Thursday 12 April 2012

Gortoz a ran / Gwerz Kiev - Denez Prigent



Denez Pringet - Gortoz a ran 
Album - Irvi / also OST "Black Hawk Down"




Denez Prigent - Gwerz Kiev
Album - Sarac'h



The first 10 mins of the movie "Black Hawk Down" sets the mood of the events to unfold on screen... and on the backdrop of the gut wrenching visuals is the haunting voice of Denez Prigent singing "Gortoz a ran" .
Denez Prigent a native of a region in France called Breton ,(AKA Little Britain, as opposed to Great Britain), sings in the ancient celetic brittonic  language of Brittiany ,the folk music of the Breton region is known as "gwerz". 



  
In the tradition of gwerz, Denez Prigent writes and sings about dramatic events about which he hears during a travel, a conversation, or through medias. "Gwerz Kiev" relates the "Holodomor", the famine that struck Kiev in the 1930s, with casualties estimated to four million. The picture on the side is of one of the many monuments constructed all across Ukraine in memory of the tragedy. . 

Tuesday 10 April 2012

Tande-La - The Creole Choir of Cuba






Tande-La - The Creole Choir of Cuba
Album:  Tande-La (2009) / RealWorld Records






The Creole Choir celebrate the history of their Haitian descendents enslaved to the Caribbean from West Africa. The Creole Choir were founded in 1994 during the 'Special Period' when the Cuban economy fell into a black hole following the end of the USSR and of Soviet support for the revolution. Food was short while homes and work places often went dark due to lack of electricity. It was at this difficult time that members of the Professional Choir of Camagüey who were descendents of Haitians, decided to re-forge the resistance songs and laments of their forebears. Lead by their Choir Director Emilia Díaz Chávez, Grupo Vocal Desandann, as they are called in Cuba, revived the songs of their ancestors for modern times. Desandann literally means 'descendents' and as the choir say: "For us music is like food, it feeds the spirit and is a major inspiration for everyday life".


The Creole Choir describe each of their songs as being 'like a small film' filled with vitality, humour and compassion. They tell stories of survival despite abject poverty, of heroes who defied colonial masters, of ghosts at the crossroads, of enduring love, of homesickness for family, of abandonment but never loss of hope, mother's laments and prayers, of the desire for freedom. With irresistible melodies driven by richly textured harmonies, shifting Caribbean rhythms with a very original root bass sound, this is impassioned singing by a unique group.


** taken from the CD sleeve.

Ahemedo - Aynur Dogan





Ahmedo - Auynur Dogan.
Album: Kece Kurdan (2004)

A tribal Kurdish song, (re)sung by Aynur Dogan. 

Not much information is available about the song as such other than that it is a regretful toned song about the sins of the forefathers specifically talking about the oppression of the Kurds by the Turks!!

 Aynur Dogan, a corset wearing, nomadic looking, husky voiced  curly haired Kurdish beauty was elevated into the global stage when she got featured in a Music Documentary on the music of Istanbul called "Crossing The Bridge: The Sounds Of Istanbul". That`s where i came across this piercing voice that set me on a hunt.... which led me to her and the history of the Kurds !  
Her Album "Kece Kurdan" was banned in Turkey as it was supposedly to contain lyrics that "incites women to take to the hills and promote division". The ban was latter removed in 2005.  







Ahmedo - Tribal Kurdish Song  (the original version) as sung in the hills of Turkey !!



Saturday 7 April 2012

Wasted Years - String Quartet Tribute to Iron Maiden



Wasted Years - String Quartet Tribute to Iron Maiden.








One of my favorite  renditions of Maiden`s Wasted Years... was my phone`s ring tone for quite a long time.

Friday 6 April 2012

Shiv Tandav Stotram - Ravana


Shiv Tandav Stotram - Ravana
(This piece sung by Uma Mohan)


Being granted the boon of indestructibility (except by a human being), Ravan rampages the earth till he tires and has nothing new to do... that`s when he reaches out again to Lord Shiva asking him the quintessential existential question... "When will I be Happy..?" ( Moksha). Shiva having already granted the boon could not take it back hence directs Ravans to Vishnu.. who incarnates as Rama.. and the rest is history !!


This is one of the very few powerful rendition of this song... many have attempted but this is the closest i think would have come to how Ravana would have sung it !!

The Feeling Begins - Peter Gabriel



"The Feeling Begins"  - Peter Gabriel 
 for the OST "The Last Temptation Of Christ"


These haunting sounds first eluded me way back in the early 1998-97, when there was a lone FM channel being broadcast  from Bombay, around the time when MTV had just entered the elite homes in India and there was nothing like Channel V or VH1...  Don`t remember the name of the FM channel as it did not live long... but it was probably the first one to play GOOD music on radio. 


It was a mesmerizing  moment when i heard this music for the first time... i had just tuned in and had missed the announcement so did not know who played this or what it was called.. but what was left with me was a lingering   echo in my mind... which i could not explain to anyone else.. especially to the music stores where i was trying to get my hands on this piece of surreal heaven.  I did my best to hum the tune to the college dropout assistance at Planet M (then being the biggest music store) and to explain what the music was like and as there was no lyrics it was an even tougher challenge... and all the best they could come up with was "Enigma" !!!  I gave up my quest.. but that thorn of an echo still lingered in my mind... 


Till one day i was watching a bootlegged DVD of the "Last Temptation" at a friends when The Feeling Began !!!  


Since then i have been chasing exotic/tribal/fusion sounds from the world over.. !! This Blog is an attempt to bring together all the sounds i have come across !!