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巴亚宛 Bayawan – 麦盖提刀郎木卡姆乐队 Mekit Dolan Muqam Group

巴亚宛 Bayawan are heavy psychedelic muqam music from Xinjiang.  From Old Heaven Books’ Bandcamp site:

“”Bayawan” is the common name for Muqam music used by the Dolan people. Bayawan, or Dolan Muqam, is a unique form of folk music and one of the most important cultural heritages of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, China.

Generally speaking, Muqam is a form of large-scale suites which include songs, dances, and instrumental sections, in which the development of music often features a significant degree of improvisation. The Muqam of the Uyghurs is characterized by its diversity of musical styles. Apart from the classical Twelve Muqam, there are also multiple folk Muqam traditions with distinct regional characteristics, including Kumul Maqam, Turpan Muqam, Dolan Muqam, and Ili Muqam. Among them, Dolan Muqam is often considered as the wildest, if not the uncanniest tradition that still exists. “

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Music

Daulet Halek (达吾列提·哈勒克) – Daulet Halek: Dombra Solo (达​吾​列​提​·​哈​勒​克​演​奏​的​冬​不​拉​曲)

This release honors the memory of Chinese Kazakh composer Daulet Halek who passed away in 2008.

From the release’s Bandcamp site:

“Producer’s Note:

This album has its genesis in a precious reel-to-reel tape recording which we discovered in a radio station. It is unfortunate that the tape itself does not contain information on the date of recording, which we roughly speculate to be around the late-1980s to the early-1990s.

The recording in this album has two parts. The first is Daulet Halek’s interpretation of folk tunes from other ethnic minority groups, including the Tatars, the Mongols, the Sibe, and the Kyrgyz. The second part documents Daulet’s performance of works of the great Kazakh composer Kurmangazy Sagyrbaev.


Thanks to Mamer’s tremendous help, this historical recording is now published by Old Heaven Books. We are honoured to be able to give this deeply buried gem a new life.


This album is also an invaluable addition to Old Heaven Book’s “archival recording” series, a project we are seriously committed to. The series has generated two albums so far: Guo Yongzhang Zhuizi Selections (2019) and Nikhil Banerjee in California, 1967 (2020). This record will, to our delight, bring the graceful performance of Daulet Halek’s dombra, as well as the unique charm of Kazakh folk music, to a wider audience.
Lastly, we cannot help but mention that this is also a record with sublime audio quality. We sincerely hope you feel it and enjoy it as we do.


(Tu Fei)”

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Music

叶尔波利 Yerboli – 哈萨克精神Kazakh Spirit

China has 55 legally recognized minorities, each contributing to the mosaic of the country.  This particular project, Yerboli, comes from the Kazakh community, but it is not ethnic music per sé.  This is folk music, but with a slightly more mystical element to it.  Shenzhen-based Old Heaven Books released this album, and they boast quite a healthy catalog of this kind of music.  They are worth exploring.