Search - Various Artists :: Bulgaria Village & Folk Music

It's only my opinion, but......

Michael Landes | Woodside, CA United States | 11/01/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I can't understand why no one has bothered to review this.
1. It has been available for over thirty years, first on vinyl,then on cd.
2. It is stupendous. Very often field recordings are patchy either with respect to the performances or with respect to the recording quality, if not both. This is only to be expected and we who are interested in this kind of material just accept it.
But not here. The performances and recording quality is first rate throughout. Personally, I use it as a standard. Do I enjoy my latest collection as much as this old thing? (The answer is usually no, but I keep looking.) Look, you can get it used for 7 bucks and its 75 minutes and it's stunning. Why are you still hesitating? If you know bulgarian trad. and don't already have this, your money is being misused! after thirty years this one still gives me a buzz. One of the jewels of the entire Explorer series."

Got it 30 years ago, and still miss it

Gerald Masel | Jerusalem | 03/26/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have over a hundred orphaned records, and als, havenothing to play them on. Many of the most missed, are from the Explorer series. This one in particular. I'm lacking the musical education needed to make a impressive recomendation, so I'll just state, that it got into my bones, and has stayed there. The honesty of a hoarse but virtuose grandma, singing about her own life, is something that no overly sophisticated "World" musician, Julliard graduate, or prodigy born with an ipod in his ears, can match."

Amazingly stark yet so beautiful and haunting

mianfei | 03/07/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The earliest recording available of Bulgarian folk music, the present album is a compilation of two previous ones, known as "A Harvest, A Shepherd, A Bride" and "In The Shadow Of The Mountain".



Though overshadowed by the later "Le Mysterè Des Voix Bulgares", "Village Music Of Bulgaria" clearly beats the originally 4AD-released album for intensity and purity of expression. Most of the pieces here are so short and brief that the singes and players waste not a note or a word to express the simplest yet most touching aspects of human life.



The opening brevity "Vitar Vee" and the instrumental "Triti Pyuti" set the two basic types of piece present on "Village Music Of Bulgaria". The first is the familiar, naïve but beautiful a capella style of the female folk singers for which "Le Mysterè Des Voix Bulgares" became famous in the late 1980s, whilst the second is a quite unique and exotic type of instrumental piece based on uniquely Bulgarian woodwind instruments. The following two pieces follow in the stark and mysteriously emotional character of the first two songs.



Nonetheless, "Potajno Rada Godiya" comes as a surprise with the deep, almost classical male voices holding virtually the only "long" piece on the entire album for aa haunting, seething six minutes. The following two songs (from the moutainous Rhodope region) show some of the most eerie instrumental tones one will ever see, matching the best Scandanavian groups of the modern era. The bagpipe-like vocal on "Izlel Je Delyo Hajdutin" has a starkness lacking in "Le Mysterè Des Voix Bulgares".



The touching "Dimitro, sino Dimitro" and "Molih Ta, Majcho I Molih" show harmonies and exotic meters (explained in the text) that are incredibly solid yet beautiful, whilst "Lisna, Goro, Spushi Sa" is pure trance on traditional instruments.



The second album illustrates in an incredibly unadorned form the singing style of Pirin-Macedonia with dense drones and beautiful melodies carrying folk songs that feel both dark and ecstaic at once. Here, the songs are even shorter than on the first album, yet no less moving and uncomfortable. The rhythmic power the combination produces on "Tsar Murat Mara Dumashe" matches the other part wonderfully, whilst the following "Moma Sedi Na Chardak" was softer but equally powerful.



For adventurous listeners, "Village Music Of Bulgaria" is a must have. Less known than "Le Mysterè Des Voix Bulgares", but starker and in the end, much more emotional and solid."