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surprises, even shocks, in this new collection. The 100 tracks on these four CDs, beautifully remastered from 78 rpm recordings dating from between 1911 and the early 1950s, rep- resent the fruit of more than 40 years’ collect- ing by American accordeonist Lauren Brody, who has brought to light an unexpected wealth of musical riches.


After the Second World War and the Communist takeover, official cultural life, including folk and popular music, was subject to strict constraints, couched in a language of national identity, purity and authenticity. What the extraordinarily broad range of music on these recordings demonstrates is that before music in Bulgaria came under that ideological lens, an almost promiscuous mixture of musical styles coexisted, some- times even in a single performance.


A striking example is clarinettist Ramadan Lolov’s Orientalski Kyuchek, which combines a limping, irregular Bulgarian rhythm with a melody with a contour that we would today place as characteristic of Jewish klezmer, performed with a phrasing and sound reminiscent of the klarino of northern Greece. Add to this mix a central, semi-impro- vised solo performed in a strongly Turkish manner, and it seems clear that any ideals of purity and authenticity held little interest for these performers and their audiences. Like the other Balkan states, Bulgaria, a multi-eth- nic country in any event, only achieved its pre- sent borders after a series of conflicts in the early years of the 20th century, with a nation- al identity consequently being assigned to people who previously considered their mem- bership of a common culture to be of greater importance than a label of nationality. The collection includes choirs with an almost Adri- atic sound, vocal duets with sprightly violin and accordeon which have an entirely Serbian cast, and ensembles of plucked tamburas which could easily pass for Greek.


Nevertheless, the core of the collection is sturdily Bulgarian: echoes of Boris Karlov’s masterful accordeon, Vulkana Stoyanava’s bright, joyous vocals and the break-neck vil- lage virtuosity of Ivan Arseov’s Karlovska Ruchenitsa can still be heard today in the country’s massively popular pop-folk.


Amazingly, the earliest of these record- ings dates from 1911, a year before the First Balkan War, reconstructing part of a wedding ceremony in a kind of miniature documen- tary. We hear the shouts of the wedding guests, ritual chanting, a bagpipe melody, the sounds of procession and a blessing, leading to a final outburst of dance. It is a moving glimpse into a distant world.


The liner notes reflect Brody’s dedication: there are thumbnail sketches of prominent performers, notes on the record companies, and a brief overview of the changing attitudes to the music by academics and its audience. This will remain the definitive guide to these once-lost treasures for many years to come.


http://songofthecrookeddance.com www.jsprecords.com


Kim Burton


ALBERT KUVEZIN & YAT-KHA


Poets & Lighthouses Yat-Kha YAT005


The idea of Tuvan folk-rocker Albert Kuvezin and his band Yat-Kha has some- times appealed more than the reality. Not always (they can put on a darkly blistering live show), but I haven’t found myself taking to the growly voiced Mr K and co. as much as I think I ought to. The omens for this new album weren’t looking too promising either: recorded on a remote


Albert Kuvezin


Scottish island and including some musical set- tings of obscure Japanese poetry… doesn’t exactly sound like the soundtrack to a fun Sat- urday night does it? And yet Poets & Light- houses turns out to be a winner. Stark, shamanistic but strangely beautiful, it fea- tures a whole new Yat-Kha line-up, including ‘Hardest Working Man in Roots-biz’ Lu Edmonds, Billy Bragg’s bassist Simon Edwards, clarinettist Sarah Homer and multi-instrumen- talist Giles Perring (who also produced the recording at his studio on the Isle of Jura).


The sound is acoustic and varied, peak-


ing with The Way My Poetry Should Go, where the rumbling lead vocals, ghostly cho- rus and unusual instrumentation bring to mind a kind of Tuvan/ Celtic Tom Waits. There are interludes that feature just Kuvezin growling, whispering and intoning, a duet with Scottish smallpiper Neil Cameron and a lovely closing track that offsets Kuvezin’s rav- aged voice with the sweet tones of Melanie Pappenheim. But it’s the instrumental back- ing, sometimes soaring, sometimes muted, always imaginative, that really makes the album such an unexpected joy.


www.yat-kha.com Jamie Renton SHARRON KRAUS


The Woody Nightshade Strange Attractors Audio House SAAH063


Let’s take a moment to absorb an extract of Sharron Kraus’s mission statement from her sleeve


notes: “If I and my friends who joined me to record this have done our jobs well, you’ll lose yourself in the musical world we’ve created. An album is more than just the sum of its parts – it’s a cohesive artistic work. This is the way everyone used to listen to music and con- tinue to listen to it. As more and more people are listening to individual tracks online or downloaded MP3s, the physical album still remains the best way to experience recorded music – something that a playlist of digital files can never truly replace.”


She deserves a 5-star review for that alone and, in answer to her first point, she and her friends have indeed done their jobs well and it’s very easy to lose yourself in the weird and wonderful world they create. I’m still no wiser if we should be calling it ‘psych folk’, ‘acid folk’, ‘wyrd folk’ or just ‘music to give you the heebie jeebies’, but her point about establishing a mood that transports you into another time and place which wouldn’t exist if the tracks were listened to in isolation is well made.


Photo: Hayden Voight


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