Has tu point vu ...

 

LES MENESTRIERS / HAS TU POINT VU ...

LES MENESTRIERS/DIDN'T YOU SEE ... 

Cavalier, 1974, BP 2004 

 The French band Les Menestriers was a very important group in the field of medieval music. I posted their first album in May 2022 with some details about them. This is the fourth one with again side A dedicated to music from 13th to 15th centuries and side B devoted to Renaissance music. Here two additional musicians are present : Sylvie Beltrando whose ''small harp'' adds a new light to the music and Steve Rosenberg who is the main recorder player.
Their last album was made in 1980 with B. Pierrot as the only member left from the original band.
My copy was played a lot when I was young and is a bit worn out; so I found the present audio files from the Internet. 

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Chants des Ema

 

TIMOR . CHANTS DES EMA

collection CNRS Musée de l'Homme

SONGS OF THE EMA

Chant du Monde, 1979,  LDX 74693

This prestigious series has covered many countries and areas introducing us to peoples far removed from us. Timor is probably one of them. Here Brigitte Clamagirand is our guide to the Ema people living in Central Timor which is part of Indonesia. She spent some time there in 1966 and 1969-70 among them.
There were 50.000 Ema at the time of her visits. The text (in French and English) written by Clamagirand focuses on musical culture  and says nothing about the political and social situation of the  Ema. But she mentions the word cantiga which refers to the Portuguese period of colonization; this former colony became East Timor so perhaps some Ema do live there too. EastTimor has been independant since 2002 after a violent war with the Indonesian government between 1975and 1999; I suppose that might have affected the Ema.
The Ema sing mainly for daily activities or social events. They use instruments like jew's harps made of bamboo or iron and a knotched flute. Each track is well introduced.
This a copy of an album I borrowed somewhere but I didn't scan the photographs only the text.

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PERON HA GWENNEGOU

 

YANN PERON HA GERARD GWENNEGOU

Breizh-Skeudou, ?, 001

 This is a rare document about a great bombarde player Yann Peron who died at the age of 45 in October 1975. He was very well known in his own part of Breizh-Izel (meaning Lower Brittany) were Breton language is still spoken and traditional music very strong. This is the only album of his knowing that he appeared on another album among other musicians. In fact this album was produced after his death by a short-lived label (I think) Breizh-Skeudou (Breton Images) which issued only this one record  as far as I know.  The recordings were not made in studio but were made by somebody whose name is not mentionned on a tape recorder I'd say during an evening between friends. So the sound is what it is but we can listen to Peron's great talent clearly enough.
Gérard Gwennegou, the ''compère'', plays the Scottish bagpipe which was quite the fashion in Western Brittany since the sixties. But the Scottish technique and ornementations are absent and Gwennegou plays it as if it were a biniou koz.
The majority of recorded tunes are dance tunes except for two tracks with a set (heuliad) of marches (A1) and a melody (B4). Among the dance tunes what they call ''fisel'' occurs five times, fisel being a local form of gavotte (gavottenn ar menez).
Peron and Gwennegou wanted in fact to record an album but Peron's sudden illness and premature death  prevented them from doing so.
So I'm sure those who like and know Breton music will enjoy this record while the others will have to listen to it more carefully perhaps.
Text in Breton and French.

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Pangkur Kasmaran

 

PANGKUR KASMARAN 

UYON2 RRI YOGYAKARTA

Irama Nusantara Recordings, 1978, WD 526

If I remember well I got this tape from a friend a long time ago. There is no information about the music only the names of the singers and of the tunes. At the time of digitization I copied each side in one go not knowing really when one song ends and the next begins. Connoisseurs of this kind of music might have a laugh but much later I found the site of the publisher where the timing is mentionned : track A1 is 12'59'' long, track A2 is 16'34'', track B1 16'36'' and track B2 13'11". The site is : https://www.iramanusantara.org in Bahasa and English where you can listen to different types of music produced in Indonesia.
Singers (female and male) are backed by a full gamelan.
RRI stands for Radio Republik Indonesia.
This site https://gamelan.gs/booklet/38-pangkur-two/ might be helpful for novice listeners.

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