandcamp site: “This collection of music comes from the Missoko Bwiti tradition of Gabon, a spiritual path that includes five different branches, spanning over a thousand years in equatorial Central West Africa.…

  • Music

    Badieh – Badieh

    March 6, 2023 - By 

    This is quite a pairing.  Badieh consist of Spaniard Michel Gasco, who plays oud and rebab, pairs with Iranian musician Mohammed Miragharzadeh on tar and setar. From Badieh’s Bandcamp site: “Worlds Within Worlds is proud to announce the release of Badieh’s self-titled debut album – a collection of mystifying folk pieces from the Greater Khorasan region of Iran and Afghanistan. A collaboration between two masters of their craft, Badieh is the project of Michel Gasco and Mohammad Miraghazadeh. A step past Gasco’s previous Orontes project, these delicate reinterpretations of traditional Khorasani folk track takes his instrumentation to new heights. Each…