• 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…

  • Music

    Various Artists – Fly, Fly, You Hardened Arrow: Round Dance Songs of “Polish” Old Believers from Altai

    February 28, 2023 - By 

    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 priestly Old Believers, who fled from the persecution of the authorities to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and to the bordering area of the Starodub regiment as part of the Russia. Upon her accession to the throne, Catherine II invited the Old Believers to return to Russia with a manifesto. However, they…

  • Music - Spotify

    Yggdrasil & Vera Kondratieva — Timint Areh

    November 16, 2022 - By 

    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 Timent Areh, but this also adds elements of jazz, rock and maybe just a touch of post-punk.  It’s a fun album, not too terribly dark, sung beautifully and supplemented by a rather tight backing band.  Tutl Records, the record label Blak has run since the 1970s, has released another gem. …

  • Music

    Vartra – Basma

    October 25, 2022 - By 

    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 draws from Serbian folk themes, but also Vlach themes as well.  The Vlachs are terribly underrepresented in folkloric music, and the chants on this disc serve to remedy this issue.

  • Music

    Sak Sok Ensemble of Fershampenuaz Village – Nagaybak Songs From Chelyabinsk Region, Russia

    April 19, 2022 - By 

    A fascinating release from our friends at Antonovka Records.  From their Bandcamp website: “Nagaybaks are an ethnic group that descends from the Christian Tatars and shares the same self-name with them — “Kreshenner”, which means “Baptized Ones”. There are about 10 thousand Nagaybaks in total, they live primarily in the Nagaybaksky district of the Chelyabinsk region, in the South Ural area. In the Russian empire the Nagaybaks belonged to the Cossack estate. Many of their villages were named after European settlements, at which the Nagaybaks distinguished themselves in the battles. Fershampenuaz is the capital of the Nagaybak district, it got…