Various: Songs and Morin Khuur

Various: Songs and Morin Khuur

This box of delights reflects the brilliant artistry of eight local musicians. Mongolian nomads conjoin earth and sky in a shamanic spirit, as well as in pastoral reality; the simplicity of their traditional instruments – flute, fiddle, vocal cords – is as extreme as the richness of the sound-worlds they use them to conjure up.

Our rating

5

Published: January 20, 2012 at 4:26 pm

COMPOSERS: Various
LABELS: Ocora
WORKS: Songs and Morin Khuur
PERFORMER: Various musicians
CATALOGUE NO: C 560224

This box of delights reflects the brilliant artistry of eight local musicians. Mongolian nomads conjoin earth and sky in a shamanic spirit, as well as in pastoral reality; the simplicity of their traditional instruments – flute, fiddle, vocal cords – is as extreme as the richness of the sound-worlds they use them to conjure up.

While the wonderfully ornamented flights of the ‘long song’ singer take us on a journey heavenwards, the diphonic (overtone-sung) growls of her male colleagues draw us deep into the earth; the gently jogging rhythm of the ubiquitous horse pervades many tracks.

Some songs have a Chinese tinge, others recall Kazakh balladry; the men’s artistry on the morin khuur two-string horsehair fiddle is astonishingly subtle.

Ethnomusicological CDs are now somewhat rare because they don’t ‘sell’, which makes this one all the more precious. Michael Church

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