COMPOSERS: Demko Kurtov’s Zurna Group
LABELS: Gega New
WORKS: Musical Instruments in Bulgaria
PERFORMER: Demko Kurtov’s Zurna Group
CATALOGUE NO: GD 276
Live and in the raw, the Bulgarian village ZURNA GROUP belies the workaday album title its record company has saddled it with – the CD is part of a series that turns the spotlight on various instruments – with characteristic surging rhythms and ornamental tunes.
The music is not so far from the source for what you’ll hear in the Russian and Soviet classical traditions all the way from Borodin to Khachaturian. Zurnas are high reedy instruments, related to oboes, shawms and shehnais, with a tone that penetrates like pistols at dawn, and as they duet over drums it’s short tracks and high energy all the way.