COMPOSERS: South Siberian Field Recordings made by Carole Pegg
LABELS: Seven Star Records
ALBUM TITLE: Khyrkhaas: songs of our elders
WORKS: Khyrkhaas: songs of our elders
PERFORMER: Various
CATALOGUE NO: SSCD 50
Songs of our elders represents yet another bid to reclaim a lost heritage, this time that of the South Siberian Khyrkhaas, whose animist shamanism earned them persecution by the Soviets in the 1930s, when many of their bards were shot. Cock-crowing and hunting sounds punctuate some of the tracks in this fascinating collection of field recordings by Carole Pegg, in which a father-daughter duo show what gentle magic can be conjured with the aid of lutes, pipes, a zither, and multiple timbres in the throat.
Michael Church