MAGYARNEMEGYE

 

MAGYARNEMEGYEI HANGSZERES NÉPZENE

VÁLOGATÁS KONKOLY ELEMÉR GYŰJTEMÉNYBŐL 

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INSTRUMENTAL FOLK MUSIC FROM MAGYARNEMEGYE

SELECTION FROM THE ELEMÉR KONKOLY COLLECTION

ETNOFON, 1993, ED-MK 001 

Etnofon is a very interesting label founded in 1992 immediately after the fall of the fall of the communist regime. Most of the albums are CDs but some were issued as cassettes only and never released on CD. Elemér Konkoly is a musician who was part of the Hungarian revivalism in the 70s as well as a musicologist who worked in the field. This cassette is the result of his work on the village of Magyarnemegye. There he met a local gypsy band and brought it to Budapest for a studio recording. The notes in Hungarian and English are short but give enough information about the general context.
For some people this would be just another recording among a huge amount of albums of traditional Hungarian-Transylvanian music but the aficionados would probably enjoy it as it should be.

 

 

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Atay Ogonbayev

 

ATAЙ OГОНБАЕВ

KУУЛѲР ЖАНА ЫРЛАР

KYUS AND SONGS 

Melodiya, 1981, M30 43491-92

 Atay Ogonbaev was a famous singer and virtuoso komuz player who died in 1949. Here several players pay him a tribute by interprating some of his ''hits''.
Now, I got a copy of this album in the early 1980s when I used to go to a cultural center attached to the Soviet Union embassy. I didn't bother at the time with copying the covers but the texts only. So I had to get the covers for this LP which I found on http://records.su. But it seems that it is not the same edition because two tracks B1 and B2 are missing on my copy (Mash Botoy and Gul). Apart from that this is an excellent album.
Texts in Kyrgyz and Russian languages.

 

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ANTOLOXÍA DE LA CANCIÓN ALLERANA

 

ANTOLOXÍA DE LA CANCIÓN ALLERANA

ANTHOLOGY OF THE  ALLERAN SINGING

FonoAstur, 1988, FAL-8712

Aller (Ayer in Asturian) is a place in the Asturias near the border with the province of Castilla y Leon. There, people sing in a specific way with a powerful voice and a lot of melismas which evoke flamenco. But the origins of this kind of singing is still obscure. It is said that only Alleran people can sing that way.
The fact that Aller is in a mountainous area (the Esturbin is the highest peak at 2115 meters) has perhaps something to do with the use of a powerful voice. But other singers sing a bit like that elsewhere in Spain.

Here there are four singers (three men and one woman) considered as the best representatives of this style. They all took part in different sorts of singing contests and won at least once.
They sing three songs each without any accompaniment. If you like traditional Spanish singing in general you will love this album. Text in Asturian and partly in Castillan about two archeological artefacts.
FonoAstur was founded in 1987 in order to defend and promote the Asturian culture. 

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Macalla 2

 

MACALLA 2

Gael-Linn, 1987, CEF 122

This is the second and last album recorded by a big band of women called Macalla. The first one was issued in 1984 for International Women's Day.
Here there are 18 of them with 5 singers, 8 fiddle players, 2 flute players, one keyboard player, one concertina player, one harp player and one bodhran player. Some became quite well known later like Mary Mac Namara or Catherine Mac Evoy. There are 6 instrumental sets and  5 songs all in Irish coming from Ulster (Donegal) and Connaught. I find the use of the keyboard a bit too much sometimes but Patsy Broderick is good at it. The repertory includes one waltz from Donegal and a set of barn dances among the usual sets of jigs and reels. There are not much information but a short text in Irish. 

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Tradition de la Veuze

 

LA TRADITION DE LA VEUZE EN PAYS NANTAIS 

Chanteurs et musiciens de Bretagne N°2

TRADITION OF THE VEUZE IN THE NANTES REGION

Singers and musicians in Brittany N°2

Dastum, 1990, DAS-112 

I posted in August 2021 another tape released by Dastum. This is the second one of a series and focuses on the bagpipe called ''veuze'' (meaning bladder in the local dialect) which survived in the Pays Nantais and around until the revival in Brittany saved it from oblivion. This bagpipe is close to the Spanish gaita with one chanter equipped with a double reed and one drone (single reed). It probably appeared during the XIIIth century along with other types of bagpipes in Western Europe. According to some scholars the veuze was at some point played in a vast area in Western France. Now it is played again extensively thanks to pipe makers and pipers who were parts of the Breton revival. Here the veuze is played by several young musicians at the time : Thierry Moreau, Pierre-Yves Le Goff and Jean-Yves Séveno. With them are also present fiddle and diatonic accordion players as well as singers. The repertory is totally traditional except for one set (B3) which was composed by P.Y. Le Goff.
There is a booklet in French.
Dastum will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year (https://www.dastum.bzh/)

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booklet