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 Continue Reading
Ethnic Music
Petar Vujačić – Made in Ovtočić: Songs from Montenegro
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 Continue Reading
Kink Gong 2017 – Uyghur In Moyu Southern Xinjiang China
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, Continue Reading
Moughenda Village – Calling the Spirits: Missoko Bwiti Music of Gabon
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 Continue Reading
Badieh – Badieh
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 Continue Reading
Various Artists – Fly, Fly, You Hardened Arrow: Round Dance Songs of “Polish” Old Believers from Altai
The now-legendary Antonovka Records have done astounding work documenting music from Russia’s myriad of ethnic communities. This one is from the so-called “Polish” Old Believers in the Altai region. From the label’s Bandcamp site: “The ancestors of the Altai “Polish” Old Believers were peasants of the Vetka-Starodub territory of the Continue Reading
Various Artists – Nordic Notes – CPL-Music 2022
Our friends at CPL Music and Nordic Notes had another banner years for releases in the genre of World Music. The sampler includes tracks from the Balkans, Scandinavia and Asia among other locales, and it’s a great way to taste what the label has to offer.
Yggdrasil & Vera Kondratieva — Timint Areh
Yggdrasil are a Faroese project led by multi-instrumentalist Kristian Blak (whom I had the pleasure, many years ago, of meeting in Varna, Bulgaria) and a host of local musicians along with singer Vera Kondratieva from Siberia. You would expect to hear a melding of Scandinavian and traditional Siberian music on Continue Reading
Vartra – Basma
Our beloved friends at CPL-Music have submitted a bizarre and completely engrossing album of ethereal tribal music from Serbia in the form of Vartra. The band was founded in 2017 by Siniša Gavrić and sisters Ivana and Aleksandra Stošić. What makes the music so interesting is that it not only Continue Reading
Various Artists – Let’s Stamp: 1950s Folk Dance Recordings from Bulgarian and Yugoslavian 78rpm Discs
The ever-reliable Canary Records out of Baltimore, Maryland, have released a compilation of Balkan 78 rpm shellacs with a lot of the artists being unidentified, but whose music is most assuredly from my home away from home.