SISKIN

 

SISKIN/LAMENT OF OWEN ROE O'NEILL 

Shirak, 1979-1981, SSK 3309

 The Paris-based band Siskin was active between 1978 and 1982. It started with a lot of musicians (about eight of them) ending up with five then four musicians : Mario Forlot on harp, Olivier Darras on fiddle and viola, Serge Hamon on flute and whistle, Christian Lebon on percussion. The fifth musician was the piper Denis Kersual who toured with the band but didn't make it to the recording studio.
They managed to produce an album in 1979 in France which was released also by the Italian label Shirak Records  for the Italian market in 1981 with French text plus a presentation sheet in Italian that I included in the scans.
Siskin ( the name for a bird in English) was a group of its own with a highly creative sense of music. The music is Irish with a lot of original compositions by S. Hamon and M. Forlot; all the arrangements are O. Darras' work.
They wanted to bring us back in 1641-1649 in Ireland during what is called the Kilkenny Confederation when some Old English and Gaelic lords (all Catholics) rebelled against the English government of Charles the 1st and after his beheading against Oliver Cromwell. 
The landlords in central Ireland were threatened by a major colonisation plan like what happened in Ulster previously. The title of the album refers to the man who led this rebellion, Hugh O'Neill's nephew raised in the Spanish Netherlands where his family fled after Hugh O'Neill's defeat at Kinsale in 1601. Soon after the rebellion broke out it was decided to ask Owen O'Neill to lead the army which he did in 1642 bringing 300 Irish veterans with him. In the end Cromwell defeated him; he died in 1649 not in battle but poisoned according to the legend by an Irish women while historians think he died from illness.
This historical and musical representation starts on side 1 with tunes that might evoke Ireland at that time  to set the scene before the final battle. The main character is Captain Moloney who will die in battle on side 2. Tracks 2 and 3 are grouped; track 5 (6 on the record) is a traditional Breton tune played during weddings to make the bride cry when leaving her family and home. 
Side 2 is divided into two main sections; the first one is called ''Battle Cry of Munster'' (a traditional Irish march) grouping tracks 9 to 14. the second section is called ''Lament for Owen Roe O'Neill'' with the three last tracks.
Siskin composed five tunes to illustrate the atmosphere of the battle and what Moloney felt before it and in the end when he's dying on the battle field. To be more graphic maybe they resorted to a lot of sound  tampering. The effect is quite convincing I think with daring chords and a wall of sound  which take us  alongside Moloney. This is what I understand. Besides these musicians were influenced by metal and rock music according to O. Darras taking to the stage in long coats and leather dress. 
So  Siskin was like a a meteorite in the Irish landscape in France perhaps not completely understood by the regular French audience. It seems they were quite popular in Italy though.

 download.wav

Gongs Asie du Sud-Est

 

GONGS ASIE DU SUD-EST

MUSIQUES & TRADITIONS DU MONDE

GONGS SOUTH EAST ASIA 

WORLD MUSIC AND TRADITIONS

CBS, 1974,  CBS 65964 

Another unreissued album from the series launched by Hubert de Fraysseix. 
Again this is an album I borrowed a long time ago. 
Jacques Brunet recorded these tracks in the field in Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia. 
South East Asia is characterized by the use of bronze in gongs, ''bronze drums'' and gamelan like instruments. As Brunet says : this album showcases a wide range of uses for gongs in Southeast Asia, from indigenous peoples to advanced civilisations. It is difficult to determine the origin of the gongs in Asia although we know that bronze appeared during the fourth century BC. Brunet emphasized the fact that these instruments were made to play ''local music'' that was not influenced by Hindu music. I suppose that these tracks were previously unpublished...
A nice example is the royal gamelan of Trengganu in Malaysia; it is an javanese-like orchestra but based on khmer scale.
Text in French by J. Brunet.

download.wav

 

le fiddle irlandais

 LE FIDDLE IRLANDAIS par TED FUREY

SPECIAL INSTRUMENTAL

THE IRISH FIDDLE by TED FUREY

INSTRUMENTAL SPECIAL

Le Chant du Monde, 1973, LDX 74487

Recorded in March 1972 and released in 1973, this album was a milestone in the establishment of Irish music in France. 
At the time very few records from Ireland, the United States or Britain were available in French shops so when le Chant du Monde included some Irish fiddle music in this serie it was a great discovery for me and many other young players. 
The man behind was John Wright, an Englishman settled in France from 1967 to his  death in 2013. He was first a jew's harp player and then a fiddler after meeting Irish musicians in London in the early sixties. He was one of the founders of the first folk club in France in december 1969 in Paris. It was called ''le Bourdon'' (the drone).There you could start learning Irish music with him and others but the main diet was French folk. 
J. Wright invited Ted Furey to teach and perform at Le Bourdon and it was J. Wright also who convinced the label to produce an album. Furey came with a guitar player by the name of Patsy Whelan from Dublin. T. Furey was born in Athlone but lived in Dublin.
What was intersting for French people is that Furey was a member of the Travelling People or Pavees although the name Irish people used was Tinkers. And this community both feared and admired was known for the huge repertoire of songs they kept alive and their way of playing dance music; some people would say it's raw others would say it's spontaneous and straight. So it was a big constrat to the music played by bands like Planxty or the even the Dubliners.
The repertoire is quite ''classical'' with standard tunes including ''the Lark in the Morn(ing)'' one of the first Irish tunes I learned and played in Ireland in 1973 or 1974.
On some tracks J. Wright is the ''second fiddle'', P. Whelan playing on all tracks. It is said in the text that Whelan was the right man for the backing but I find him years later not really good; but let's remember that guitar support was not that developped in Ireland at that time; some traditional musicians couldn't stand it in some areas.
Ted Furey was born in 1912 and died in 1979. 
Text in French.

download.wav

Witty Witch

 

WITTY WITCH

IRISH  TUNES AND SONGS 

Auto-production, no date, WW 193

This album is an example of what Irish music was like in France around 1980. I know all these musicians who were  part of the Irish scene in Paris. One of them Marc Guilloux passed away in Brittany recently. He was one of the pioneers of the uilleann pipes in France and was among the founders of the Parisian equivalent of the Piper's Club (Na Piobairi Uilleann) in Dublin in 1981.
This band didn't last long as far as I remember but they managed to record this album in 1980 or 1981. We can feel the strong influence of Irish bands like Dé Dannan or Bothy Band. 
One of the main aspect for a French band was  to have an Irish singer because if plenty of French musicians could play Irish music (rightly or badly)  very few of them could sing in English let alone in Irish. So they worked with Ollie Gallagher who stayed in Paris for a while.
My feelings about the global result are mixed; for example the fiddle player already mastered the typical (and difficult) ornementations of Irish fiddling but he spoiled  it with hazardous harmonic variations or distorsions. I suppose it was what most players were exposed to in France from Irish bands and their approach to music.
A bad aspect too was the sound recording with a poor balance between the insruments or it was the mix maybe. 
Note that Brieg Henry's composition ''the Silver Goblet'' refers to the pub of that name (in fact le Gobelet d'Argent was the real name), the first pub owned by an Irish man in Paris Anthony Prett who opened it in 1980. This pub was for a while the only place where Parisian musicians could play together on a regular basis.
It is a rare document nevertheless since very few copies were made. 

download.wav

 

Visages du Laos

 

VISAGES DU LAOS

FACES OF LAOS

Le Chant du Monde, 1965, LDX-A-4331

Another  album I borrowed from my local library when vinyl records were still around. 
Marc Reinhorn recorded the music and wrote the text that shows he was not a specialist or musicologist but a teacher of the Lao language at university. He died in 2001.
His description of what we can hear is quite literary but this kind of product was for a relatively large public of ordinary but curious listeners. 
The text doesn't say when and where exactly Reinhorn made his recordings. The album is divided according two  climatic seasons : the rainy season on side A and the dry season on side B.
We can hear orchestras with xylophones,  bowed instrument, flute and percussions; the khene appears twice. Six tracks are songs plus one with chanting monks. 
He added two short tracks with buffalo toads and gibbon monkey for more local colours.
The quality of the sound is not perfect but it must taken as a document about a country and its people in 1965.
I separated by mistake the song from the dance of the boatmen (track A6) hence a total of 15 tracks instead of 14.
Text in French.

download.wav

les Môns de Thaïlande

 

LES MÔNS DE THAÏLANDE

MUSIQUES & TRADITIONS DU MONDE

THE MONS OF THAILAND

MUSIC & TRADITIONS OF THE WORLD

CBS, 1976,  81389

 The man behind this great series is Hubert de Fraysseix; he was born in 1937 and was a mathematician and Senior Research Fellow at the CNRS. 
He was also attracted to different ethnic musics like Asian ones and he recorded the material for this album himself : the ensemble called Hum Rong Krathai Tên founded by Mrs Dyripiraneet. There are xylophones, gong ''khawng mawn'', a set of seven little drums ''perng mang khâwk'', a two-side percussion, ... This art music is close to Thai music whose some instruments are also used in this orchestra ("ramad'', oboe ''pee''). This type of formation is primarily necessary for magical ceremonies or religious ceremonies held in monasteries. 
The programme starts with a set of percussions solo followed by music for a cremation, for children's haircut and battle music; side B has more music for a cremation, a love song and offertory music. All tracks are instrumental. 
Text in French that I photocopied from a borrowed album. 

download.wav

 

En Thaïlande

EN THAÏLANDE/LA MUSIQUE TRADITIONNELLE DES MÔN

IN THAILAND/TRADITIONAL MON MUSIC 

Ocora, 1979, 558 535

This is another borrowed album for which I only have the French text.
But this is also another great work by Jacques Brunet that Ocora never bothered reissueing or including in its present catalogue; this is quite strange because every album made by Brunet is precious by the music and by the presentation text he wrote for a large public. 
The Môn were an extremely important cultural and political pole in Burma and Cambodia from the seventh to the thirteenth century. They were the first people to be Hindu influenced. This influence is noticeable in their music says Brunet.
He recorded one instrumental band in the Moulmein district as well as solo xylophone zither and flute, a flute and zither duet and only one song in an alternate form which is very popular throughout South-East Asia. 
The recordings were made in October and November 1977.

 download.wav

Thaïlande

 

THAÏLANDE

MUSIQUES DE L'ASIE TRADITIONNELLE vol. 8 

THAILAND

TRADITIONAL ASIAN MUSIC  vol. 8

Playa Sound, 1979,  PS 33512

This very interesting album was the work of François Jouffa a French journalist and writer; he was born in 1943 and travelled all around the world recording all sorts of music in the field. He was also a producer for radio and television. 
Here he visited ethnic minorities in northern Thailand a country rich in cultural diversity like the neighbouring Laos, Cambodia, Burma and China. Some tracks are a real discovery starting with the Shan mostly settled west of Chiang Mai in the north. Jouffa recorded a small band with four young females singers, one four-string viele, some percussions, a xylophone with bamboo keyboard and cymbals.
The Lisu end side A; they are famous for opium cultivation in hidden fields far away from their villages. They play a khene-like instrument. 
Side B starts with two examples of môn music from the area of Bangkok; this kind of music is well known in Burma as part of the national culture inherited from the Môn by the Burmese. Then we go back to the Golden Triangle with  the Karen with a song by two men and a small band. The Karen were the most numerous in this area. Track B4 brings us among the Akha who came from China; two men sing a song about a bachelor. The album ends with the Lahu people recently arrived from southern Yunnan. Here a tune by two khene-like  players (it's called ''naw" by the Lahu) and a two-string instrument. 
Jouffa managed to get all the names of the people he recorded but he gave the tunes and songs French titles. 
Unfortunately when I borrowed this album a long time ago I didn't copy the English presentation text but only the French one in the form of photocopies. I join them nevertheless. 

 download.wav

le monde secret de G. Zamfir

 

LE MONDE SECRET DE GHEORGHE ZAMFIR

documents inédits

THE SECRET WORLD OF G. ZAMFIR

unpublished documents

Déesse, ?, DDLX 75

This album is a bit of a mistery; there is no date but I believe it might date from the year 1974-1975; but the real question is where do these unpublished documents come from ? there are no information about the tunes and no names of musicians. There is a photo inside the album where we see Ion Dragoï on fiddle, Toni Iordache on cymbalum, Ion Laceanu on fluier plus clarinet and double bass players, Gheorghe Zamfir standing in the foreground. This picture is also on the album recorded by Ion Dragoï (see my post) dated 1972. So I think that what is on the present album was recorded during the same session with the same musicians and published later. 
G. Zamfir shares the tracks with his partners and plays solo on 1-b, 2-b and 2-d. Dumitru Farcaş on taragot is well present along with Dragoï; Ion Laceanu plays the cimpoi on 2-c. The highlight on this album is the over nine minutes solo by Zamfir which concludes it. Bocet is a traditional lament mostly performed by women when someone dies in a village. Here Zamfir is really crying with his panpipe showing his mastering of the instrument. 
There is a text in French by the poet Bernard Dimey who followed Zamfir's career actively. 

 download.wav

Brij Narayan

 

BRIJ NARAYAN (sarod) 

RAGA LALIT

Suresh Talwalkar (tabla)

Stil,  1979, 2711 S 78

Hindustani music, one of the most sophisticated in the world, must be taught by masters (guru) although there are examples of self-taught musicians. To appreciate the quality and richness of this music here is a brief description of raag lalit with all its characteristics : 

Raag Lalit is a sweet mellifluous combination of both Madhyams (Shuddha and Teevra), requiring critical attention to the Komal Dhaivat employed. This note is a shruti in between Shuddha Dhaivat and commonly played Komal Dhaivat of Raag Todi. It is for this reason that its correct position should be rigorously practiced after learning it from the Guru (Gurumukh). Shuddha Madhyam (m) is very prominent in this Raag along with Gandhar. The use of Teevra Madhyam and Shuddha Madhyam, one after the other (M m) gives this Raag a unique character.

The following combinations help in fuller menifestation of its real character that is effective in producing Bhakti and Karuna Ras:

,N r G m M m ; G M d N d M m ; M d N S’ ; M d M S’ ; S’ r’ N d ; M d N M N d ; M d M m ; G m M m ; G ; M G r S ; d M d S’ ; S’ N r’ N d M m ; G r S ;

 from the site tanarang.com : https://tanarang.com/raag-index/

 

download.wav

Sur la Côte des Pirates

 

SUR LA CÔTE DES PIRATES / LES EMIRATS DU GOLFE ARABIQUE

documents recueillis et enregistrés par Karen et Alain Saint-Hilaire

ON THE PIRATES' COAST / THE EMIRATES OF THE ARABIAN GULF

documents collected and recorded by Karen and Alain Saint-Hilaire

Disques Alvarès, 1974, C.471 

I never had this album but I was looking for it when I found it on Discogs from an unknown provider. Like all albums published by the French label Alvarès this one was never reissued. At the time this could have been a good introduction to these musics from the Arabian gulf. Since then more discs have been published on prestigious label like VDE-Gallo or Ocora. 
I already mentionned French ''sound hunters'' like Kremer, Bitter or Barbaglia and here we have a couple I dindn't know. Alain St-Hilaire died in 2013; he was a filmmaker particularly attracted to the Near and Middle East although he also went to Africa and Canada. He went to the Emirates in 1964 where he managed to film the last pearl divers. I suppose the music on the album was part of his films.  He also published a book written with his wife Karen about their first trip in  1964. 

Different types of  music : classical and urban with nay, qanun and 'ud , country music with bagpipe or music of descendants of black slaves with tambura. Some pieces are shortened. 

 download.wav

Trouzerion

 

TROUZERION / CHANTS POPULAIRES DE BRETAGNE

POPULAR SONG OF BRITTANY

VOLUME 3

Arfolk, ?, SB 410

This is the third and last album by these six singers from Morbihan. The publication date is unknown but I believe it goes back to the mid-eighties. After Jan er Meut and Job Kerlagad's death the band continued singing and recording with the remaining four. 
Here again dance tunes are the most numerous with side A focusing on the ''an dro'' and ''hanter dro'' and side B on ''laridé''. Three other songs (march and listening songs) are part of the programme.
Note that J. Kerlagad opens and concludes the album with a candy seller's cry in French.
The song on B1 is a mixture of French and Breton languages.

 download.wav

 

УШШAK

 

 

ДВЕНАДЦАТЬ УЙГУРСКИХ МУКАМОВ 

MУKAM УШШAK

TWELVE UYGHUR MUKAMS : USHSHAK

Mélodiya, 1983, S30-18301-02

Another  album from this series with the Uyghur ensemble of mukam players of the Uzbek radio and television.
Side 1 starts with an 8'30'' introductory piece ''nachalo mukama'' sung by Sultan Mamedov with the tambur playing of  Arkin Yunusov. Then the full orchestra and choir come into play (first dastan-pesnya). The poem sung is again ''Gharib and Senem''. Side two follows with the second dastan-pesnya divided in three parts.

 download.wav

 

IBRAHIM AL-MĀS

 

IBRAHIM AL-MĀS 

 Ibrahim Al-Mās (sometimes spelled ''al-Mass'') was another major singer and 'ud player. Son of Muhammad Al-Mās who played the qanbus, Ibrahim took up the 'ud and recorded between 150 and 200 songs according to Jean Lambert. 
Here we have another tape probably commercial but without any information; only the titles of the songs are mentionned. The violin appears on some tracks.

More information about him :

Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Mass: Master Yemeni Singer by Saleh Abdulbaqi, musician

March 30 1998

Yemeni master singers or sheikhs, as they were known then, played a major role in enriching the Yemeni artistic movement. One of the greatest singers in Yemen’s artistic history is Sheikh Ibrahim Mohammed Al-Mass.

Sheikh Ibrahim was born in Aden where he received his public education. After finishing his study, he worked in the public sector until he passed away in 1966. His father who died in 1953, was a famous singer whose songs were recorded on gramophone records. He descended from a tribe in Shibam, Kawkaban in Northern Yemen. Because singing was forbidden by the Imam in pre-revolutionary days, Mohammed Al-Mass and other singers moved to Aden. That made his house a gathering place for some of Yemen’s outstanding singers. Mohammed Al-Attab was one of those who frequently visited Al-Mass’s house bringing with him different traditional songs.

Ibrahim Al-Mass, still a little boy, was brought up in such atmosphere that he very much loved. That created in him a deep desire to learn how to play the lute. His father started to teach him to play the lute as well as the principles and methods of Yemeni traditional singing. In addition, the boy listened to some Egyptian singers like Salamah Hijazi, Sayed Darweesh and Mohammed Abdulwahab. He recorded Hijazi’s song Mata’a Hayatak (enjoy your life) which was mentioned in Dr. Mohammed Fadhel’s book about Hijazi’s life and works.

Ibrahim Mohammed Al-Mass aimed to maintain the originality of the Yemeni traditional song. Dr. Mohammed Abdu Ghanim wrote: ‘Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Mass was the one who combined the songs of Al-Madaheen (eulogists) and the Sanaani songs in his recorded songs. A common mistake is that those songs were attributed to the Tihami lyricist Jaber Rizq.’

Thus, Al-Mass made the greatest favor to the Yemeni song heritage in performing Al-Madaheen’s songs. Ibrahim Al-Mass rebelled against the high-class society’s viewpoint concerning the traditional arts. They regarded those arts as backward practices, a concept Al-Mass would never accept.
As Mr. Fahmi Abdullateef describes them in his book “Styles of Traditional Arts,” Al-Madaheen (eulogists) had very distinguished artistic practices. They depended totally on their personally acquired artistic skills in playing the tambourine, their only instrument. The tambourine is used to regulate and control the rhythm of a musical troupe’s. performance. Arab people used the tambourine in announcing eulogies and elegies. Some mystics still use it in their religious ceremonies.

Al-Mass did not take singing as a profession from the beginning, though he was quite famous as a good singer. He started by singing in family and friends’ gatherings. As the breadwinner for a 10-member family, he finally agreed to record his songs on disks. According to Hajj Awadh Al-Ajami, Ibrahim Al-Mass was a Yemeni singer who gained great popularity all over Yemen and the Arab Peninsula.

 

download.wav

AHMAD AL-SUNAYDĀR

 

 AHMAD AL-SUNAYDĀR

''WA-LAW KHAYYARŪNĪ''

 This is another tape I got from a friend who brought back a lot of them including copies of copies without any information but the singer's name and title of the tape. 
Al-Sunaydār was born in 1939 and he was a major singer and luth player in Sana'a. I posted another tape of his earlier. 
Here he sings mostly on his own and with some percussions on three or four tracks. I think this is maybe a compilation; some tracks sound differently but it doesn't matter much.
There are eight songs altogether.

 download.wav

Mizmar Bldy

 

MIZMAR BLDY 

Tarb Sound Production, ?, ?

 This is a copy of a tape but I don't remember when or where I got it. The title should read as ''mizmar baladi'' typical music from Egypt. It's often played by one or several rebab players with an arghul or a suffara player plus darbuka and bendir-like frame drum. Or it's played by a mizmar band with tbel backing. Here rebab and mizmar are played together which is unusual (to me anyway). Only the mizmar player's name is known to me : Ebna' as-Saeed. 
Dance music for ''belly dancing'' by professional female dancers. 
Any information about the players or the label are welcome.

 download.wav

Hamdun Habeet

 

HAMDUN HABEET

MIN ILMI IMZAHAN

This is another tape I got from that friend who lived and studied in Yemen in the eighties. Here unfortunately there is no information about Habeet or the songs. My friend couldn't tell me anything about it either. Habeet is the singer and ud player with the usual backing. It is of course typical Sana'ani style. 
So if you know something about Habeet you know what to do ... 

download.wav

Maramureş

 

RENCONTRE AVEC LA ROUMANIE / MARAMUREŞ II

TRESORS FOLKLORIQUES 

            

  MEET ROMANIA/MARAMUREŞ II

FOLKLORE TREASURES 

Electrecord,  ?, ST-EPE 0891

Another item from this series intented for export. The first edition dates back to 1971 under a different reference so I think this is a reissue made in the seventies.
Here Maramureş is the region presented through different artists, a region quite recognisable especially through its music. 
As it is the case for all the other items it's the folkloric aspect that is highlighted with an orchestra with violins, clarinet, cymbalum etc... lead by G. Vancu. But the more traditional aspect is also present thanks to the Petreuş brothers who are real stars in the area and beyond. They travelled several times to France. Ion sings and plays the zongora, Ştefan plays the fiddle and what fiddle. Compare tracks 3 and 9 to feel the gap between the two approaches. You can guess that  I much prefer the brothers. 
There are two singers including Titiana Mihali a young singer at the time who sang a song to the Virgin Mary based on a range specific to the horn called bucium still in use in this mountainous area. She imitates that horn at the end of the song.
Texts in English and French.

 download.wav