Akuphone
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When I arrived at the Khmer-Thai border in September 1980, disorganized resistance cadres were busy repairing old guitar instrument by using shing line for guitar strings and employing a rusty, empty gasoline tank as a drum. They played old Khmer pop songs. [ ...]Visit product page →
They performed for themselves and for appreciative audiences of villagers. Other informal musical groups also came together to entertain themselves and others. One day in 1981, I photographed what was generally called the Bamteay Ampil Band.' Gaffar Peang-Meth, November 2016 Cambodian Liberation Songs is a painful call from forgotten resistance fighters.
It is a captivating record, a touching testimony of Cambodian history that brings to the world the breathless voice of these resistance members from the Banteay Ampil Band.
Released in 1983, Cambodian Liberation Songs is a mysterious and overwhelming record. As a genuine piece of history, this 'eloquent sadness and fierce passion' runs the gamut of Cambodian music, from folk to rock, expressing their suffering and pain.
On 17 April 1975, the Cambodian people, already crushed under national and international conflicts, was commanded by force to forget their own past; it was Year 0 of the Khmer Rouge calendar. Almost four years of genocide would follow before the start of a war between the Vietnamese army and the Khmer Rouge. Resistance units engaged in the conflict against what they considered a Vietnamese invasion. This record, produced by a resistance group, was given the reference number KHMER 001.
It was undoubtedly the first record composed and performed by non-Khmer Rouge Cambodians after the tragic events of 1975-79. The refugee camp of Ampil, near the Thai border, witnessed the creation of the Banteay Ampil Band. Musicians and female singers who had hidden their talents during the genocide, gathered around the composer and violinist Oum Dara to engage in a new struggle: the resistance. Oum Dara, who had been a composer for Sinn Sisamouth and Ros Serey Sothea among others, adapted several of his creations. It is therefore, with a poignant charm, that the Banteay Ampil Band binds together the golden age of Khmer music from the 1960s with the traditional repertoire and the context of their daily struggles.
Violin, guitar and voices work together to produce melancholic and intense songs - the stirring tone of grief expressed by these resistant fighters. The band went to Singapore to record Cambodian Liberation Songs, the only record of the 'Khmer People's National Liberation Front'.
Tracklisting:
1. My Last Words
2. Please Take Care Of My Mother
3. Tuol Tneung The Hillock Of The Vine
4. Don T Forget Khmer Blood
5. Sereika Armed Forces
6. Follow The Front
7. I M Waiting For You
8. Please Avenge My Blood Darling
9. Destroy The Communist Viet
10. Look At The Sky
11. Vietnamese Sparrows
12. The Vietnamese Have Invaded Our Country -
Sold outWith its second release, Akuphone keeps exploring Asia with an original compilation of Japanese singer Chiemi Eri. This edition - which is available in vinyl, CD and digital - includes exclusive liner notes and a rich calligraphed booklet containing the romanization of lyrics. It encourages to (re)discover Chiemi Eri's recordings. On this compilation, Akuphone has brought together 16 songs from 10 inches albums originally released by King Records (Japan) between 1958 and 1962.Visit product page →
As the daughter of a musician father and a singer mother, Chiemi Eri (1937-1982) grew up in a musical environment. When she was still a teenager, she started a career as a singer on US military bases. She became famous by singing numerous classics from the post-war American musical repertoire.
At the age of 14 she recorded the song Tennessee Waltz with King Records, which turned out to be an immediate success, the first of many others. Chiemi Eri is considered as one of the most famous Japanese singers of the 20th century, more precisely of the Showa era (1926-1989), named after the Japanese emperor of the time, better known under his westernized name Hirohito.
Both a singer and an actress - she played in more than 50 films, as well as many theatre plays - she definitely made a mark in the post-war Japanese cultural landscape, along with fellow singer-actresses Izumi Yukimura and Hibari Misora.
The success of these true national icons, who were nicknamed « the three sisters », can be connected to the specific context of the time, that is the cultural opening of Japan which, although initiated a century before, accelerated with the US military occupation of the archipelago (1945-1952).
This period saw the import of popular musical styles of the time: jazz, be-bop, swing, mambo, etc, as well as the development of a hybrid musical style - the Kayokyoku - which consists of a delicious mix of so-called 'western' music with Japanese music. Combining vocal jazz, Latino rhythms and Japanese folk, this new compilation of Chiemi Eri offers an original musical syncretism.
Supported by Tadaaki Misago and the Tokyo Cuban Boys - the oldest and most prolific latin-jazz group in Japan - Chiemi Eri sings themes, in Japanese, that are mainly taken from the traditional folklore. Thus, the drums and brass of the Cuban arrangements are mixed with the Min'yo, which shows how rich these folk songs are: every region, every local tradition, every event is celebrated by a particular song or dance.
Chiemi Eri also reveals the vocal prowess specific to the Min'yo, in particular the kobushi, a sort of melisma - this vocal technic that consists in singing a single syllable while moving between several different notes in succession.
This compilation, which surprisingly blends Min'yo and latin-jazz elements, invites to the discovery of the archipelago from a different perspective.
Tracklisting:
1. Okosa-bushi
2. Shinonome-bushi
3. Otemo-yan
4. Dodoitsu
5. Mamuro-gawa Ondo
6. Hanagasa Odori
7. Tabaru-zaka
8. Itsuki-no Komoriuta
9. Yakko-san
10. Fukagawa Kuzushi
11. Kiso-bushi
12. Kushimoto-bushi
13. Sano-sa
14. Kuroda-bushi
15. Sado Okesa
16. Saitaro-bushi -
"Psalmody, small bells, big cymbals, gongs and drums - this puzzling collage of Tibetan Buddhist rites recordings is hypnotizing.Visit product page →
It opens the way to the state of trance. The slight electronic arrangement still reminds that reality is not so far. The two twenty-minute tracks instantly convey an unknown and fascinating universe.
Mantra chanting accelerates, horns become more insistent and a mystical atmosphere arises. With Tibetan Buddhism Trip, Akuphone starts exploring ritual and ceremonial music, here with a subtle mix of field recordings and electronic handlings.
Over the years King Gong aka Laurent Jeanneau specialized in the recording of ethnic minorities, particularly from South East Asia. He has recorded over 160 albums and his work is now largely well-known around the globe.
Such an impressive collection enables him to manipulate, assemble and reconstruct his field recordings in order to create new sound landscapes.
Recorded in Tibet and Yunnan (China) between 2006 and 2013. Recomposed in Berlin in 2016.
Vinyl comes with printed inner sleeve and download card including live performance in Bristol and unseen pictures."
Tracklisting:
1. Tibetan Buddhism Trip Part 1
2. Tibetan Buddhism Trip Part 2 -
Blurring the lines between time and space, Ko Shin Moon mixes acoustic instruments from various regions of the world, analog devices, traditional music, electronic arrangements, sampling and field recordings.Visit product page →
As the soundtrack of a patchwork journey, the band's first LP conveys one along a succession of hybrid territories, imaginary sound landscapes, multicolored collages: Acid Dabke, Turkish-Greek Disco, Cosmic Raï, New Beat Molam, Tibetan Ambient, Synth Wave Hindi Filmi, Rickshaw Dance Music - ¦
Tracklisting:
1. Zaffa
2. Ciftetelli
3. Uber Ciftetelli
4. Dua
5. Dabke 91
6. Pashto Karachi 2000
7. Gabbar Singh
8. Lam Samai Dao
9. Klong Yao Dancing Klong Yao Racing
10. Lune De Koshi
11. 14 Kumpa
12. Outro Gompa
13. Sharie Didouche -
Release Date: 05/10/2018Visit product page →
Akuphone presents a collection of recordings of various musical practices from the Laotian provinces of Luang Namtha et Phongsaly. These documents are a perfect introduction to the traditional music of South Laos minority groups.
Popular modern music is widely spread but visitors are barely ever exposed to ancient acoustic practices from villages. As a matter of fact, mouth organs of various sizes exist among the Hmong and Bit as well as amazing vocal techniques among the Lantene, Ahka or Khmu who combine simultaneous singing and flute notes.
Caught on the spot, these outstanding testimonies were collected between 2006 and 2013 by Laurent Jeanneau, aka King Gong. Through his researches, this self-taught ethnologist has gradually become one of the specialists of the field, building up a collection of complete and fascinating sound archives which contribute documenting parts of this immaterial heritage.
MUSIC OF NORTHERN LAOS brings some light on a region of South East Asia still largely unknown from the general audience as well as the recently reborn ethnographic musical industry.
This compilation will delight both khene lovers and beginners unused to South East Asian sounds. Enclosed: liner notes in English, French and Japanese as well as a downloading code.
Tracklisting:
Side A:
1. White Hmong « Queej »
2. Lantene (Moon) Women
3. Khmu Ou « Tot »
4. Khmu Ou « Pi»
5. Akha « Chuluba »
Side B:
6. Bit « Protect The Forest »
7. Dark Blue Yao (Moon) Ceremony
8. Akha « New Year Song »
9. Khmu « Jiakoot » -
This special pack gather both volumes (Music of Southern Laos AKULP1009 and Music of Northern Laos AKULP1010) Akuphone presents a collection of recordings of various musical practices from the Laotian provinces of Champasak, Attapeu, Sekong, Saravan, Luang Namtha and Phongsaly.Visit product page →
These documents are a perfect introduction to the traditional music of South Laos minority groups. Popular modern music is widely spread but visitors are barely ever exposed to ancient acoustic practices from villages. As a matter of fact, mouth organs of various sizes exist among the Hmong and Bit as well as amazing vocal techniques among the Lantene, Ahka or Khmu who combine simultaneous singing and flute notes.
This collection also compels one to discover the Brao gongs, the Triang bamboo flutes, the Lao, Ta Oy, Alak, OI, Pacoh or Nyaheun mouth organs as well as the powerful singing accompanying these instruments. Caught on the spot, these outstanding testimonies were collected between 2006 and 2013 by Laurent Jeanneau, aka King Gong. Through his researches, this self-taught ethnologist has gradually become one of the specialists of the field, building up a collection of complete and fascinating sound archives which contribute documenting parts of this immaterial heritage.
MUSIC OF SOUTHERN AND NORTHERN LAOS brings some light on a region of South East Asia still largely unknown from the general audience as well as the recently reborn ethnographic musical industry.
This compilation will delight both molam/khene lovers and beginners unused to South East Asian sounds. Enclosed: liner notes in English, French and Japanese. Redeem code
Tracklisting:
1. Brao Lave Gongs
2. Ta Oy Courting Song
3. Triang Pao Kabang
4. Nyaheun « Jeu Phawn Peng Gawng Ploung Ken »
5. Katu Song
6. Lao Lam Saravan
7. Oy Duet
8. Alak Songs
9. Alak Khene Molam
10. Pacoh Trio
11. White Hmong « Queej »
12. Lantene (Moon) Women
13. Khmu Ou « Tot »
14. Khmu Ou « Pi»
15. Akha « Chuluba »
16. Bit « Protect The Forest »
17. Dark Blue Yao (Moon) Ceremony
18. Akha « New Year Song »
19. Khmu « Jiakoot »
Release Date: 05/10/2018 -
Release Date: 05/10/2018Visit product page →
Akuphone presents a collection of recordings of various musical practices from the Laotian provinces of Champasak, Attapeu, Sekong and Saravan. These documents are a perfect introduction to the traditional music of South Laos minority groups.
Popular modern music is widely spread but visitors are barely ever exposed to ancient acoustic practices from villages. The most famous and typical one is the molam Lao, an art of singing accompanied with the khene, a mouth organ which is the symbol of Laos.
This collection compels one to discover the Brao gongs, the Triang bamboo flutes, the Lao, Ta Oy, Alak, OI, Pacoh or Nyaheun mouth organs as well as the powerful singing accompanying these instruments.
Caught on the spot, these outstanding testimonies were collected between 2006 and 2013 by Laurent Jeanneau, aka King Gong. Through his researches, this self-taught ethnologist has gradually become one of the specialists of the field, building up a collection of complete and fascinating sound archives which contribute documenting parts of this immaterial heritage.
MUSIC OF SOUTHERN LAOS brings some light on a region of South East Asia still largely unknown from the general audience as well as the recently reborn ethnographic musical industry.
This compilation will delight both molam lovers and beginners unused to South East Asian sounds.
Enclosed: liner notes in English, French and Japanese as well as a downloading code.
Tracklisting:
Side A:
1. Brao Lave Gongs
2. Ta Oy Courting Song
3. Triang Pao Kabang
4. Nyaheun « Jeu Phawn Peng Gawng Ploung Ken »
5. Katu Song
Side B:
6. Lao Lam Saravan
7. Oy Duet
8. Alak Songs
9. Alak Khene Molam
10. Pacoh Trio -
Sold outAs the first entry in its catalog, Akuphone presents a reissue of Lily Chao's Chinese Folk Songs, originally released by Four Seas Records in 1968.Visit product page →
This edition includes four previously unheard titles and exclusive liner notes containing Lily Chao's biography and lyric translations. Chao Xiao-Jun aka Lily Chao was born in Taiwan in 1948, while mainland China was rapidly undergoing major changes immediately following the end of the Chinese Civil War.
After experiencing hard times in her girlhood, she ventured out into singing quite unwillingly. Indeed, at age 19, Lily Chao was compelled to give up her studies to support her family and start a career as a singer, after passing an audition at the Taipei Cabaret in Taiwan.
The cabaret industry was in full swing at the time, offering destinations for popular entertainment, and Lily Chao's efforts to launch her singing career immediately attracted producers'attention. Her appearances at the Taipei Cabaret as part of its shows, which combined music in Mandarin, poetry, drama, magic, and other fine arts, soon earned her a reputation.
Despite the immediate success that her numerous stage performances and appearances on the national television channel won her, Lily Chao led a chaotic and painful private life. As she smiled very little and tended to appear distant, the audience dubbed her the «Ice Queen,» a nickname that she would keep for the rest of her career. This barely-concealed melancholy can be felt throughout Chinese Folk Songs, as well as in her very particular way of singing, which is both jerky and perfectly fluid.
The album stands halfway between Mandarin folk songs and rock singing inspired by The Shadows, all surf guitar and garage sounds recorded with pinpoint precision and enhanced by saxophone and organ touches, while Lily Chao's intoxicating vibratos bring a pinch of soul to the music.An outstanding achievement of timeless pop music from the 1960s.
Tracklisting:
1. Whose Blooming Rose
2. Mountain Girl
3. Rainbow Girl
4. The Nostalgic Song
5. A Carrying Pole
6. Shepherd Girl
7. In That Distant Land
8. Lift Your Veil
9. Little Cowherd
10. Feeling Grieved
11. Tea-plucking And Catching Butterflies
12. Youthful Dance Song
13. Kangding Love Song
14. Who Can Know My Heart
15. I Smile Whenever I See You
16. Its Vexed To Talk About Love
17. My Heart Is All For You
Release Date: 13/10/2017 -
Visit product page →Cambodia's first guitar band officially reissued for the first time with identical artwork, postcard and exclusive liner notes. (includes digital version)
Whereas most of the original recordings disappeared during the Khmers Rouge era, this
single bring back to us the Cambodian musical scene of the 1960s.
For the first time two single records of Baksey Cham Krong - the first Cambodian guitar band - are officially being reissued in an identical version. Between surf music and ballad, these two records released in 1963 and 1964 are an invitation to rediscover the effervescent Khmer musical scene of the 1960s.
The early 1960s are often described as the 'golden age' of Cambodia, with a flourishing economy and a strong cultural development. As the country had just won its independence, the King Norodom Sihanouk - who had been a singer himself (see below) - encouraged dynamism and creativity in all aspects of cultural life.
In 1959, in the midst of this artistic turmoil, Mol Kamach and his brothers created a band: the Baksey Cham Krong (also spelled Bakseis Cham Krung) named after a temple of the Angkor site. The teenagers were influenced by the latest hits they had listened on the radio.
For the music, Kagnol got his inspiration from the rock n'roll of the Ventures and the Shadows while Kamach took over the vocal techniques of crooners such as Paul Anka. The lyrics were either in French (as for the song Ne penser qu'Ã toi) or in Khmer. The song Pleine Lune became a hit and revealed Kagnol's musical genius at playing guitar and Kamach's delicate voice.
From their beginnings on the capital's high school stages to their first broadcasts on national radio, the success of the Baksey Cham Krong was very quick. At the end of the decade the band already split, the brothers getting back to activities that conformed more with their parents'expectations.
A few years later, in April 1975, the arrival of the Khmer Rouge in Phnom Penh put an end to this musical development and started the darkest era of Cambodia's contemporary history. A quarter of the population was killed in the Khmer Rouge genocide and the majority of artists and intellectuals were exterminated in a sordid will to wipe out any form of culture in the country.
Films and music were banned, movie tapes and vinyls were destroyed. Mol Kamach and Mol Kagnol luckily managed to flee the country: one now lives in France, the other in the USA. Both still continue to make music nowadays.
Bearing witness to the past history, the reissue of these two single records of Baksey Cham Krong brings back to us the Cambodian musical scene of the 1960s.
Release Date: 13/10/2017 -
Visit product page →Cambodia's first guitar band officially reissued for the first time with identical artwork, postcard and exclusive liner notes. (includes digital version)
Whereas most of the original recordings disappeared during the Khmers Rouge era, this
1. Pleine Lune
single bring back to us the Cambodian musical scene of the 1960s.
For the first time two single records of Baksey Cham Krong - the first Cambodian guitar band - are officially being reissued in an identical version. Between surf music and ballad, these two records released in 1963 and 1964 are an invitation to rediscover the effervescent Khmer musical scene of the 1960s.
The early 1960s are often described as the 'golden age' of Cambodia, with a flourishing economy and a strong cultural development. As the country had just won its independence, the King Norodom Sihanouk - who had been a singer himself (see below) - encouraged dynamism and creativity in all aspects of cultural life.
In 1959, in the midst of this artistic turmoil, Mol Kamach and his brothers created a band: the Baksey Cham Krong (also spelled Bakseis Cham Krung) named after a temple of the Angkor site. The teenagers were influenced by the latest hits they had listened on the radio.
For the music, Kagnol got his inspiration from the rock n'roll of the Ventures and the Shadows while Kamach took over the vocal techniques of crooners such as Paul Anka. The lyrics were either in French (as for the song Ne penser qu'Ã toi) or in Khmer. The song Pleine Lune became a hit and revealed Kagnol's musical genius at playing guitar and Kamach's delicate voice.
From their beginnings on the capital's high school stages to their first broadcasts on national radio, the success of the Baksey Cham Krong was very quick. At the end of the decade the band already split, the brothers getting back to activities that conformed more with their parents'expectations.
A few years later, in April 1975, the arrival of the Khmer Rouge in Phnom Penh put an end to this musical development and started the darkest era of Cambodia's contemporary history. A quarter of the population was killed in the Khmer Rouge genocide and the majority of artists and intellectuals were exterminated in a sordid will to wipe out any form of culture in the country.
Films and music were banned, movie tapes and vinyls were destroyed. Mol Kamach and Mol Kagnol luckily managed to flee the country: one now lives in France, the other in the USA. Both still continue to make music nowadays.
Bearing witness to the past history, the reissue of these two single records of Baksey Cham Krong brings back to us the Cambodian musical scene of the 1960s.
Tracklisting:
2. Je Ne Pense Qu'a T'aimer
3. De Quoi Pleures-tu
4. Ne Penser Qu'a Toi -
Limited edition!Visit product page →
'Saba-Saba Fighting' or fighting for peace, is the message that Mushapata, a legend of the African reggae underground scene in Paris with an extraordinary destiny, has fought for all his life.
Born in Bukavu, a city nowadays located in the Democratic Republic of Congo at the border with Burundi, Mushapata arrived in France at the end of the 1970s to pursue his career as a boxer. A few years later, revolted by the professional sports industry, he became a personal protection agent on the advice of his manager.
He escorted many celebrities among whom Bob Marley during his legendary French tour of 1980. This encounter awakened the musician hidden behind the boxing champion. Mushapata had stepped out of the ring but he kept fighting with music, lyrics and his band Saba-Saba Fighting.
Ignored by the record labels of the time, his first self-produced recordings reveal a rough mix of lo-fi reggae, afrobeat rhythms accompanied by a brass section close to Free jazz. The nonchalant sounding voices of Mushapata and Tshayi complete this explosive cocktail and carry, in Swahili language, the Pan-African ideas of Lumumba and other great figures of African-American struggles.
This maxi single, conceived as a mini-compilation tribute, includes 4 titles from the first two albums recorded between 1980 and 1984.
Tracklisting:
Side A:
1. Muanago Yeye
2. Kambere Mushimbe
Side B:
3. Mudongo Wangu
4. Zambe Aponiyo
RIYL: Fela Kuti, Bob Marley
Release Date: 06/04/2018 -
Slow paced drums with offbeats softly phased with the guitar, misty takeoffs from the synthesizer: a hazy idyll is starting off on the road to the rocket festival (bun bang fai). Answering each other on the responsive mode of the lam soeng, Sothipong engages in a flirt but Oulay Vanh is not ready to trifle with just anybody.Visit product page →
As a stylistic variation of a popular Lao musical genre, the lam soeng was the source of several themes among which the 'bang fai' - which is part of the Lao conciliatory festivities preceding the rainy season - remains one of the most renowned.
However, the producer and composer of these songs, Sothy, created an unusual arrangement: the instrumental introduction separates from the sang canon, the synthetic mix is stripped down of the traditional organology - everything here becomes unsettling for a listener familiar with the genre. Everything comes with a reason: the record was edited in 1981 under the title Sothy Productions yet produced in France by the Parisian label Oxygène (famously known for its unforgettable first French punk compilation 125 grammes de 33 1/3 tours).
Chansons Laotiennes still remains hard to classify. And then who's Sothy? Along with the unverifiable identity of the seemingly Laotian singers, skepticism gains ground concerning the man behind the pseudonym. Is he an escaped musician from one of the first Cambodian rock bands of the 1960s? A surviving producer from the 1980s Paris? Or a composer in transit in one of the many places of the Laotian diaspora? Sothy eludes any researches and disappears behind his numerous homonyms.
The second track is just as enigmatic: a beat box, a lightly reverberated voice as well as a guitar solo and a small synthesizer break, 'Tuei' or 'Tawai' [offering] (as the writing on the record suggests) makes way to dancing step and a truly joyful melody. Twisted and lively steps on a romantic background tune turn this second track into a genuine paslop - a program recommended by therapists to relieve muscular pains due to seated positions: you will unlock your pelvis with some synchronized Laotian choreographies.
For their first edits, Akuphone called on a young Parisian producer. Shelter, aka Alan Briand, mingles his own mixes and electro productions with a large variety of influences and styles: krautrock, disco, traditional music, psychedelic, synth pop, ambient, bossa nova, Japanese funk. He produces both original compositions and remix. Here is the first Akuphone's maxi single!
Tracklisting:
1. Lam Seung Bang Fai (Original Version)
2. Tawai (Original Version)
3. Lam Seung Bang Fai (Shelter's Edit)
4. Tawai (Shelter's Edit) -
Akuphone in collaboration with Annihaya is very proud to present 'Rats Don't Eat Synthesizers' the long-awaited second album by the Dwarfs of East Agouza.Visit product page →
Hailing from the Agouza district of Cairo, Egypt, this brilliant trio consists of Alan Bishop (Acoustic Bass & Alto Sax), Maurice Louca (Keyboards & Drum Machine) and Sam Shalabi (Electric Guitar).
Following their acclaimed first album 'Bes ', this new long play is composed of two hypnotic journeys: 'Rats Don't Eat Synthesizers' and 'Ringa Mask Koshary' which was recorded in Cairo in September of 2015.
Mesmerizing electric guitar parts, frenetic beats, both supported by the deep sound of Alan's acoustic bass create a new magical Egyptian soundscape. Vinyl version is coming with a beautiful hot-foil stamped sleeve that magnifies the red metallic rats and a wonderful printed inner sleeve. Includes redeem code. Ltd Edition.
Tracklisting:
Side A:
1. Rats Don't Eat Synthesizers
2. Ringa Mask Koshari pt. 1
Side B:
3. Ringa Mask Koshari pt. 2
Release Date: 04/05/2018 -
The Gamelan Of The Walking Warriors : Gamelan Beleganjur and the Music of the Ngaben Funerary Ritual in Bali.Visit product page →
A fascinating immersion in the heart of a funeral ceremony live recorded in Bali, where gongs, cymbals, and drums give rhythm to the bewitching atmosphere of this mortuary procession.
The international audience's interest into Balinese music and its gamelan orchestras dates back to the edition of large ethnographic series in the 1950s, 60s and 70s which largely encouraged the discovery of this music beyond Indonesia's borders.
Taking advantage of a more advanced technology compared to the vinyl golden era, the present field recordings produced in 2011 render at the closest the power of gamelans. They are presented here in two forms.
The first one offers a display of Beleganjur music out of the ritual context, which can be differentiated by a more melodic form and a more dramatic and hypnotic aspect of the compositions.
The second one presents the Beleganjur style in the ceremonial context of the Ngaben funerary rite in the village of Peliatan. The utmost vitality of these orchestras springs out throughout the different stages of these funerals, and the sound environment surrounding the musicians immerse the listener in the very heart of the procession following the corpse.
With The Gamelan of The Walking Warriors, Akuphone carries on its exploration of ritual and ceremonial music with those materials of rare intensity. These recordings were collected by Vincenzo Della Ratta, PhD in Ethnomusicology from the Sapienza University (Rome).
As a specialist of the gongs music from the Austronesian cultures of Southeast Asia, Della Ratta is the author of numerous articles on the subject. His field researches have already been edited as a vinyl entitled Kwangkay: Funerary Music Of The Dayak Benuaq Of Borneo (Sublime Frequencies, 2016).
Tracklisting:
1. Pemungkah
2. Semut Megarang
3. Gilak Melasti
4. Dedari Ngindang
5. Procession To The House Of The Deceased
6. At The House Of The Deceased
7. Procession To The Cremation Ground
8. Lamentation
9. At The Seaside -
Sold outWhile India and Pakistan's respective musical heritage had already aroused interest among foreign audiences, Sri Lanka still remained one of the rare South Asian countries whose folk-pop music from the 1960-70s had not yet been compiled abroad. This gap is now to be filled with Sri Lanka.Visit product page →
The Golden Era of Sinhalese and Tamil Folk-Pop Music.
This double compilation is conceived as a panorama presenting the diversity of Sri Lankan musical styles between 1967 and 1979 through 30 titles. It comes along with a booklet depicting the country's historical, cultural and musical context.
As a deeply multicultural society, largely based on religious affiliations (Buddhist Sinhalese, Hindus Tamils as well as Muslim and Christian minorities) Sri Lanka possesses a great variety of musical traditions and influences which have been shaped by centuries of regional and international exchanges. If Sri Lankan music is undeniably part of South Asian musical culture, its heritage is also a product of almost five centuries of European imperialism.
Coming from an original form of creolization, as defined by Edouard Glissant, the Baila bears the trace of both the African diaspora and the Iberian influences on the country. The Kaffirs - African slaves deported by the Portuguese - introduced African sounds while the Portuguese brought their musical traditions and instruments (cavaquinho, mandolin, violin, tambourines).
The baila, which is reminiscent of Caribbean calypso, became the ultimate popular music and dance, performed on every festive occasion. Although much more recent but similarly popular, the sarala gee (also called light classical music) is a combination of Indian inspired music, either classical or close to Bollywood productions, with Sinhalese lyrics and a slight pop accent.
In the early 1960s, the country's musical scene was very dynamic, partly under the influence of the music label Sooriya Records. Its founder Gerald Wickremesooriya was determined to put into light proper Sri Lankan music in opposition to poor copies of standards of the times. He then invented the « new sound of Ceylonese pop » with the help of a few composers, musicians and singers. Very quickly, the label's hits came one after another.
They were performed during concerts organized by the label, the 'Sooriya Shows', or broadcasted on Radio Ceylon, which remained the number one radio for a long time. Sooriya Records'catalogue reflected the diversity of Sri Lankan musical styles of the times: Anglo-Saxon influenced Sinhalese pop stood next to the baila or the sarala gee. Traditional instrumental music, characterized by large drum ensembles called hevisi, or even nurthy music originating from theatrical tradition, were also edited by the label. This mosaic of musical styles is to be found in Sri Lanka.
The Golden Era of Sinhalese and Tamil Folk-Pop Music. This selection, which is mainly constituted of titles from Sooriya Records'catalogue, presents the most popular artists of the times: virtuoso sitar and violin player Pandit Amaradeva, singer Indrani Perera, Paul Fernando and his lively baila rhythms, the psychedelic touch of Tamil producer Paramesh, or even the Sinhalese pop of both Clarence Wijewardena and the Golden Chimes and Baby Shiromi.
Tracklisting:
1. Egoda Gode
2. Soken Pala Ne
3. Gamen Liyumak
4. Naan Unnai Thedum
5. Instrumental Baila Medley
6. Netha Giya Hematana
7. Kaffiringha
8. Ceremonial Drums
9. Jeevithe Vasanthaye
10. Anbil Valarnthai
11. Pinna Mal
12. Mama Bohoma Bayauna
13. Vairodi Wannama
14. Handa Haami
15. Goyam Gee
16. Eka Dawasak
17. Mindada Heesara
18. Roshi
19. Sigiriya
20. Deepa Tupe Vihare
21. Drum Orchestra
22. Gavaskar The Century Maker
23. Bolanda Katha
24. Sinidu Sudu Muthu
25. Malli
26. City Of Colombo
27. Durakathanaya
28. Amma
29. Kimada Naave
30. Perakumba Davasa
