Three World Label Labors of Love
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(records mentioned in this feature)
Nedim
Nalbantoglu - "Musik Kime Aittir" The
Music of Islam - "8: Folkloric Music of
Tunisia" "Egypt:
Echoes of the Nile" The
compact disc has caused this all to change. First,
it allowed the producers of syncretic world pop to
gain a foothold on a global marketplace which had
been largely immune to the local medium of choice,
the cassette. Secondly, it was an obviously
superior medium for the archivist at libraries at
which beat-up vinyl collections would not only
eventually be replaced by the shiny discs, but
would in many libraries be taken out of
circulation. So it was that this broad idea 'world
musics' achieved a higher profile at the same time
the academic archivists began to transition their
vinyl collections into compact disc collections.
Similarly, videographers would join with cultural
anthropologists and musicologists to feed the
burgeoning demand for film documentation of the
quickly fading and localized folkloric cultures
where they could still be found. These points summarize dramatic developments without describing what the window of opportunity really is to record unadulterated 'native' musical traditions. Above all it is a window slowly being closed and a window through which only the most intrepid and visionary recordists, musicologists, and anthropologists, are able to climb through. What must be fantastic stories of aural and audio anthropology and encounter cannot be told via the evidence of the recordings. Under the circumstances it cannot be imagined recordings of such import are ever merely 'product'. (Let's not!) Instead, they are editions imbued with a magnificent aura of encounter and hard won fact gained by grabbing hold of an opportunity which is less today than it was yesterday. Given these circumstances, it is not surprising to find out that the various companies involved in this field are largely small, labors of love, and, above all, clearly on a mission to present the music with the respect due its makers...and its finders. This has led to a literal flood of riches. Ocora, Auvidis, Buda, Japanese Victor, Smithsonian/Folkways and others have embarked on reissue and new recording programs.
My
own interests have been served best by three small
outfits that have set beautiful musical jewels and
begun to create marvelous catalogues of incredible
music. I've slowly been exposing myself to the
flood of wonders from Celestial Harmonies, Al Sur,
and Multicultural Music. All three are putting
their imprint on recordings which explore a vast
musical world, and have created world music
catalogues which may be dipped into at any point.
As labels, their imprints guarantee quality and
amazing rewards. It
is the two disc set documenting the Islamic music
of Indonesia (Celestial harmonies 14155) which has,
so far, delivered to my ears the most shocking
surprises. The music shocks due to its novelty and
intensity. Driven by drums and small percussion and
voice, it is unlike anything I've heard. While the
music is certainly beautiful, it is also startling
and magnetic. Unlike the formalized sacred music to
be found on other volumes, (a variety are collected
together on volume fourteen, "Mystic Music Through
the Ages," Celestial Harmonies 13154,) the
Indonesian recordings are all vernacular, informal,
and attend to a modest utility in comparison. But,
nonetheless, what extraordinary magic is worked by
them! In
the notes for a volume capturing the private music
made in the interior of a Tunisian household
(Celestial Harmonies 13148,) by a vernacular
ensemble, Parsons recounts the obstacles which were
overcome. The conditions may have been imposing but
the music is itself acutely sober and crystalline.
Although I am familiar with the formal structures
and the improvisatory nature of the traditions
similar to this Tunisian music, I was awestruck by
the splendors of the small ensemble, especially the
way in which the recordings open up the inside
edges of the instrumental sonorities which helps
set the intricate interplay in relief. I'm a third
of the way through the series: each volume is
glorious. Al
Sur in France is working the same and related
musical fields but with no conclusion to their
ongoing edition in mind. The series focuses on
folkloric performers as well as syncretists. Al
Sur's series has taken a brush and swept it from
Morocco and the western mediterranean eastward to
include the mideast, Romany Europe and Anatolia.
The series offers variable documentation and never
paints a big picture of what this brush sweep
concerns; the series attempts to document a
submerged history of music in this andalusian to
anatolian sweep without coming right out and
stating so. The mystery is brought out in many of
the volumes, whether it is the almost complete
color ceremony of the Gnawa brotherhood of Morocco
documented in five recodings (Al Sur 101, 145-149),
or the keening revelations of ecstacy found in
volumes dedicated to gypsy and flamenco ensembles.
There is also the overt religiosity of the formal
Islamic musical traditions recorded in Turkey,
Syria and throughout the countries of Noreth
Africa. Nedim
Nalbantoglu is a syncretist. On "Müzik
Kimé aittir," (Al Sur 206) the bass is
electric but not as electric as Nalbantoglu's
fiddling which dances with intoxicating grace. The
flavor of melismatic calls is intermixed with
fervent shouts which owe much to the feedback loop
between Anatolian culture and its Greek and Romani
neighbors, across the Bosporus, as it were. This is
also jazzy albeit exotic enough to dissuade one
from comparing it to lesser fusions. Nalbantoglu is
on the musical high wire throughout this stunning
disc.
The
discs are packaged with concise, informative notes
in an edition which will eventually reissue an
eighty volume JVC (Japan,) project, "Music of the
Earth". The focus is on local traditions recorded
'in the field'. The fidelity is superb and combines
with the series' local focus to reveal some gems
not available anywhere else. Instead of
concentrating on one musician or ensemble, the
volumes take a broad view and are given over to
various players in their local settings. This
initmate approach insures great rewards and this
has been born out by the three volumes I've heard
so far. Two
exemplify diverse strokes. For example, "Egypt:
Echoes of the Nile" (MCM 3005,) starts out with the
sounds of bells announcing Sunday Morning Mass in a
coptic Church, moves through various tastes of
coptic music, then moves on, heralded by the call
of the muezzin and a sung recitation from the
Qur'an, through classical, modern and popoular
Islamic music, and finishes with performances of
Nubian music from the Aswan Cultural Center. In
contrast to other collections with a more narrow
focus, this is more on the order of a multiple
course feast, and its delicious. I'm not getting younger, so I'm satisfied to know that some of my time from now on will be spent gathering up the jewels of these three label's labors of 'world music' love. I'll anticipate new rewards, and repeated pleasures as I return to these volumes. Above all, what I'll look forward to is my own encounter with the music, an encounter made possible by intrepid recordists in far away locales but also by unseen persons working for Celestial Harmonies, Al Sur, and Multicultural Music, in a labor of love and devotion to musical artistry and musical encounter...and to the world we all share. |
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& Questions: hoon@apk.net
last updated June 2, 1998