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. 

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