Tag: World Music

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László Hortobágyi – Music from Fomal​-​Hoot al​-​Ganoubī 1994​-​2023 [Re​​​-​​​Mix Mastered Version Series Vol. 3]

László Hortobágyi is perhaps the best known electronic/experimental music composer to ever come out of Hungary.  Our dear brothers at áMARXE Records have released Music from Fomal​-​Hoot al​-​Ganoubī, a 1991 release, as a remastered edition.

From the áMARXE Bandcamp site:

“Fomal-hoot al-Ganoubī is a mythological Arabic constellation.

It is the planet whose warm milky-mist landscapes are home to the ethereal body-incarnations of deceased Muslim saints and dervishes.

When in the XXII century the white man reached the moons of Jupiter and there transformed himself into a floating changeling to populate the stratosphere of Jupiter, in the same way the souls of the dead Muslim saints and dervishes moved a thousand years earlier to the galaxy of Fomal-Hoot al-Ganoubī, where they found the real great umma, i.e. the world of heaven (jannat), leaving at the same time the earthly realm of jahannam, i.e. Hell.”

The notes for this release are extensive, so it is recommended to go directly to the Bandcamp page to get more of a feel of what this album is about. áMARXE continues to release crucial progressive music!

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R​ü​ü​t – Kirik​ü​ü​t

R​ü​ü​t hail from Estonia and offer an incredible take on Estonian ethnic music, modernized for the 21st Century, taking in elements of jazz.  The band describes their music this way:

“The band is characterized by mystical atmosphere, intricate harmonic, melodic and rhythmic combinations, precision and a common feel. This is what Rüüt’s music is like.”

Thanks to our dear friends at Nordic Notes for hipping us to this release a while ago!

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Syriana – H​ā​rim

Syriana are an interesting project released by Real World Records.  Here’s the back story, courtesy of the label’s Bandcamp site:

“In 2010 Syriana’s album The Road to Damascus presented a musical reflection by Nick Page & Bernard O’Neill of their take on the geopolitical landscape surrounding Syria at the time. Sadly their assertions that a third cold war was being initiated in that region were proved to be true and the conflict and upheaval that followed destroyed much of the rich cultural heritage of the region and dispersed millions of its people.

Now in 2023 the new Syriana album 1325 Ibn Battutah plots the three decades that a lone traveller journeyed through known world, from Morocco to Syria, Turkmenistan, India, Africa and Spain and once more home to Tangiers. Sadly Nick Page passed away before its completion but it will be released later this year.”

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Hani from Yunnan China – Hani Polyphonic Singing in Yunnan China

From our friends at Sublime Frequencies:

“Mystic choral beauty drifting far into the outer cosmos, this other worldly traditional music ensemble creates a contemporary-sounding avant-garde vocal fusion combined with strange instrumental accompaniment.

The HANI are linguistically derived from the YI branch of the Tibeto-Burmese and number a million and a half in the southern part of Yunnan province in China above Laos and Vietnam where smaller Hani communities also live.

As with many other ethnic groups of the area, an original traditional singing pattern is used with each singer adapting the words to the context. The choir that gathers all singers at the same time is considered to be a very unique style of vocal polyphony or heterophony. The cascading, mournful feel of this music is powerfully transcendent and you’ve never heard anything like it.

Many of these songs express intimate strong emotions that bring tears to the performers while they are singing.”

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Auļi – Ķekat​ā​s

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.”

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Abatwa (The Pygmy) – Why Did We Stop Growing Tall?

Glitterbeat Records is the label which should be thanked for publishing The Abatwa, a collection of Pygmy artists from Rwanda.  Here are some notes by album producer Ian Brennan, courtesy of Forced Exposure:

“The Abatwa (“pygmy”) tribe is identified as one of the most marginalized, voiceless and endangered populations in Africa. In fact, their name is frequently taken in vain as a generalized slur towards others unrelated to them. Still, many among their group prefer the term to the official, PC mouthful/post-genocidal replacement moniker that they have been straddled with out of clear overcompensation: ‘The people who were left behind because of the facts of Rwandan history.’ . . . We were lucky enough to experience a 19-year-old female freestyle rapper, Rosine Nyiranshimiyimana, who is grittier than most any gangsta’. And right by her side, stood, Emmanuel Hatungimana, the mohawk-cut traditional music master, along with the husband/wife team that traded in eerie harmonies that nearly make Black Sabbath sound a bit trite. And keeping it in the family, mother and son, Ruth Nyiramfumukoye and Patrick Manishimine struck dueling Umudulis. A featured instrument is the 11-string Icyembe, one that has a resemblance not unlike a surfboard and when turned upright, stands taller than some of its Abatwa players.””

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Jack Mayesh – You Carry My Hope: Judeo​-​Spanish Songs in Los Angeles, Sept. 1942 – Feb. 1943

Canary Records is at it again.  As a Los Angelino, I have to say I didn’t know there was much of a Judeo-Spanish community here, though it does make sense, as many Spanish and Mexican families may very well have Sephardic roots hidden from the Catholic majority.  The recordings are spectacular considering the age of the shellacs (thanks to Ian Nagoski’s incredible mastering work), and it’s nice to hear Jack Mayesh crooning in a Spanish from another angle.

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Yunchi Ensemble – Aleksandrovka, Milyanfan: Dungan Music from Kyrgyzstan

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 came here. The name Milyanfan means a place where rice grows in Dungan language. Milyanfan is located in the Ysyk-Ata district northeast of Bishkek, not far from the Kazakhstan border.”