The Columbia GypsyI had never heard of the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan before receiving these albums, which prompted me to read the CIA report just to find a good map:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/kg.html
Kyrgyzstan is, I learned, a mountainous country the size of South Dakota, with roughly the population of Washington State, cradled between China to the east and Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan on the remaining borders. The CIA reports 6% unemployment, 44% of the land in pasture, an infant mortality rate of 76 per thousand, 2.4% German ethnicity, a 97% literacy rate, and less than 100 HIV deaths. Water pollution and further legacies of Russia and Soviet Union are a problem.
These two albums are the first American releases of Kyrgyz music, though there are a couple of items out on Buda and Ocora and on Yazoo's Secret Museum of Mankind series.
Various Artists
Shüüdüngüt's Road
Frequency Glide 2001
http://www.kyrgyzmusic.com
Shüüdüngüt's Road is an anthology of non-religious music from Kyrgyz. Even before reading the extensive liner notes, it was noticed that this is not the Central Asian music of Uzbekistan/Tajikistan; it does not sound Middle Eastern or Chinese or Mongolian. If anything it is more "western" than any of these, some tracks have an obviously Russian influence, and the net ambience is of northeastern steppes. The liner notes imply that it is a music uniquely developed, yet there is a regional sound overprint that makes it Central Asian.
The anthology is dominated by the strummed sound of the favored national instrument, the three-stringed komuz, both solo and as an accompaniment for singing. The komuz sounds like a sophisticated ukelele or an Irish bouzouki and can be played with intricacy. Other common instruments are the temir komuz and wooden jigatch, both essentially jews harps, an end-blown shepherds flute called a choor, the ocarina-like chopo choor, and a fiddle-like kyl kiak, whose sound is much like a cross between a Hungarian cello and a hurdy gurdy.
Shüüdüngüt's Road opens as the title track with Nurak Abdïrakhmanov on rich vocals and almost punky strumming, and this track sets the pace for the CD. There are 31 short selections on the album, the instrumentals often stark, sometimes intricate, some slow, mostly solo or solo with voice. There is a rough bright simplicity to all the tracks that could represent the roughness of the country and barbarity of the history, lacking are the more jaded, byzantine arrangements of musics from some other parts of Asia. There are only a few "older" voices, for instance an a capella duet with 65 year old Toktorbay Tonusov, so that the vocals as well as the instrumental parts are sturdy, though stark as well. Along with the fluctuating mix of different instruments in short tracks, this contemporaneity makes the album both a fun and aesthetic item to listen to, also it is very easy on western ears.
One track near the end features female vocalist Salamat Sadikova singing a traditional song with a modern world-pop-raggae arrangement, and though nice in its way, points out the way music always seems to go, perhaps in this case before we have even heard what has so nicely gone before.
Salamat Sadikova
The Voice of Kyrgyzstan
Frequency Glide 2001
http://www.kyrgyzmusic.com
I am the nightingale singing, I am the moth drawn to your light.
The Voice Of Kyrgyzstan contains 19 traditional and composed folk songs by "the favorite traditional singer of the Kyrgyz people." Many of the latter were composed by Kyrgyzstanis Rïspay Abdïkadïrov or Tügölbay Qazaquov during the last 40 years, and not unexpectedly open the question of what is folk and what is popular music. On most of the tracks Salamat accompanies herself on komuz, the three-stringed lute. The last few are with orchestral backing, and the final track, a Kyrgyzstani patriotic song, is quite a lush almost ethno-classical production.
The first track "Ay nuru/In the Moonlight" is traditional from southern Kyrgyzstan; the second "Keçi eskerüü/Late Remembrance," is composed by Abdïkadïrov, and both to me sound Russian, the kormuz perhaps a Baltic balalaika. The Kazakhstani track Güldörayïm/My Güldöray" could be a traditional American song. "Parizat/Angel," learnt from Uzbek radio, could be from Spain. There are a variety of influences and parallel evolutions on the album, and most of the lyrics are lovely to read.
I like this album less than the anthology. This because of my own dumb prejudice; despite the simplicity of accompaniment, there is more of an air of stage performance here, and less of a feel of the steppes and mountains, less sharpness. This aside, her voice is strong, rich and sensitive and relates the material well.
The Columbia Gypsy