Let Freedom Ring — But Truly

Apr 232013

About two months ago I was listening to Pandora and heard a mournful cry in a haunting tune that was labeled Country but didn’t quite sound like Country. It wasn’t Luk Thung – the Thai version of Country Music inspired by Johnny Cash and other American artists – but it may as well have been. It was ‘Let Freedom Ring,’ the ending track of Terry Allen’s Amerasia, an alt- Country album that was part political statement on the botched aftermath of the Vietnam War in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam; part Country album; and part experimental album with World Music. It appears that Allen worked over a decade on the album; he recorded with Laotian musicians in Thailand a decade prior (engineered by Supod Sookkald, Witan Tuwatchhai) – and the album incorporates SE Asian songs with English songs which condemn both the War and war in general.

Country musician and anti-war activist Natalie Maines’ father (Lloyd) and uncles (Kenny and Donnie) backed up Terry Allen on this album as they have done on others – I can see where Natalie gets it from. They not only play traditional Country Music instruments such as guitar and fiddle, but Thai instruments as well, including trupbra (drum) along with other Thai drums, chimes, and various other noisemakers.

While targeting war, the album also strives to demonstrate how friendship can come out of war from the opposing sides and that friendship can unite us in the end – that may seem corny, but this album makes a case that maybe there is truth to it.

Terry Allen’s concept album is worthy of a ciccerone – it starts off with the whirring helicopters of the title Track ‘Amerasia’ (American meets Asia – oh, now I get it) – and a foreboding narration from Terry Allen on how the War in Vietnam has changed Thailand for the worse; has possibly conquered this unique nation in a strange way despite the fact that they were our allies at the time – this ancient land that never been conquered or changed by any outside force prior. It is disturbing to note that Thailand was basically used as an aircraft carrier from which to bomb the neighboring countries of Laos, Cambodia, and of course Vietnam.

The second track is a couple of seconds of ‘My Country, ‘Tis of Thee,’ which in this context serves to suggest that patriotic violence is not very patriotic in its swath and path of destruction.

The third track, ‘The Burden,’ actually reprises the first musical track – a traditional-sounding Country song – but this time uses it to weave an anti-war, tragedic lament honoring the thousands of nameless fallen, with Thai drums pounding in the background behind Country instruments. It is a far cry from the awful rah, rah, dry, patriotic, pro-Iraqi top-40 Country songs of a decade ago.

‘Back out of the World’ is kind of honky-tonk, about a dissatisfied solider returning home and trying with difficulty to readjust to society. In the background are female Country vocals purposely and intriguingly trying to sound Southern and Oriental at the same time.

‘Swan Lake’ is a gritty instrumental, almost blues-like, that just goes to show you that when you combine good music from two cultures, better music is the result (and the question of what country the music originally came is forgotten). Allen works with Laotian musicians Surachai Janyimathorn (guitar, Singha beer bottle); Mongkol Utog (on Paen, aThai Mandolin); Tong Kran Tanaa (phenomenal acoustic slide guitar); and Veersak Sunitohnsri (guitar, Singhai beer bottle), as he does on a variety of tracks.

‘Display Woman/Displaced Man’ is a lively, action-packed song that sounds like it could have been in a Chuck Norris 80s action movie, about the sex trade created from the Vietnam War (an activity that is world-famous and still thrives today). I should note that because of the kathoey (transsexual woman), the displaced man has become the display woman.

The Cajun-sounding ‘Lucy’s Tiger Den’ is an homage to an infamous bar that was a hangout for former soliders, ex-CIA pilots, construction workers, and assorted other military types, that closed in 1987 and gave Americans a way to spend holidays with each other away from home during the war. Kind of reminiscent of M*A*S*H* in that respect.

Most of the songs to this point sound American with hints of Asian, but the record kind of reverses that starting at an American/Thai amalgam of ‘Chopsticks’ at the album’s midway point.

‘Nobody’s Goin’ Home,’ weighing in as the last American music-dominated number and true to its pessimistic title, is a stark criticism of how the US treated Thailand, who was its ally, by destroying the country in the very act of building its infrastructure – and at the same time betraying its own, American citizens by not valuing its soldiers’ lives.

Songs like ‘Metrapab’ are what make Amerasia an inventive Country album ahead of its time – this song could have easily been just Terry Allen singing in outcry against the Vietnam war; but instead Surachai Janyimathorn sings several songs critical of the War from his point of view. I think Surachai is Laotian, but he sings in the Thai language. Perhaps coincidentally (though perhaps not), both Allen and Janyimathorn share a similarly dry, nasal-sounding voice, so that they almost sound like the same person singing about the same events in the ‘same voice,’ but from two opposite worlds.

‘Metrapab’ represents a complexity of thought regarding Americans during this timeframe, expressed in simple poeticism worthy of Willie Nelson. The message is hard-hitting and laden with irony: Americans have come to Thailand in order to use it as a way to defeat Americanism, killing everyone in their wake, including their Thai allies and their own citizens, heedless that their casualties extend even to children as the mess they leave behind in Thailand for that country to clean up includes children that are ‘left behind’ from either hooking up with or raping local women. But yet, despite all of this, there still somehow remains a transcendent respect for the Americans and a desire to make peace and friendship.

The next three tracks — ‘Church Wall,’ ‘Food Stall,’ and ‘Canal’ — are all instrumental tracks that try to capture the memories of the ex-soldiers who may still be wandering around Thailand. The melodies used in all three are essentially the same, with the mood and instrumentation being tweaked a bit from track to track.

‘Sawahadi’ (‘Christmas Song’) is a short Christmas reflection sung by Terry Allen; and it is lonely – a couple of tracks earlier ‘Lucy’s Tiger Den’ mentioned Thanksgiving. The plaintive situation faced by the individual Americans there for that time is not lost sight of in this deeply human musical work.

In ‘Orphans’ we have a mesmerizing, haunting instrumental (possibly one of the best tracks on the album), from Terry Allen’s Laotian crew; Terry Allen was doing this even a couple of years prior to Ry Cooder’s going to Cuba to record Buena Vista Social Club and to Mali to record sessions with late bluesman Ali Farke Toure.

‘Pataya’ (sic) sounds a note that is almost patriotic and is written and sung by Terry’s Asian vocal ‘double,’ Surachai Janyimathorn. Pattaya was a fishing village that was turned into a resort town by American soldiers and remains a bustling tourist spot today. In this song it sounds like Pataya is being attacked and plundered by American marauders, as if they were fighting them instead of Viet Nam and warns Thailand not let this happen. That the Thais and Americans were allies one would never know, based on these lyrics.

‘Let Freedom Ring,’ the final and perhaps the best track on this album, is a round sung by Terry Allen and Surachai Janyimathorn doing the same lyrics in English and in Thai – here, especially, when I first heard the song, I thought it was the same person. This one is an optimistic tune that sounds something like an ending to a Kurosawa film — you know, where the idea is we must unite and trust each other despite all of the war, chaos, and destruction.

Amerasia, twenty years later, is worthy of a review – and while the Vietnam War is now forgotten and buried, replaced by the events of 9/11 and the decade plus-long war that followed, Terry Allen’s experimentation with world music, which neither at the time nor since was ever really given its full measure of discovery or appreciation, has never rung more true.

The Drumbeat of the Heart

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Jul 242012

Follow it. Be swayed by the Spirit of Compassion.

Mahee Aziz, a Sydney, Australian, who comes originally from Bangladesh, is at the moment globetrotting and bringing to the charmed eyes of mesmerized audiences the potent exoticism of three traditional and canonical, Subcontinental Indian dance forms: the Kuchipudi, Bharatanatyam, and the North Indian style of Kathak.

And it is our City’s great good fortune that he is coming to Louisville.

Do, on that occasion, let this Pied Piper lead your heart away; and in the compassionate spirit for which deep and spiritual India is famous, turn out in support of the various charities and causes with which Aziz has involved himself: victims of AIDS, underprivileged children, and widows.

Aziz will be our revving up our cultural scene at a planned performance at Shine Wellness Studios on Saturday, July 28, at 7pm, as a second US stop following his scheduled performance at a medical conference in Washington, DC. At his own personal expense he has chosen Louisville as the venue for a benefit show he is putting on to raise money for the Bangladesh charity ‘Change the Lives,’ which is dedicated to helping underprivileged children in Bangladesh.

Let’s not let him make the pilgrimage to our Kentucky land without the welcome and support both his art and this cause deserve. Let’s not disappoint his anticipation of open hands and hearts, and properly wowed eyes and ears, among all us Louisville residents he has come to enchant. For gosh sakes, let’s not send him away empty-handed!

Even more in Bangladesh than in India, where the caste system remains prevalent, the cause of underprivileged children seems to resonate with special urgency among the more elite and middle-classes. Most professional and successful from Bangladesh know personally or are even related to someone who lives amid a level of poverty that makes our own homegrown variety look lavish by comparison. They seem unable to turn away from what they cannot help but see; and I just feel sure Louisvillians will not turn a blind eye to this ambassador of charity, either, when he comes bringing to our own attention his message of human need.

A lot of people in Louisville still may not suspect the size and strength of the transplanted Indian culture that flourishes here in our own community. I’m not sure whether there’s a Kuchipudi instructor in Louisville yet or not – but one can find out on August 18! – because that is India Day at the Belvedere – an event which will be sponsored by ICF (the India Community Foundation) and that promises to be something special.

For sure there will be displayed to the rapt gaze an evocative sampling of the wealth and variety of the timeless magic of Indian dance. My own impression is that the opportunities to see and learn (about) Subcontinental dance forms here in Louisville are equally rich and vibrant as what is being done by our justly-celebrated local dancers who engage in the teaching and performance of Flamenco and Middle Eastern bellydance. Come see what you think.

The Subcontinental dance forms that are currently on the menu in Louisville, complete with instructors, such that anyone can try their hand (and sinuously willowy arms and torsos) at these most magical and mysterious of artistic traditions, are: (and please to imagine in your mind’s ear at this point that light, bonking-sounding, Indian tympanum drumbeat, instead of a Western drum-roll) — Bharatanatyam; Kathak; and of course the infectiously exuberant, contemporary ‘Bollywood’ style.

Since the Kuchipudi tradition is the least-represented here in LV so far, Aziz’ upcoming visit gives us all a chance to catch it live, on the wing. This South Indian dance, from the State of Andhra Pradesh, is the Subcontinental dance form that perhaps a lot of people most think of when they think of Indian dance.

Bharatanatyam, from Tamil Nadu, which is the most likely traditional form of Indian dance, is not dissimilar — the main difference between Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi being that the former has more sculptured and dramatic poses; while Kuchipudi employs more rounded ones, especially with regard to the legs. The Kuchipudi tradition is known for incorporating dancing with, and on, a metal plate called a Tarangam.

Bharatanatyam dancers can be both female or male, resplendent in multi-colored garb and ornamental facial jewelry, executing dance movement that is demarcated by lots of dramatic pauses. It is also this form that is so marked by those characteristic head, neck , and eye movements – those ‘slidey’ gestures they do from the neck up, that seemingly ‘leave their bodies behind,’ in tandem with those signature snaky, waving arms – surely everyone’s idea of the world’s most exotic form of dance.

In terms of the dances’ cultural subtext of associated meaning, Kuchipudi may have more religious connotations with connections to the earth & God, while Bharatanatyam might be more about expressing the inner fire within the dancer’s body.

But speaking of fiery inner expressiveness – love that Bollywood!, which is of course that most exuberant, contemporary , and fully cosmopolitan expression of modern India in dance. We’ve all (I hope) seen it performed in movies and on TV – where you often see it being done in line-dances, or by large groups of dancers; far and away the most nontraditional Indian dance form, it gets people (whole crowds of dancers) self-expressively ‘jumping,’ in masses of seductively graceful, synchronization — seemingly an urban phenomenon (after all, India is a hugely populous place) – and just that much reminiscent of those Hollywood movie extravaganza dance-productions from about the 1930s.

It is (or seems to me, at least) the most seamless adaptation of ancient cultural modes into up-to-the-minute, international modernity that one could have imagined.

As for Kathak tradition, it’s a real border-hopper: Persian-influenced, it may in turn have had an influence on Flamenco, via Gypsies from Rajastan.

But let’s be a bit more thorough about this: there are eight classical dances in India, of which Bharatanatyam is the oldest. (So old, in fact, I find I can’t dig up any definite date of origin, so far does it go back). It’s agreed, though, that at its center is that expression of the fire element. (And of course the most ancient Indian religious texts center on Vedic Fire Sacrifice.) Kuchipudi, a relative youngster, was only (‘only’) founded in the 7th c. AD, by Brahmins – and can be traced to the village by that name, in the State of Andhra Pradesh. Kuchipudi dance was originally male-only – and that for the longest time – but somewhere along the line our Subcontinental sisters successfully infiltrated and are now possibly in the majority. There is even a ‘gender-bending’ form of Kuchipudi, in which the men execute the dance’s characteristically feminine forms, and vice versa. Kuchipudi has traditionally been used as an individual way to express oneself spiritually; or it can be used theatrically, to tell a story.

And, there is ‘country,’ rural, as opposed to a ‘city’ form of Kuchipudi. The rural: rawer, more primal-looking; the classical (citified) version: cleaner – gentler, more refined. (Sort of the same as if you were to compare the banjo in its ‘city’ and ‘country’ forms, as those were represented in early American musical tradition – if that is not too awful a thing to do – one being Tin Pan Alley, and the other, Dock Boggs). I saw a link to the country version of Kuchipudi in which the male dancer was wearing a mask-cum-head-covering kind-of-a-deal – and out of an adjunct to the whole thing – streamed water. And, in a depiction I saw of the classical version, there was a male dancer dressed as half-man, half-woman: moustachioed on one side of his face; made up with make-up on the other.

And – lest we think that Bollywood style is the only one that puts armies of dancers into the field – there was a world’s record set on December 23, 2010, for the largest number of Kuchipudi dancers ever to perform at the same time: 2,800, at a stadium in Hyderabad, the Andhra Pradesh capital.

The Indian style of music that accompanies these Indian dances in all their forms is uniformly what is termed ‘Carnatic’ (or, simply, Indian) music.

All those people, virtually uncountable numbers, who’ve moved to it and danced to it, through so many centuries.

Follow its drumbeat, and follow your heart. And mark your calendar for July 28th.

August Events

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Jul 222012

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Salsa Thursdays @ Saints Skybar with Cosa Seria & DJ Frank

- Every Thursday
- 9:30pm until 2:00am

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Saint John Vianney Vietnamese Summer Festival – Sat July 28th, 7pm

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Around the World Art Exhibit” will open on First Friday, August 3rd.
Live music by Son of the Widow starting at 9:00 p.m., Bearnos by the Bridge

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Il Volo (teen tenors from Italy)
7:30 PM
August 15th (Louisville Palace)
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Salsa Rhythms @ Aug 18 LaColumbiana – Louisvilles First Colombian Restaurant

808 LYNDON LN STE 105
LOUISVILLE, KY
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Cosa Seria & Appalatin @ The Pointe (August 24th, 7pm); 1205 E Washington St. – Benefit Show for la Casita Center

Saturday, August 18, 2012

ICF India Fest 2012

India Community Foundation (ICF)

Cordially invites you to participate in India Fest 2012
Celebrating 66th Independence Day of India

FREE ADMISSION TO ALL
Featuring multi-cultural live musical program
Members from Chicago’s Award-winning Bollywood-Reggae-Funk band, Funkadesi
Recently named “Best International/World Music Band” in Chicago by the Chicago Reader (“Best of 2012″ issue).
Flag Hoisting, Live Musical Program, Mouth watering food and lots more.
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Beginning of WF:

Friday, August 31, 2012

Fountain Stage

10:30 am-11:45 am – Recorded International Music
11:45 am -1:00 pm – Desperados Steel Band (Carribean)
1:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Recorded International Music
5:00 pm – 5:45 pm – Swing 39 (French Chateus)
5:45 pm – 6:15 pm – Acoiris Latino (Mexican)
6:30 pm – 7:15 pm – Nachale Bollywood Dance (East Indian)
7:30 pm – 9:00 pm – Groove Masters featuring Tony Fish (African American)
9:30 pm – 11:00 pm- The Ark Band (Reggae)

Main Stage

10:30 am – 5:00 pm Recorded International Music
5:00 pm – 5:45 pm Al Hamsa Belly Dance & Friends (Mideastern Dance)

Appalatin: A Happy Accident

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Jun 262012

Appalatin is what you might call a gradual, happy accident that’s been happening slowly over roughly the last six years.

It was formed originally by two of its present members, with the others coming in one at a time and adding in their own musical talents and abilities.

Appalatin began as a love of music among people who otherwise would not have known each other or ever played together, starting with Latin music and slowly incorporating the music of Kentucky and surrounding Appalachia. The Latin music that Appalatin plays is not what we generally think of as ‘Latin music,’ but rather the rural folk music of the Andes and Central America, which blends deftly with the regional music of the rural American, eastern mountain chain.

These musicians’ musical instruments are very ancient: but the magical thing about them is that there are infinite ways of combining them and creating fresh sounds, all the while trying to capture the same sounds our ancestors listened to — especially when you combine instruments that have not necessarily been together before. The humble,tiny, peanut-shaped charango of Ecuador; Pan flutes; the mandolin; harmonica; the common guitar; bass; the cowbell, various rattles and shakers; and — those most primitive instruments of all – drum and vocals.

There is literally no one in the world that is creating the sound that Appalatin is and that is Appalatin; however, the members did not set out intentionally to create this sound: it just happened. So Appalatin, as a result of its hybrid and serendipitous metamorphosis, has shaped up as some sort of a mellifluous ‘happy-stance,’ if you will.

In preparation for their upcoming, second album, slated to be recorded in August, Appalatin just wrapped up a weekly gig at a local club called Zazoo’s in the St. Matthews area of Louisville, where they had a different musical guest performing with them each week; varying their own style to match, ranging from hosting Andean guests to Appalachian-sounding ones to folksy singer-songwriters to reggae to even a young group of Somali-Kenyan dancers. The short stint at Zazoo’s allowed Appalatin to keep exploring, honing, expanding, and finding their musical voice.

As an outflow of their unique form of performance-rehearsal, finding out what works and what does not, a song that will be featured on Appalatin’s new CD, one called ‘Down by the Waterside,’ started out as a light Reggae number, the inspiration of a Reggae-influenced member. While this song strays a bit from the group’s initial roots, it was amiable-sounding enough, until one day, playing outside this year’s Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs out on the street, they started to play ‘Down by the Waterside’ in an Appalachian-sounding way without really trying to – and the song just clicked; they suddenly knew they had it right.

So watching Appalatin ‘in process’ is a bit like watching a butterfly emerge from its cocoon; and it is something that it is excitingly possible to catch them doing, live.

And speaking of suddenly — Appalatin’s success in Louisville has seemed to be overnight. Since releasing their first album in March 2011, and they have done everything in Louisville that they set out to do within the next year: it has all been at remarkable speed. However, they had actually been working on establishing the foundations of their presence in Louisville four or five years prior to that. Appalatin is now set to take their music to the next level and toward this end are starting to tour across the rest of Kentucky. Their plans are to take their music nationally and possibly even internationally at some point; but they will do it at their own signature, gradual, happy-accidentally pace. They do not rush their music.

But if the energy of their musical development and its dissemination has been tortoise-like by design, the energy of their music in performance is rivetingly in the moment: always fresh and powerfully with-it, no matter how many times they have played it or you have heard it.

Putting these two dichotomous, dynamic rates of together — theirs seems a perennial spring.

Appalatin will be approaching the recording of their next CD in the same vein and using their second release to platform into their next level.

I am not sure how or where Appalatin will record this next CD; but I am sure that in it will be captured their musical essence — that music-in-the-air, that musical-style-coming-for-the-first-time-ever-to-be, that Appalatin’s members eat, drink, sleep, and breathe in their every available waking moment (and likely while they dream). That they will capture it like some rare and ephemeral specimen under glass, where all of us can hear and see.

Those of us within the little bubble that is Louisville, many of whom already know them, can all look forward to the next phase of Appalatin’s unfolding evolution – not only in terms of their latest music, but also in terms of their just-budding career. Lots more magic, lots more to come in the discovery of the happy, infectious, folk-hybrid vibe that is Appalatin – not just for those who are to newly discover them; not just for those who continue along with them for their journey; but also for the members and creators of Appalatin themselves.

Alright, enough of that.

Upcoming Americana WorldFest Performer Bios (June 2nd)

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May 192012

The Americana World Fest is coming!! There is another WorldFest in Louisville, and it is held at the Americana Center every June. Here is this years lineup.

AlHamsa/Gypsies of the Nile will be there. They’re a network-ensemble of bellydance performers comprised of women from Southern Indiana and the Louisville, KY area. Performing for this Show, AlHamsa Bellydance (the especially advanced performers) will show us what Fairoza, Raqia, and Zia can do; and we will also be seeing the ensemble’s up-and-coming, new bellydancers, Gypsies of the Nile, directed by Fairoza. Among these performers be on the look-out for Dilara, Mahina, and Dona with her veil fans.

Raqia’s Studio, BellyDance & More, is home for AlHamsa and Friends and is located in downtown New Albany (225 Pearl St.). They dedicate themselves to empowering women through dance – healing body, mind, and spirit. Ladies, of all types, ages, and sizes – y’all come! It’ll be great.

(And if you mistakenly think that you just haven’t got the body-type for it – think again. This group numbers beautiful, beautiful performers, most tastefully and elegantly decked out in costume – I’ve seen them! — from among ladies who shop among the half-sizes.)

Raqia’s annual Toy Drive (last year held at the Grand Theatre in Downtown New Albany) — which donates toys to children of need through charities such as AIM of Kentuckiana, Appalachian Mountains Foster Care, and Brandon House – is a yearly event for belladi bellydancers and Louisvillians alike and gives us all a chance to give back to their community.

Fairoza teaches beginner bellydance at JCPS on Wednesday evenings, concurrent with the school year. The Studio BellyDance & More is dying for every woman in Kentuckiana to come dance with them! For class info, 812-989- 0821.

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Self Kuwa (real name Eric Mbrirzi) is a local Conscious/Alternative teen hip/hop performer and former Congolese refugee. He originally hails from the town of Uvira in the South Kivu region of the Congo (Central East, bordering Burundi). He and his courageous family are among the fortunate survivors of the horrific war, genocide, and conflict of that part of the world. This young rap/hip-hop performer has been in the States for five years and speaks English very fluently in addition to his native tongue of Swahili (he raps in both).

SK’s highlights include performing at the Americana Center (where he was mentored by staff member Jared Zarantonello), so this event holds a very important place in his heart. His second album, Swanglish (Swahili+English; released this year), is thirteen tracks of all-original material, which can be downloaded for free (can’t believe how generous this guy is), using this link: http://www.mediafire.com/?wop39t394aqxscp — Check it out! (But be sure to come and hear him at Americana as well.)

Self Kuwa will be attending Onondaga Community College in the Fall and hopes to study Computer Technology as a precursor to pursuing a career in Music Production. Watching Self Kuwa’s/Eric’s story blossom is a nothing-short-of-inspiring example of the American Dream unfolding before one’s eyes — he has a bright future ahead of him, and we should be hearing great things about him in years to come.

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Nashville-based, Cherokee social-activist singer-songwriter Michael Jacobs advocates a characteristically Native American brand of social change (traditional values, compassion and empathy, peace, environmental concerns, mental/social/spiritual/emotional well-being – human concerns so self-evidently good, so clearly essential, that they shouldn’t need ‘advocacy,’ or require ‘social change,’ but yet do) via his thought-provoking lyrics.

His Cherokee name is ‘Unetlnv Ujeli Dekanogisgo,’ meaning ‘He [Who] Sings for [the] Creator.’ Michael’s latest album, The Art of Peace, was released earlier this year. He tours regularly across the US and Canada: at colleges/universities, festivals, fairs, libraries and museums, and at pow-wows. His debut CD, Sacred Nation, won the 2003 Native American Music Award for Best Independent Recording. His wife, Nicki Jacobs, will perform traditional Native American fancy-shawl dancing.

It’s really going to be a privilege for Louisville to have the Jacobses at Americana Fest this year.

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A Musical Passport groove coordinated by percussionist Gary Pahler (Producer of KET’s Louisville Life), Coco Yam offers a cool, relaxed breeze fusion-stew of Afro-Pop/Afro-Beat, Jazz, Salsa, Reggae, and Cha-Cha. Mm. . . mm . . .

Members include KY artist-in-residence Gregory Acker, also the head of the Kyene Drum ensemble (flute/soprano saxophone/percussion/vocals); Kelli Brodersen (Associate Producer for KET’s Louisville Life) (lead vocals); Paul Carney (of Flamenco Louisville) (rhythm guitar); afrobeat educator Jeff Ellis of Frankfort (lead guitar); Yahya Johnson (studied under the great Nigerian percussionist Babatunde Olatunji) (percussion/tenor saxophone); Steve Loomis (bass guitar); and Ian Thomas (trombone).

Coco Yam is a (food?) staple at Belvedere’s World Fest; cook! at the World Equestrian Games; and come as a tasty ingredient in the Kentucky Arts Council’s Performing Arts Directory.

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There is a rhythmic adage in West Africa that if you dance you drum, and if you drum you dance. So it makes sense that Baba Kenyatta, with his Guinean style drum corps and the recently formed West African Dance Troupe, under the instruction of Christa ‘Twaa’ Whaley, will be joining together.

The invigorating, vibrant sounds of West African drums: djembes, dundunbas, sangbaas, and kenkenis, intermingled with the diaspora of West African dance, will make for a very riveting AmericanaFest performance.

They have performed together before, most recently at the Kentucky Center for the Arts, this past April, as part of Da’Ville Classics.

Both Baba Kenyatta and Christa Twaa Whaley educate local kids in drumming and dancing on a regular basis (in after-school programs, at churches, workshops, at summercamps, etc). For info on the educational programs and performing, please contact Makalani Penman at 502/509-6798 makmakpoetics@gmail.com (Sabari Bengoma) and Christá ‘Twaa’ Whaley (accent on the ‘a’) at 240/232-6230 or 240/2DANCE0 3rdeyetwaa@gmail.com (The West African Dance Troupe).

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‘CPHR DVN is Hip Hop’s Ascension’: husband and wife (‘Wize Mathematiks’ Cypher and Sultra Diviine) formed CPHR DVN while stationed together in the military, slightly over a decade ago, in Honolulu.

Their metaphysical hip-hop is influenced by sounds of CapeVerde (whence Sultra’s parents hail), Portuguese Ballads, reggae, Trip-Hop (ie., Poritshead), Jamaican Toasting from the late 60s/early 70s, Classical Music, Sounds of Nature, modern rock & hip-hop, avant-garde singers like Bjork, etc.; and funkily interspersed with socio-political, positive, thought-provoking lyrics of a multidimensional nature designed to express love and healing — with a danceable beat.

To summarize in their own words, they ‘are Hip-Hop alchemists, lyrical metaphysicists, and quantum dancers.’

Awesome.

They have released four albums, including last year’s IX KUTZ. . .Return of the Ninja! This album is based on the Nine Levels of Power, or nine cuts (as they are known) of Ninjitsu. Each song symbolizes one of these cuts in sequence, and the audience takes a ‘hip hop, a hippie, a hippie to the hip hip hop,’ following an intro track. And – even beyond – Wize is studying Music Production at UofL and they are about to start work on their next album.

They recently have performed at the JaGa Reggae Fest 2012 in Galveston, TX, and perform as well at a variety of venues around town, such as Solidarity, the Monkey Wrench, and Bearno’s, as well as WorldFest; plus HarvestHoot, Artography (Kenn Parks), ZombieFest, and Metaphysical Rhymes.

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‘Nachale’ means ‘Dancing’ in Hindi — Bollywood Dance is not only a style from the movies amalgamated from various folk-styles — it is also a way to exercise and lose weight in India. Nachale imports Bollywood Dance Workout to America (where we sorely need it). But Nachale is not only a workout, it is also a local Bollywood troupe as well — all the brainchild of Bangalore native Vindhya Katta.

Vindhya teaches Nachale at Baptist Milestone East Wellness Center and other locations throughout the City. For more information, contact Vindhya at info@nachale.com and 502-767-2116 (phone/text).

Nachale! Naturally!

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The mesmerizing guitar of Long Thanh Nguyen — there is nothing like it. He is one of the great electric guitar players in Louisville, but most natives have not yet heard his music since he has been living in relative obscurity since arriving in this country. (Besides guitar, he can also play four traditional instruments, including a one-stringed violin and a sixteen-stringed flattop instrument).

Before coming to the US many decades ago as a Vietnamese War refugee, Mr. Nguyen taught musicians how to play and sing, including people who would later become famous in Saigon. He used to play backup for famous popstars of the day. One of my personal favorite stories about Long Thanh happened last year at the Thanksgiving Vietnamese Pop Variety Concert at the Horseshoe Casino, where he asked a famed Pop singer during a pause if he could come up on stage and join in — and she waved him up with obvious delight. Long Thanh let if riff. Mr. Nguyen has been making fewer appearances lately due to health considerations, but Louisville needs to hear him because Long Thanh plays with all his heart.

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Rebabas (a South Sudanese homemade stringed instrument similar to a banjo that with a hypnotic groove), electric guitar, drums, singing, and occasionally keyboard makes up the Rebaba with the core group being co-founder Michael Pac (rebaba, drum), James Malou (drum), David Bior (Rebaba), Jacob Laul (rebaba, singing), Phillip Hakim (Keyboard, Electric Guitar), and occasionally Andrew Evrre (electric guitar), and David Bird (electric guitar).

The topics of the Rebaba music are universal — war & peace, love & women, family, emotions, grief, etc.

The band was formed in 2007 under the mentor-ship of UofI Bloomington Professor Ruth Droppo, although all members — former Sudanese Lost Boys (Dinka Tribe). These true survivors of horrors unimaginable are very fortunate to be living in the US against all odds juggling careers, family, further education, and musical past-time. One of the members without my asking anything about his experience started to be candid about some of his experiences and how it has effected his personality and how it still effects him on day-to-day basis. His and the other members lesson is never underestimate the power of music — the Rebaba, singing, and drumming got them through the horrors of war, being stuck at military camps, during the awkward US adjustment period, and today.

Because the members of the Rebaba all lead busy, healthy, productive lives; it can be difficult for the Rebaba to play — the Rebaba in my opinion of the great bands of any genre that Louisvillians really need to get to know.

One of the Rebaba’s highlights was performing at their first Waterfront WorldFest last year in which they were the favorite performance of Mayor Greg Fischer.

Alright, enough of that!

To Russia With Love: Far Eastern Federal District (aka The Far East, Arctic, Gulag, Jews & Gypsies)

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Mar 032012

Far Eastern Federal District:


#	Flag	Federal subject	Capital/Administrative center
1		Amur Oblast	Blagoveshchensk
2		***Jewish Autonomous Oblast	Birobidzhan
3		***Kamchatka Krai	Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
4		Magadan Oblast	Magadan
5		Primorsky Krai	Vladivostok
6		***Sakha Republic	Yakutsk
7		***Sakhalin Oblast	Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
8		***Khabarovsk Krai	Khabarovsk
9		***Chukotka Autonomous Okrug	Anadyr

***Sakha Republic (Yakutia) (Yakutsk): Sakha, the world’s largest Republic/State/Province, is yet one of the least populous; home of the Yakut people; mostly comprised of permafrost, frozen earth, which if it were to melt via global warming, would render Sakha a vast swampland. The coldest place on earth with the coldest town on earth (Oimyakon),Sakha contains Russia’s abundant diamond reserves and the world’s largest collection of mammoth bones (which doubtless makes the local dog population very happy). (In Northern Sakha, there is scientific research center dubbed Plastocene Park which is trying to recreate the WoolyMammoth’s stomping grounds of how it looked millenea ago and hopes to bring back the Wooly Mammoth through cloning.

It’s easy to get stuck in the mire and lost in Sakha; the gravity there pulls you in, making you feel that you can never escape – just like the four geologists in the classic Mikhail Kalatozov film Letter Never Sent or (variously translated) Unsent Letter: off looking for Russia’s fabled Siberian diamond reserves in a locale that could only be Sakha/Yakutia.

Besides the diamonds and mammoth bones beneath, above the permafrost is a rich musical reserve. There can be a sexism with regard to female musicians, even in our culture, but not in Sakha, where female musicians (including the shamanistic actress/singer Stepanida Borisova, whose voice is supposed to have healed people) at times seems more dominant than those of the men – especially in purely vocal singing and in playing the khomus (which in Altai and Tuva is thought to be a sign of masculinity.

AayarKhaan, a female vocal/khomus trio, is the spitfire with an edge that makes foreign ears (like mine) say WTF. They sing in a traditional style called toyuk, which is a sort of heavy breathing that captures the spirit of sex, birth/motherhood, life, and death, with sharp quick pauses that imitate the sound of bird flight, sounds made by horses (of which they have their own beautiful breed), and other aspects of nature.

Olonkho is what they call the ancient Yakut artform of picturing and meshing together historical faith and spiritual understanding through epic style story-singing, an activity which can last as long as two nights. Dr. Eduard Alekseyev, a famed ethno-musicologist and native Yakut – and one of the musicologists noted for bringing the sounds of Tuvan music to the West — somehow managed to become a Moscow-trained classical musician now living in Boston and associated with Harvard. (Check out his field and video recording links below; if not, I will personally track you down and shoot you for wasting your life).

Diamonds are rock, so you might expect to find rock music there as well; garage bands have ‘surfaced’ in the past twenty years, most notably prog-rock band Cholbon, which seems to be influenced by Pink Floyd and (of course) the Stones. More along the traditional side are the Khatylaev family (headed by Klaydia and German) and Evenk dance and drumming ensemble Gulun.

Dolgans live in the far North, but they are just as impossible to find musical evidence of as they are in Krasnoyarsk. If you play around the links, you will find examples of Western-influenced music (besides rock of course), including techno, pop (MoonGirl), and saccharin (Dups). Sakha has its own musical instruments, including the rustic dramatic fiddle Kyryympa; the Appalachian-sounding stringed Tangsyr; the prominent bass Topsyr; the flat drum Dungur; the rattle Siksiir; the hunting horn Aiaan; and of course the Khomus (or Jew’s Harp).

There is a rising film industry happening in Yakutsk, most notably evident in Andrei Borissov’s By The Will of Genghis Khan, which was shown around the world including the US.

Sakha is the Diamond, musically and culturally, in the Rough – with the emphasis on ‘rough.’

Yakut Instruments:

(All instruments cited here are being demonstrated by the Khatylaev family)

http://khatylaev.sakhaopenworld.org/khomus.html Khomus (Jew’s Harp)

http://khatylaev.sakhaopenworld.org/kyrympa.html Kyryympa (Fiddle)

http://khatylaev.sakhaopenworld.org/tangsyr_s.html Tangsyr (Banjo-like instrument – sounds a little Appalachian)

http://khatylaev.sakhaopenworld.org/tangsyr.html Topsyr (Bass)

http://khatylaev.sakhaopenworld.org/dynyr.html Dungur (Drum)

http://khatylaev.sakhaopenworld.org/siksiir.html Siksiir (Rattle)

http://khatylaev.sakhaopenworld.org/aiaan.html Aiaan (Hunting Horn)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeDIVeYYOxY By the Will of Genghis Khan (Trailer)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGXfcwOT8h4 By the Will of Genghis Khan (German Trailer – look for the arrow in the mouth shot)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N9hoe9vFRk Letter Never Sent (Opening Shot)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSloFAFCqY4 Letter Never Sent Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U-_rgB30gs&feature=watch-now-button&wide=1 Letter Never Sent/The Unsent Letter (Get this!: FULL MOVIE)

http://video.mail.ru/mail/natashalashko/492/655.html Beauty of the Dolgan and Northern Tungus Culture (with Native Dolgan Music? – Sounds a little Tuvan.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bkZEr_LigU Evenk Dance by Gulun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMMrRmEAkRM Gulun de Russie Mondial des Cultures 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCTtWK48W-Y **Dr. Eduard Alekseyev Interview #1 (life story)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e93hqZPzgMI **Dr. Eduard Alekseyev Interview #2 (life as a music folklorist/ethnomusicologist, expeditions, and experimental/perhaps controversial ways of recording, frustrations with Melodia)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAJAn9qCTnk **Dr. Eduard Alekseyev Interview #3-(On Olonkho)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iewLMZYgI6M Dr. Eduard Alekseyev Interview #4 (Book – In Russian only)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NUiqdezfRs Dr. Eduard Alekseyev’s Harvard Collection (in Russian only – with Audio Clip of ‘Song of the Horse’)

http://sakhaopenworld.org/alekseyev/ Eduard Alekeseyevs WebPage with Clips of Compositions

http://sakhaopenworld.org/alekseyev/audio.html ****Eduard Alekseyev’s Field Recordings Online

http://sakhaopenworld.org/alekseyev/video.html ****Eduard Alekeseyev’s Field Video Recordings Online

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJcQhN9dL1c Beautiful Yakut women with HipHop/Rap

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZexscimekdM **Yakut Song – Дьөһөгөй оҕото. Ysyakh (Yakut New Year)-2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qjD2IQOS0U Yakut wind instrument accompaniment Cuban ensemble!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo_YgFu-OsA Documentary on the Olonkho Epic Tradition

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqqZVIDZUK4 Theater of Olonkho: Kyys Djebeliye, Part I.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT1YXRiEw6w Theater of Olonkho: Kyys Djebeliye. Part II

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ee0EXY0q0g **Pyotr Reshetnikov – Olonkho Performance (52 minutes)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj79IRUJKTU Northern Rainbow Festival Singing (Female in Olonkho – Traditional Epic Style Singing)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCwqSYNNp8Q Northern Rainbow Festival Dances

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLXZ1eyohX4 Northern Rainbow Festival Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDzLpsugPlw Northern Rainbow Festival Part 2

http://diaspora.sakhaopenworld.org/nl.shtml Stories & Novels by Sakha Authors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TVUAnDcTC4 Olga Podluzhnaya ft ’103′ Rock Band – Yakut Warriors. Khomus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuPsh5m120g **** Saham Sire (My Yakutia). By ’103′. Rock from a little Siberian village of Khatassy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKxqQZ64w18 **’103′ Rock Band – Ohuokhai

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=360J7gp-1Wk Serge (tethering-post). By the ’103′ band. Rock from a little Siberian village of Khatassy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAS70WlQz2A AayarKhaan – Presentation Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pSa-_HEAkQ Ayarkhaan Elleyada

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M35tbAfb894&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL0AD7D5EADCF710D5 *** AyarKhaan – Playlist (4 Videos) ( Cuckoo, Devine Young Ladies, Daybir’s Song, Autumn Bird Migration)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWEzVIgEBq4 AyarKhaan – Song at Open World Center\

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFIQsNAuAu0 **Ayarhaan – Fireball on Jew’s Harp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1vxvw-7wSI Ayarkhaan Jew’s Harp from the Sakha Republic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUnGFIZ4B4c Ayarkhaan Initiation into Sacred Knowledge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KlD98Uwl40 **Ayarkhaan live at Sfinks 30-07-11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7xuM8Rk_eE **Ayarkhaan (FMM Sines 2011)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u76ZxXnldI AyarKhaan – ‘Awakening’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0-DeFGV30Y Ayarkhaan’s Saidyko Fedorova is playing khomus (mouth harp) in Yakutsk, Russia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flDeBjacgtE Ayarkhaan’s founder, Albina Degtyareva – The legend of the creation of the world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heGcH5_hCf0 Ayarkhaan’s founder, Albina Degtyareva, at Women In Paradise 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGF7TS6IQpk Female Khomus player Kulichkina Maria

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROhII5hDvgE Female Khomus Player Maria Kulichkina

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YeRnMecN10 Maria Kulchkina in Hungary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_u1mNQRCxM Female Khomus player Fiodorova Natalia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6QTE9m1JD8 Female Khomus player Savvina Anna

http://vimeo.com/1192826 Stepanida Borisova & Pavel Fajt (Czech Percussionist)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9ANQbGjplE Create Account|Sign In Browse|Movies |Upload Shamanic music of Stepanida Borisova

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq9JZDaPlBo Festival Artico II, concierto de Stepanida Borisova

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_n6rw1pF9o Female Yakut signer Lena Spiridonov with chirping birds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wgy3VqIruk Irina sings Psalm 67 as a toyuk (Style of Sakha singing)

http://www.purenaturemusic.com/#!ayarkhaan—female-ethno-group-from-republic-of-sakha AyarKhaan samples

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za_ZcPX_DCI&feature=autoplay&list=FLH7jHLOZQZr4fukmxnP18Bg&lf=plcp&playnext=10 Ayarkhaan – Dedication to Kudai Bakhsy, the blacksmiths’ patron (on autoplay)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3CDATDkaxE Yakut Song by MoonGirl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6FbeBvmT14 MoonGirl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_ecKpdLfCY Juliana (Юлияна) – Uhuktuu (‘Awakening’)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvxpWwfQC_8 Osuokhay, Sakha Round Dance Beyond Time and Space – ‘Mira Maximova’

Yakut Song by Mira Maximova

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eHqMo4Ig9c Somewhere Over the Rainbow (cover), Mira Maximova

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7-DCDI_lKw Indigo Song by Umira2 (Mira Maximova) (2003)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8fIOexiUzw Original Song by Mira Maximova

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q755hsEn3LQ Mira Maximova & Rose Ushkanova – ‘Regeneration’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPCo9gbDxos** ‘We are the Champions!’ Performed by Yakut singers. (Legentei, the Khatylaevs, Albina Degtyareva, AyarKhaan, etc.); dedicated to Vancouver 2010.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiLVJsZvAmQ Haunting Yakut Song w/ pictures of Sakha & its people

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK-BZX5xoB0 Kim Borisov (male) playing khomus at Kecskemét: Speed of Time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9F3ti7LlLI Kim Borisov 7th International Congress Festival 2011 Yakutsk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdmBpDVOPm0 Kim Borisov at 1st Moscow Jew’s Harp Festival

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcAPkJ9ke88 Male Khomus Player Spiridon Shishigin playing Maultrommel Jofen

http://www.juzp.net/EdxMBPh1-uJel spiridon shishigin Спиридон Шишигин

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0murVqhy2M Spiridon Shishigin Спиридон Шишигин

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-03BpxU02s ‘Waltz’ on Khamus by Spiridon Shishigin, Yakutia

http://vimeo.com/26092592 Spiridon Shishigin Improv

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522idaboogie.ru/%2522%26num%3D100%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26safe%3Doff%26as_qdr%3Dall%26prmd%3Dimvns&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=ru&u=http://idaboogie.ru/2011/06/berkakit-video/&usg=ALkJrhhwWhr6e7rCXu5Rqso3f6XqWP6eSg I Da Boogie – Berkakit Rock

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522idaboogie.ru/%2522%26num%3D100%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26safe%3Doff%26as_qdr%3Dall%26prmd%3Dimvns&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=ru&u=http://idaboogie.ru/2011/08/im-so-tired/&usg=ALkJrhiKiuRdWTUSU723FxPIU4UFKcLPSg I Da Boogie – ‘I’m So Tired’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHh1ilqiJyY ***A little documentary on Klavdia and German Khatylaev and Sakha music.

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***Chukotka Autonomous Okrug (Anadyr)

In Chukotka the world comes full circle, North America and Asia almost touching each other, in a geographic ouroboros — a snake circling around and joining its head to its tail, eating itself: here, where Asia and the Americas gaze across the waters at each other from their most extreme points of East and West, the two continental landscapes start to look similar, with similar plants, similar animals – and even, with the Inuit, similar people.

This being an inaccessible and therefore exotic region of the globe, one knows so little about it (or that’s been true for me, at least). We all know about the barren, frozen wilderness the land is locked inside; and we know of gold rushes to Alaska — of the gold locked within the land.

Out of such mythic, empty terrains often pour stories of incalculable wealth that defies both the imagination and what one can see on the surface of poverty and harsh living conditions among the inhabitants. But any lucky adventurer who is going to be among the first to find gold, and strike it really rich, has to look past the dismal and unpromising surface of the place and brave the elements, the conditions, the heavy odds against surviving (not to mention against finding anything) — and just go out exploring. There’s simply no other way.

As for gold – well, you know me: couldn’t care less (or, well, you know what I mean). What I’M after is a different kind of wealth: world music, and the stranger and more exotic, the less well-known, the better, as far as I’m concerned.

So – IS there music here? WILL our search be rewarded? Who knows. But I’m game – how about you?

Great! OK, then, get your traveling gear – and log onto LMN’s website to follow along with sound and audio links at the web-version of this article that are posted there.

And now here we are! in the far reaches of the Northern Arctic, just across the Bering Strait from Alaska.

Our predecessors — explorers and outposters who’ve been here before us — include the famous Captain Cook, who visited Cape Schmidt (a secret bomber base during the Cold War) in 1778. Cook may have encountered a greater diversity of ethnic groups in his time than we will in ours – but what we will find is that we are in what is home not only to the native Chukchi, but also to the Inuit – a people who have spread from across Chukotka to the Canadian Arctic and then onward to Greenland.

The Yupik Inuit immigrated to Alaska at least 2000 years prior to the Arctic Inuit we know. Later, different Inuit came across the Bering Strait a thousand years ago in the form of medieval, iron-clad warriors known as the Thule, who used their harpoons in battle. Genghis Kahn’s defeat in Hungary had dried up the silk-road, leaving the Chukotkan Thule starving and iron-less – but they made it across the Bering Strait – and there met the progenitors of the Native Americans – gentle giants, apparently, who took in the Thule/Inuit and showed them their ways. We often think of the Inuit as being the ancestors of the Native Americans – but that is not true – they have different DNA – and these other, gentle-giant people were the First People in Inuit myth (not the Inuit themselves).

The Inuits treated their Native American benefactors in a fashion similar to how the Europeans later treated the Native Americans: i.e., swooped in, ‘befriended’ the Natives, learned their ways, took their women – and then either displaced or killed them. And the Thule did this on an even more brutal scale than the Europeans since the First People are essentially extinct in that part of the world – perhaps not completely genetically, but in terms of being an identifiable, separate culture.

Wow. It’s shaping up to look like the (hi)story was – the Americas ur-natives = gentle losers; the Asian ur-natives = pushy winners. And in fact the Inuit historically have been one of the few ethnic groups that other cultures could not defeat – they staved off the formidable Russian Cossacks (who settled for intermarrying with local Chukchi when establishing Chukotka as part of the Motherland). The Norse Vikings, of such fearsome reputation, had been living in Greenland peacefully until the Inuit came and drove them out.

(So — the Norse had been living in Greenland long before the Inuit – really? When studying history, expect the unexpected. All those tales about Europeans coming and driving the Native Americans out from their homes and disturbing their way of life – in Greenland it seems to have been the reverse. But, again, we know what to expect in regions like this: a lot of legends and myths it is hard to really know the truth of, one way or the other.)

More recently the fighting has more been done over the native populations by strongman third-parties. Another ‘Eskimo’-type group, called the Inupiat, who live at this latitude on both sides of the Strait, and who used to live on the Diomedes Islands only 28 miles from the US, were removed during WWII to Chukotka by the Russian Government so they wouldn’t be assimilated by the Americans.

Then Russia had to fight off claims from both the USA and Canada, who tried to get the Island for themselves as late as the 1930s. From the late 20s/early 30s there was a settlement on Wrangel called Ushakovskoye, that lasted only until 2003. I guess maybe because both the conditions and the people there continue to be pretty harsh: there was a string of grisly rapes and murders during the 30s, where the killer turned out to be the Governor of the Island.

Can’t get far in a wilderness like this without knowing something about the plants we can eat and the animals we’ll have to rely on and for game. So what’s here?

Great! – there’s an abundance of safe forests; berries of different varieties; surprisingly fertile soil (for anybody who wants to do some farming); lots of little cute forest critters for hunting; and even a wealth of walrus tusks and whale and mammoth bone for carving (if one wants to have something to do) (and even something to sell). Chukotka is actually the walrus tusk-carving capital of the world; Whale Bone Alley is a Yttygran Island tourist destination. (Love the online images of the hundreds upon hundreds of walri resting on top of each other on the Chukotka coastline with their tusks sticking out chaotically everywhere – no wonder they often accidentally kill each other if there is one of those mad dashes into the ocean that they make).

And I’d just be willing to bet there are an abundance of mosquitoes, blackflies, horseflies, and deerflies. Still – there have been people who headed for Chukotka to try to give peace a chance: it was the jumping-off place for Russian Hippies during the Sixties to try to escape to the West and raise families (and arctic pot?).

Up here the sun does not set in August, which makes for all-day fishing (if you are any sort of a bass master). And there is one part of Chukotka where all of this great wildlife exists, but without the dangerous animals like polar bear and whale that you get in other areas – sort of an Arctic Shangri-La.

But perhaps most important for us as explorers-without-portfolio, Chukotka is the home address of the Siberian Husky (the ‘official dog’ of the Chukchi). Now, this was an import we successfully spirited away to the US – and nearly all of it was their own doing: the Soviets decided for some reason to kill or imprison the wealthy Chukchi dog owners at the very moment the Americans were discovering the breed – which essentially mostly transferred it wholesale from Russia to the US during the 20^th c.

But it’s not as if we’ve never given them anything in return. There is, now, among the Chukchi and Inuit of Chukotka, as one of their most famous iconic images, a carved impy, grinning man, a symbol of luck, called a billiken – that was (somehow) imported from Kansas City (the creator was a someone named Florence Pretz).

Although the billiken was only introduced into the remote regions of the Arctic slightly over a hundred years ago, it has already become a staple of Chukchi and Inuit culture, with the purpose of absorbing bad karma, and is regarded as if it has been part of these cultures for thousands of years. Billikens are similar to the Kewpie, which was a commercial good luck charm and a common design for American commercial crap a hundred years ago – but which was good luck only for the businessmen who made money off of it. The (in-this-respect luckless) Chukchi and Inuit of Chukota and Alaska took the design and adopted it into their walrus tusk-carving and whale bone carvings (as practiced in Uelen, in the easternmost, tippy-tip District of Chukotsky) – and claimed it was an ancient, native symbol of luck to gullible tourists.

But this is only one of the two-legged species of fortunehunters that have been known to prowl Chukotka over the years, bringing both good and ill luck.

Chukotka, though undeniably one of the poorest regions in all the Russias, with in the not-too-distant past no roads going into it so that it was almost impassable, has always been famous as a place of wealth, where gold, platinum, and silver could be mined. As a result its once-isolated Anadyr is, I think, currently one of ex-Russia’s ten richest cities. And now the Okrug has also struck it rich, mainly thanks to former Governor and multi-gazillionaire Roman Abramovich (born in Saratov, orphaned, and raised by an uncle – who, as luck would have it, is the primary owner of Millhouse Capital and the Chelsea Football Club). Abramovich put his own money into turning the region from Down on Its Luck and God-Forsaken to Blessed by Fortune in a matter of years. Places that did not have electricity ten or fifteen ago now have Internet; and I would also the roads and infrastructure are also greatly improved.

Whether Roman Abramovich’s motives are pure or if he’s just doing it in order to exploit the area’s natural resources is not clear. He has been accused of engaging in many illegal activities in connection with his business practices, such as blackmail, bribery, loan fraud, illegal share-dilution, antitrust violations, and even of having ties to the Russian mob. (He is a typical Russian millionaire in other words.)

Also, it is unclear what the negative environmental impact on the region will be like in ten years’ time. What is clear is that Abramovich is still very popular (almost becoming mythic in local culture): beloved by the Chukotkan people because, as Governor from 2000-2008, he single-handedly created a better life all-around for a lot of people and took a lot of them out of abject poverty.

The ourobos devours itself and eats its own tail. Resources are tapped; resources depleted. Depression goes to Boom . . . then on to Bust. Already, despite Chukotka’s vastly-improved GDP, there have been boom towns, formerly with large populations, that are now being dismantled and liquidated due to the fact they have exhausted their excavation of mineral wealth.

Only 51 miles from the American shore is Cape Dezhnev — home to one of the most brutal gulags ever to exist – not really. The definitive book about it, As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me, by Austrian WWII soldier Cornelius Rost (as told to author Josef Martin Bauer), chronicles his internment there, his escape and temporary adoption by the Chukchi, and his subsequent odyssey on foot across Russia through Central Asia and Iran, and finally home. (I would have gone 51 miles in the other direction, but that is just me.)

This epic tale has been turned into two films, so far – but I am not sure but that it might only be a tall tale – a hoax. By Chukotka-invading golddiggers. For there was no concentration camp in Cape Dezhnev (ah ha see!) and neither is there any documentation that he was rescued.

But as for us — after all our journeying across all this frigid ice and snow – is there any music here, or is it all just fable? And if there is any music to be found here — will we get lucky enough to be able to locate and then get some out?

Ergyron: the official State professional music and dance ensemble in Chukotka – a sure-enough vein that we can mine, ongoing. It is not only dedicated to keeping the musical spirit of the two main ethnic groups – the Chukchi and the Inuit – alive; but also that of the Koryaks, the Chuvans, and the reindeer-herding Lamuts.

The Chukchi have strong female musicians from more than a single generation: Galina Tagriny (whom I would assume is no longer alive); Olga Letykai, a middle-aged woman who travels around the world demonstrating Chukchi music and dance (and then posting her demos on YouTube); and Veronica Usholik (who looks from online to be in her thirties), who not only performs Chukchi traditional music and dance but also incorporates it into her Rock band Gubernator. Usholik has the additional interesting talent of being able to sing ventriloquially while playing the jew’s harp. Not all of the singers are women – there is elderly throat singerAlbert Ragtuvje.

I almost forgot to talk about the Ergyron ensemble – the official touring ensemble of the Chukchi Okrug. They not only sing music & dance from the Chukchi and Inuit, but also the lesser known ethnic groups such ast the Koryaks, the Chuvans, and the reindeer-herding Lamuts, etc. They have a really haunting song called Nunlingran which is a town in the Providencia District of Chukotka.

Chukchi and Inuit singing/throat-singing incorporates imitations of a widely-varying bunch of sounds: animals, seagulls and other birds, other kinds of wildlife, various sounds of nature (and what sounds like sex). Very gritty, primal stuff — but Chukchi music can also be very harmonious and melodic. The Inuit use high-pitched-squeals and throaty-deep sounds – I cannot tell the difference when it is a male singer or female singer since they have the same vocal style – although there seems to be more female musicians than men.

There is a well-known Chukchi reindeer-slaughtering festival, held annually in the inland town of Amguema, called Vylgynkoranymat, that features singing and dancing; that sounds pretty fascinating — but I can’t find any video of it. (So no gold for us this time. But we’ll keep looking.)

There seems to be a very tiny music scene (one of the bands seems to be called CHE_тыре стула) and some clubs in the town of Provideniya (where the Yupiks, who are among the descendants of the ferocious Thule, live). This local music seems to have sprung up due to the fact that this town became the tourist mecca of choice for American visitors from Alaska after global warming (the political kind) first melted the icy tensions of the Cold War.

In this particular region of Chukotka, around Provideniya, the music seems more Western Russian and American (and the Native Chukchi and Inuit seem to be on a distant glacier). Uh-oh. Bummer. Snake-eating-tail here. All this journey – all this way – all this native tradition, for God’s sake all throughout this huge, magnificent region of the world – and it’s in danger of getting devoured by contemporary, same-old, same-old Western stuff from just a few more miles to the East – where we started out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0F6sbkvE-s&feature=plcp Chukchi Dance (Ergyron)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv0dMcUWFDY&feature=plcp Chukotka “The Ergyron Ensemble” Fribourg 2008 part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2m_6LwMjc4&feature=plcp Chukotka “The Ergyron Ensemble” Fribourg 2008 part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=xbCHlf7ygvg **Jewish Songs in the Chukchi (There were Jewish prisoners in the Gulag and more on Jewish Music when we explore Jewish Oblast)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWzJcBnQIoY Chukchi Lullabies

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.ergyron.ru/%26num%3D100%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26safe%3Doff%26as_qdr%3Dall%26prmd%3Dimvns&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=ru&u=http://www.ergyron.ru/index.php%3Foption%3Dcom_content%26view%3Dcategory%26layout%3Dblog%26id%3D57%26Itemid%3D116&usg=ALkJrhh4WGbKZP1cVQZ5KyH-ThqXVNHKNA ** Ergyron & Gailna Tagriny, Lullabies, cranes, reindeer, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNi7d1uSMlc ** HISTORY OF THE SIBEREAN HUSKY WITH Chukchi MUSIC (Nunligran – Erguron ) Nunlingran is a town in the Providencia District of Chukotka.

http://www.ergyron.ru/ ERGYRON

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsKtNogKw0U&feature=plcp Kuthk & the mice (music: Ergyron) (1985′ animation movie based on the ancient Chukchi legend “Tale about raven Kutkh”. -”who knew that the Chukchi telling of the formation of the world is essentially a Tom & Jerry cartoon?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zirlJ38APqE&feature=plcp Chukotka Dance Troop performs at Tchir Tchayan, Part II

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoIrHh30Nug&feature=plcp Chukotka on Internationaal Salland festival

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbhRtULkSOQ&feature=plcp Olga Letykai , Alissa Csonka, Ugnugnu (throatsinging (very sexual like and jew harp)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve47GW5UuEc&feature=plcp Olga Letykai “La danse du feu”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh05FMAQX2c&feature=plcp Browse|Movies |Upload Olga Letykai Csonka “Pour Toutes Les Mamans”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltkuamG9l0U Young Chukchi Throat-singer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEhH82bYCBc&feature=plcp Колыбельная (beautifully haunting)

http://www.youtube.com/user/letykai?feature=results_main YouTube Channel of Olga Letykai

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKRSQr4n7vw&feature=plcp Olga Letykai (throatsinging & jew harp)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a22TIO38iA&feature=plcp Olga Letykai (throatsinging, chanting & drumming)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVNtg4x-iNw&feature=plcp Albert Ragtuvje Enmelen Chukotka Russia (beautiful high and deep throaty)

(Note: Emmelen is a Russian town with both a Chukchi & a Yupik population in the Providencia District)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cDqk-z66kY **Enmelen by Larisa Tnanaut

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7rUbTk3EW8 Enmelen A. Raqtuwie, Larisa Tnanaut, Olga Letykai

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_OfUTvyz4E&feature=plcp ** Olga Letykai Csonka Chukotka chukchi people enmelen 2.MOV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2B_fimdBfk Verinica USHOLIK (leader of Gubernator)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3OelDhYBy4 Verinica USHOLIK @ Art Arktic Festival 2007 Afterparty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IzvqdJdWG4 Female Chukot Throat-singing similar to Native American

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXNR8wHmCOk&feature=plcp Female Throat singing quartet (from around the Arctic)
http://rtd.rt.com/films/chuvans-chukotka-fishing/#part-2 Wealth of the Chuvans (Part 2) – features singing from Cossack/Chuvan folk songs from the 17^th C sung by women.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdeQz6TTBQ8&feature=plcp Chukchi – Where the World Ends (12:34Native Dancing & 13:45 – Gubenator)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYXcNj6uf88 Gubernator**
http://www.last.fm/listen/artist/Gubernator/similarartists Gubernator on Last.fm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjWAxCETyDA&feature=plcp ** Chukchi Techno
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5oTkDLqRRc Film based on Chucki Novelist Yuri Rytkheu re a traveller who journies to the arctic to reinvent his life. **(CHUKOTKA’S MOST FAMOUS NOVELIST)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbV76GJRcgU&feature=plcp Chukotka In Summer (beautiful arctic imagery)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz7IoxqpGKc Polar Bear Report in Vankarem with Chukchi or Yupik Folk Tune.
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DbOpV-YZyvIQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.youtube.com/watch%253Fv%253DbOpV-YZyvIQ%2526feature%253Dplcp%26num%3D100%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26safe%3Doff%26as_qdr%3Dall%26prmd%3Dimvns&sa=X&ei=rJUVUNGeKojM9QTc6oDQDg&ved=0CCgQ7gEwAA Anadyr
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vL9WfhTmDk&feature=plcp Time When Dreams Melt – a documentary Trailer on the Yupik Eskimos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z06Z_mQP6RM&feature=plcp Exposition of Inuit/Eskimo art and music chanting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhYDC1B7Nxw The Land of Roman Abramovich with Music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUnTJTXq1Q4 Oblachny Kray – “Super-Chukchi” (Russian Historical Metal Band – probably not from Chukotka)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1cRh1N0Cig&feature=BFa&list=PL2EA79C2B3C4D6BB3 Чукча в чуме (A song about Chukotka – don’t know if the musicians are from there – has a gypsy sound – many gypsies were deported to Eastern & Arctic Siberia)
http://www.hulu.com/watch/181088 Inuit Odyssey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUlhaw2402E Topless dj Esskimo – Topless dj Esskimo
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4116326/Woolly-mammoth-spotted-in-Siberia.html Woolly Mammoth spotted in Chukotka early this year (or hoax?).
http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/as_far_as_my_feet_will_carry_me As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5chJxc6kLM Enurmino, Chukotka (w/ Native Music)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F_2zpNxxY4 The Story of Ada Blackjack and Wrangel Island.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaM99yOZ4rs Native Russian HipHop? In Tourist Town Provideniya
http://www.radiopaniekzaaierwebradio.com/video/g-fi_0:02:16__p2OzDCyFCg4.html **Amazing Guitar in Provideniya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGdVohN_6UY CHE_тыре стула – Провидения
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r61t2jRQFOM CHEтыре стула – Упа live 08
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRG07wSPCFQ CHEтыре стула – Курят все…

To Russia With Love: Siberian Federal District (aka Central Siberia)

Uncategorized No Responses »

Mar 032012

#	Federal subject	Capital/Administrative center
1	*****Altai Republic	Gorno-Altaysk
2	Altai Krai	Barnaul
3	***Buryat Republic	Ulan-Ude
4	Zabaykalsky Krai	Chita
5	Irkutsk Oblast	Irkutsk
6	Kemerovo Oblast	Kemerovo
7	***Krasnoyarsk Krai	Krasnoyarsk
8	***Novosibirsk Oblast	Novosibirsk
9	Omsk Oblast	Omsk
10	Tomsk Oblast	Tomsk
11	***Tuva Republic	Kyzyl
12	***Republic of Khakassia	Abakan

Altai Krai (Baranaul):

Altai is a Region of South Central Siberia comprised of two Federal subjects: one, a krai (i.e., agricultural territory); and the other, a Republic. The major ethnic groups of this Region inhabit both; however, there are some major differences between the two Altai: the Krai contains some of Russia’s most important agricultural lands – and, that being the case, it is flat, very fertile, and steppe-like; while the Republic is almost completely mountainous, sporting two complete mountain ranges, the Altai and the Sayan.

But the chief difference between them is that the people of the Republic have kept more in touch with the traditional music and culture of the Altai Region, while the people of the Krai have adhered more to music that is classically and popularly based, drawing on influences from outside.

(So – for the good stuff – get to the Republic!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IknxKNZgxss&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLD0AD6A604DB89A02 Konstantin Scherbakov (Classical Pianist)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsGsj4zz4UA Julia Neigel (German singer born in Altai)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsUrIwu7HjI Famous Tenor Vladimir Galouzine – Turandot – Nessun dorma

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsRCidgRBSI Vladimir Galouzine – Pagliacci – Vesti la giubba

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAaSrxXjzXw Alexander Lokshin (soprano) – Symphony #1 ”Requiem’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT3NreSkc5c Cossack Music in the Altai

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFt49zDXzSE Rap/HipHop in the Atai Krai

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzSJoDHfL3Q Baranaul Electric Music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn9dNF-lQwE Barnaul Musical Salon

*****Altai Republic (Gorno-Altaysk): (gets two extra asterisks)

Now, with our arrival here in the enmountained Altai Republic, we are entering upon a REALLY, REALLY, REALLY special cultural area of the world, musically. And even though one might come to it being already somewhat familiar with the music of neighboring Tuva, the native throat-singing and instrumentation here, in the Altai Region, will still hit one like a ton of bricks. It is just amazing.

I mean, it is deliciously good. At the risk of sounding like I am exaggerating, I would have to say that the music of Altai is, above all, ‘necessary.’ By which I mean that – once one has heard it, it starts to cross one’s mind that, if one were to have died without ever having heard it, one would have wasted, if not one’s whole life, then certainly one’s ears. The listening experience of this Region: maybe most like, opening a present – great on the outside; but gets even better inside. Because their songs start off in some exciting direction, and then they change, switching to something very different, wholly unexpected (but musically logical) – a bit like a story by O. Henry, maybe. Or (one might say) their music is like biting through chocolate candies that have some delectable center of unknown flavor hidden inside.

‘Tuva, Tuva, Tuva’ – if Tuva is the Brady Bunch ‘Marsha, Marsha, Marsha’ of Central Asia, musically speaking, Altai is the Continental Jan: an oft-overlooked ‘middle child’ sandwiched between two musical ‘star’ Regions on either side – and therefore living in the cultural shadow of its most-recently-discovered-by-American-ears neighbor – though really just as wonderful.

(Truth to tell, much the same could be said of certain other Siberian Republics, such as Khakassia and Sakha [aka Yakutia].)

More specifically, throat-singing is native to Altai, just as it is to Tuva. But the throat-singing here is called ‘Kai’ and is recognizably different: if you listen to both Tuvan and Altaian throat-singing styles, they are distinct – you can tell the difference between them pretty readily. Some of Kai throat-singing is similar to the whistling and deep sounds you hear in Tuvan music, but with Kai you get sounds that try to encompass more of the natives’ natural world – that seem even more expansive in their mimicry – than what is indigenous to Tuva. For example, Kai treats you to sounds of bird whistles; laughter; people talking, cranes walking, recreated on a Jew’s harp; and raven or crow noises (caw! caw!). While Tuvan throat-singing comes in a variety of sub-styles, each of which can be found listed as its own category, with Altai throat-singing, there seem also to be various sub-styles – but I cannot find any listing or account of it.

Altai makes a claim to being the home of the khomus, also known as the Jew’s harp — an instrument that can in fact be found all over Asia, parts of Europe, and of course in Appalachia. But whereas a lot of other places regard the Jew’s harp as kind of a pretty humble cultural fixture, the Altai Republic seems to have really taken the instrument to its heart and to take a special pride in this simple instrument’s being their own special invention. Whether the Jew’s harp did actually originate in the Region is of course not all that clear, but the people of the Altai do make a good case that indeed it might have.

As among some of the other instruments besides the Jew’s harp you would be likely to come across in the Region (per the links below), the other main one is the two-stringed topshur: similar to a guitar or banjo, the topshur looks a lot like a lute (and it makes an awful lot of music, given its limitation of only having two strings!). The Altai has something called an ‘ikili,’ their version of a long-necked fiddle you place on your lap and play. A shoor, which you also see in Tuvan culture, is a type of end flute (no holes along its length – one one at the end) that is played pointed downward. The shatra is a type of rattle; a shagur, a woodwind instrument with holes on the side. (And there is also a clay wind instrument called an ‘ungrek’ – but I don’t know that I can find examples of that.)

There are examples detailed below of the wind instrument made of birch bark that is called an Adishi-marok (which may, or may not, help them out with their bird whistles). Not to be confused with an Amirgi-marok, which is a wind instrument used to beguile deer. (Neat, huh?)

The artists from the Altai are not really touring out here among the rest of us, with the exception of Altai Kai and a very few others, but that could change. (In fact most of the musicians in the Region, both male and female, are not even known, in the sense of having been recorded/Youtubed, but I can list some of them for you: Alexi G. Kalkin (one link below), N. Ulagashev, P. Kutshiyak , Deley, while more modern vocalists include Aleksey Kalkin, S. Aetenov, Shunu Yalatov Tovar Tchetsiyakov,, Tanishpai Shinshin., and female singers Raisa Modorova, and Natalja Yenchinova

The group that seems to be the one that people do know about, and that does tour, is Altai Kai. As their name might tend to suggest, they favor the use of traditional instruments, and what I am listening to by them right now comes across as almost ‘tribal’: with a strong, rhythmic beat, and an almost-synthesizer tone, in the bass range – a sophisticated sort of effect they have evidently perfected from getting musically out and about, touring the world, and which leaves them sounding most pleasingly gothic and haunted. Galloping horses, rivers rushing sound through their music. They have a song not at all dissimilar from Queens’ ‘We will, we will Rock You’; but traditional, mind you.

They came very nearby and played somewhere in the Blue Ridge of Virginia, being joined in in improvisation by Appalachian musicians (link below – check it!). Some of Altai Kai’s throat-singers started in singing in the Appi Mountain rhythm – the melded traditions both being deeply rich and at least semi-ancient mountain ones (way cool).

Before Altai Kai, the best-known representative of Altai music was a guy called Nogan Shumarov (who also went by the name Nohon) — a noted throat-singer, playwright, and kamus-player. I list some links in which he talks about/plays the komus. The other main musical idol from the Region is the avant-garde Bolot Bayrishev — who goes into a trance when he sings his (rock) music (how mystique is that?).

This music is as rugged and as rough as the mountains that produced it. Both the Appalachians and the Andes are world-known for their musics; and that of the Altai ought to be classed with them.

(Capital: Gorno-Altaysk) Telengits Tubalars Chelkans Kumandins Shors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veoE6CfaYk8 Nomads Life

(Note there are other ethnic groups in the Altai: the Tubalar (the Tuba-Kizhi), the Tchelkan, the Kumandin, the Shor, the Teleut, the Teles, and the Telengit – found music on some – most are elusive – musicologists get out there!)

http://rtd.rt.com/films/telengits-altay-throat-singing/ The Telengits (with Native Music) http://rtd.rt.com/films/tubalars-chelkans-altay-cedar/#part-1 The Tubalars and the Chelkans (with Native Music – and unique food)

http://rtd.rt.com/films/teleuts-novokuznetsk-horse-breeding/#part-1 Teleuts with Native Singing & Cooking

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7I3-zOvJlA Natalja Yenchinova and **Tandalai (modern female singer)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoihyw2zVzU A small part of the Maadai-kara (Great Altai Epic)

http://journal.oraltradition.org/files/articles/15ii/3_harvilahti.pdf Altai Epics & Kai http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBMtfXQTN6w Тандалай (Раиса Модорова) Raisa Modorova

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X4SNN9J2CM Raisa Modorova #2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR3cTbrCLU8 Altai Storyteller #1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ohi9LSAtTZI Altai Storyteller #2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVDUfx6btuU Group Tala www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmvcfBFsrbk Group Tala

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3XyUvBR3F8 Altai Komus (Jew Harp) master Nogon Shumarov

http://bolot-bairyshev.ru/ Bolot Bayrishev official WS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR9GS4P8s00 Bolot Bayrishev – Altai http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuLwrI1Pt8s Bolot – Wanderer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2ZLmgvFoxw Bolot Bayrishev

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CckMv6-fL0 Male Bass Khomus Player

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkeAb58v5U0 Bezerk – Moscow Duo Turbodzen plays the Altai Khomus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPsMmBU69F8 Altai Tiaga Festival with Culkin (that’s what the Home Alone kid grew up to be!?!) actually it is Aleksey Kalkin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92tYvAk_mHU Female Altai Khomus Player -(makes horse sounds)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pSjoUgEfIM Altai female Khomus player with unusual high-pitched sounds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30-oRvbG iT I Altai Kai come to the Blue Ridge (@ 4 minute mark – Altai music meets Appalachian music – Altai throat singer starts imitating the Appalachian rhythms & style)

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://etnika.su/&ei=aulpT-nzOJGnsAL8lPipCQ&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522http://www.etnika.su/%2522%26num%3D100%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26safe%3Doff%26as_qdr%3Dall%26prmd%3Dimvns Etnika.su Altai Musical instruments website (Translated English Version – Can order from it)

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://tantris.org.ua/board/gorlovoe_penie/4-1-0-1&ei=MPxpT7_yF8jWsgK434H7DQ&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CE0Q7gEwBQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522%25D0%25A8%25D1%2583%25D0%25BC%25D0%25B0%25D1%2580%25D0%25BE%25D0%25B2%2B%25D0%259D%25D0%25BE%25D0%25B3%25D0%25BE%25D0%25BD%2522%26num%3D100%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26safe%3Doff%26as_qdr%3Dall%26prmd%3Dimvns Nogan Shumar Bio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rylii-HXDME&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=AVTGnpyrBl25yRSokPgF67Ogxyoq34-P5H YouTubes ***Top Tracks for Altai Kai (LISTEN TO EVERY SINGLE SONG – IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rylii-HXDME&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLC7AFE86F13B623CF Altai Kai Playlist #1 (first song is an ancient ‘kai’ song that has the same beat as “We Will Rock You”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3soo8IK5az4&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLBF46528F3C224AD6 Altai Kai Playlist #2 (LISTEN TO ALL OF THIS – ONLY 14 VIDEOS- 3^rd video is the wonderful, haunting Alkystar – last two videos come from Chukotka and Buryatia)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AucfDer9DOU Altai Male Singing & Topshur Playing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA0JTe0qqPU Male Altai Throat-singing, singing & Topshur Playing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKEkPDlJIfg Female Altai Singing & Jew Harp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxNxch6DVTQ Chagat Uryankhai morning.wmv (with Native Altay singing & ‘kai’)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlZImVZp4Nw&list=UUz7STrBD5PjRn3g58ru4q8A&feature=plcp&context=C490c40eFDvjVQa1PpcFPDd6QKGTdX4qAbTxjJFfRrQuu3wnDc3nM ETNIKA.SU’s Altai Music Channel (ONLY 117 VIDEOS!!!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0GbStsqNzg Native Altai Music of the Altai Republic (Female Singing)

***Buryatia Republic (Ulan-Ude):

(Shasha Baron Cohen likely took-off from its inspiration to coin ‘Borat’ — though of course Borat’s own Eastern European village-provenance (and arguably the entire film) was a social and aesthetic eyesore (did you see it? — talking about the Nude wrestling scene in the hotel of course between Borat & his hairy overweight manager); whereas Buryatia is where people live in harmony, are beautiful, and the rural countryside is correspondingly knock-out gorgeous.). Its magnetic spell will draw you, Orientalizing Pied Pier as it is, to this landlocked, hypnotic Bali-Hai.

So hurry along, Come! Come! Come to Buryatia: then relax, sit back, and enjoy the extreme scenery, the compelling music, and whichever human gender you prefer. (In my case it is the sexy women)

–Here, where Burats, Russians (for, yes, as you can see, here is conclusive evidence that Russians really are ‘Secret Asian Men’), the tribal Evenks, and the rare Soyots have been living in peaceful coexistence for centuries, in this Buddhist, Shamanistic enclave.

The TransSiberian Railway passes through here, of course (being that it is this romantic, it has to) – and over a decade ago I caught a documentary, on PBS, that offered a virtual excursion aboard the TSR. They stopped off in this Oriental-looking city that had dragon prayer-wheels. Turns out that city was Ulan-ude – and Xandu has been beckoning me ever since, with a hypnotic intensity that Coleridge could have instantly related to.

Buryatian Namgar Lhasa Ranova is a phenomenal musical force to be reckoned with. She started out with her folk-rock group Uragsha (not to be confused with the sexy [no, make that very sexy], female Burat quartet Uragshaa). She is now a self-titled ‘group,’ ‘Namgar.’

The Region’s traditional folk instruments are the banjo-like chanza, which sounds very similar to a balalaika, or (perhaps without too much of a stretch) a Spanish guitar; the Mongolian horsehead-fiddle, a morin huur (also with horsehair strings), i.e., a square box emitting plaintively wailing cello-like sounds; and that curious-looking zither, the yatag.

It’s no wonder a Lama died there years ago, sitting in lotus posture, and, instead of falling into decay, self-mummified in situ. That is kind of the effect Buryatia has on your soul: you’ve heard of ‘the city too busy to hate’? Well, this is the Region&people too serene ever to lose their ideal shape.

(An extra bonus – and speaking of Shangri-La – Buryatia is a place where Tantra has been practiced for centuries.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeeVNDAGhiM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7_9jpm5-w8 Buryatia – Full of Beautiful Women

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1islvGGB5MY Scenes of Buryatia set to Buryat female singer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKgf_yfKBm0 With the Evenki

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkxqcNm_kjg Chanza (Classical Folk)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayvIw4sNjoY 2011 Morin Huur

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cbe_xNjq-Q Soyots of Buryatia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnA4fXVOr64 The path to Batagol, Eastern Sayani, Secret land of Soyot people – Bernard Grua 2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlM6-66CeX8 Buryats & Evenk in Buryatia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rY6KF5leII Evenk Round Dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt5e8CQfewM Sexy Buryat female throat-singers, jew harp, and morin khuur.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA083zVNZk4 Buryat Chanza

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixCv9ui-BY4 Buryat Chanza

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf0vApDKHoo Uragsha (folk rock group)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3Qok-sejHQ Uragsha (folk rock group)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98Qf9Y-GgGo Buryat Traditional Female Group

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIFG6wZgWXs very sexy Buryat female quartet (Uragshaa – not sure how they relate to folk rock group Uragshaa)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bec_hfXEis TseTse – Uragshaa 2011 (Buryat Hip-Hop group)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXL3tOQFsAc TSETSE – Bairnii ah [Lyrics in Russian]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64d-mB-XXT4 Uragshaa – female pop quartet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98Qf9Y-GgGo Buryat Traditional Female Group

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BYQUVCtBVg Buryat Male Singer

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=namgar&oq=namgar&aq=f&aqi=g3&aql=&gs_l=youtube-reduced.3..0l3.2194039l2195200l0l2201259l6l6l0l0l0l0l168l644l3j3l6l0. (EVERY SONG IS A WINNER; EVERY SONG ROCKS) Namgar YouTube Search

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8zD2m24Bpk Favorite Namgar song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvAak43PL9Q Scene From Documentary on Shamanism

Zabaykalsky Krai (Chita):

This is the hidden place that hiders know.

This is where hiders go.

Step softly, the snow that falls here is different snow,

The rain has a different sting.

Step softly, step like a cloud, step softly as the least

Whisper of air against the beating wing,

. . .

Or you will never find in the lost field

. . . the marches of armed wrath . . .

This is where hiders live.

This is the tentative

And outcast corner where hiders steal away

. . .

This is the hiders’ house.

. . .

This is the quiet place.

(– From John Brown’s Body, Stephen Vincent Benet)

Some 200 miles to the Southeast of Lake Baikal, from which this great Region, meaning ‘TransBaikal,’ gets its name — somewhere uncertain, but close by — the the birthplace, the deathplace, the burial ground of the immortal Genghis Khan.

No buildings — no monuments, walls, or tombs — were left behind by his conquering Mongols. They lived mounted, simply making their way repeatedly back and forth, to and fro between their huts here in the homeland and each new place along their route of conquest; back and forth, forward and back, along ever-lengthening trails that eventually radiated out from Khan’s empty and isolated stronghold in every direction for thousands of miles.

When the time came, the burial of the Great Khan was top-secret and its site forbidden — and spawned tales that 800 horse-soldiers in his funeral train had killed every human and animal they encountered along the way for 40 miles; then trampled the grave to hide its location; then were killed in turn by other soldiers, who did not know the grave’s location; and then that those soldiers were killed by yet a third set – and finally (defeating the purpose perhaps? – but something we know to be historical fact) the area was sealed off – and dubbed Ikh Khorig, ‘the Great Taboo’ — for hundreds of square miles around — and soldiers stationed at the borders to kill any and every intruder – a policy and practice which stood for 800 years.

But that was only the body of Genghis Khan that was lost to history, at that time. According to Mongol belief, the soul of a dead warrior passed at death into his windblown, horsehair ‘Sulde,’ or Spirit Banner, that in life he always carried and kept with him as his own identifying ‘flag.’ Buddhist monks living by the River of the Moon, beneath the black Shankh Mountains, preserved Genghis Khan’s soul (i.e., spirit banner) until the 1930’s (!) – when Stalin arrived to destroy their monastery. But supposedly someone secretly managed to rescue the Great Khan’s soul-cum- Sulde (but from that time it disappeared).

But the secrecy of the place wasn’t done yet. In order to preclude its being used (mythically charged with legend as it was) to inflame nationalist spirit, the Soviet Government made it its own separate, secret, and barricaded ‘Highly Restricted Area,’ controlled directly by Moscow, one million hectares big – and (as if they were killing off successive waves of funeral soldiers) surrounded that with another ‘Restricted Area’ of another million hectares; used it to house an air base of MiG’s plus a nuclear arsenal – and then, as the piece de resistance, parked a tank base out front.

But, even following the collapse of the Soviet Union, when archaeologists were for the first time being allowed in, the secrecy surrounding this spooky place still wasn’t dead: the locals objected to their excavating on the grounds that it would disturb huge numbers of ancient Mongol graves. (One archaeologist commented, ‘They speak about more than 800 burial sites.. . . The burial places of Mongolian Khans are sacred and must be hidden in a very secret place.’) (By the way, have you noticed? We keep seeing the number ‘800’ here . . . tres mythic.)

So, while here be secrets, of Buddhist monks; secret and forbidden burial grounds; sealed and guarded precincts; dark epicenter of an intangible ancient Empire that dreamed of being as wide as their deity, the Eternal Blue Sky itself; White Heart of Darkness of an-all-too tangible Empire whose dreams were much the same – what we do not find is much of anything else – including music. (We do find a people known as the Semeisky, ‘Old Believers,’ sort of Russia’s Amish. Hardly surprising.)

And we find birds. (Trains as well)

The Territory today is basically a giant nature preserve, with some of the best bird-watching in the world. Those with the proper eagle-eye can see up to six species of crane at once, and a number of the species here are unique to the Region. It is also a migratory hub, where not just birds of a feather, but birds from all over the world fly to and fro, coming and going across and around the globe, all flocking together like little Russian ‘ethnic groups’ on the wing. (Or ghostly warrior-herder-horsemen nomads, their Spirit Banners flying, making their baleful, migratory rounds.)

The singer-musicians here are the birds. The ancient Mongols’ landscape would have resonated everywhere with bird-calls, morning and evening. Birds as evocative of the primal elements of music itself: of melody; of rhythm (marking the time of day and the season); of repetition and refrain. Birds as the progenitors and prototypes of human song in Central Asia; as the most aboriginal of ‘musical influences’ on humankind – since (per my discussion of the Altai Region) birds inspired throat-singing.

And of course frogs inspired throat-singing. Frogs, that – like this changeless, timeless Eden – are covered up in mystery. Frogs, who metamorph so dramatically, from tadpole to their adult form, that they must be under enchantment. Frogs, who therefore could turn into princes; frogs, who might have once been princes. Frogs, who sit on lily-pads unmoving; see without seeming to look – frogs who appear to be ‘meditating’ like great Eastern wisemen. Frogs, who can ‘turn to stone’ cryogenically – certain species being able to freeze and then thaw again in springtime – and therefore wielding magical power over death. (Remember the Buddhist monk whose corpse, caught in ‘lotus-posture’ at the moment of death, spontaneously mummified, that I told you about in an earlier section?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I311kr9RYm0 Family of Aufspielen in der Jurte

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2wIF0loLE4 Extremely Rare Field Recordings of the Semeisky (Part 1) (to skip to the music & dancing @ the 6:40 mark)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fcfWypAsDA Extremely Rare Field Recordings of the Semeisky (Old Believers) (Part 2) Singing & Instrumentation begins immediately

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4q-l4nwPEo Бродяга. Zhanna Bichevskaya (Жанна Бичевская) “On the wild steppes beyond the Baikal” (not frome their singing about the area).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnHnmCdN9oQ Daurian Redstart

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSpSz6Kdlzg Asian Brown Flycatcher (Muscicapa Dauurica)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04veEVIKtnk Adventures of Dauria Wildlife set to music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNp75AdK3Cc Daurian Jackdaw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qywRz6uzU9g Daurian Starling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbTdEuMnKRQ Daurian Shrike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1ayHagtpXM Red-rumped Swallow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNe5W6u8yXc TransSiberian RailRoad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1LHucYzC4s TransSiberian Railroad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgIEomGW3-U Folk-Theatre “Zabaikalye” – Zabaikalie – Фолк-Театр “Забайкалье”(folk songs and dances of various regions of Russia: Semeiskie Zabaikalye, Nekrasov Cossacks South-West and Central Russia)

IRKUTSK OBLAST (Irkutsk):

Less than a hundred years prior to the Bolshevik Revolution, there was a failed coup attempt, known as the Decembrist Revolt, that was staged in St. Petersburg on Tsar Nicholas I’s ascent to the throne following the Heir Apparent, Constantine’s, self-removal. This Revolt was spearheaded by intellectuals with the support to key military and even Russian royalty. When the five leaders were condemned to hanging in the Winter Palace (now the Hermitage Museum), the ropes being used to hang them broke. By Russian tradition, that (and it was an ‘accident’ that had clearly been arranged) should have meant that they were allowed to live. (However, Nicholas broke with tradition and had them re-hanged, anyway.)

The remaining revolutionaries were exiled to Siberia, some to the City of Chita in Zabaykalskyy; the rest to Irkutsk. That fact has meant that those areas were transformed from frozen Siberian wildernesses into cultural and intellectual hot-spots, as that group of exiled intellectuals got the opportunity not only to live out their lives as they chose, in freedom, but to reshape the area politically, economically, and educationally, as its Leading Lights. (They just had to be able to get through the winters.)

As a result, Irkutsk today, nestled near Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest, is a resort area. They have their own Philharmonic, and vacationers to the area can have a therapeutic massage; get comfy in their banya (a Russian spa); go for an invigorating Lake swim and then grill some fresh fish wrapped in leaves over a campfire. They might also spot a freshwater seal (possibly the world’s only variety) swimming around out there.

The area is the natural habitat of the Tofalar people, with their dying Tofa language and shrinking numbers, unfortunately, due to intermarriage with Russians and Buryats and the reluctance of the young people to keep up their native customs – which includes forms of singing and dance.

The most notable musicians in the area ar a classical-folk-jazz duo that goes by three different names: Bely Ostrog; its English translation of ‘White Fort’; and ‘Two Siberians.’ It’s like these two guys are their own orchestra. I can definitely identify them playing, respectively, electric guitar and a strange kind of violin (also electric, it would appear) that is new to me. Good sound, beautiful, in fact.

This is also the place of origin of Leonid Kharitonov, a prominent soloist for the Red Army Choir, and the filmmaker who did Russian Ark, whom I mentioned when I covered St. Petersburg. (His films are available online.)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIFSACwrMyg White Fort aka Two Siberians aka Bely Ostrog – Bernarda Alba

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoIpUC1pbew White Fort aka Two Siberians aka Bely Ostrog – Searching for Power

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B87ponEOJA8

*** White Fort aka Two Siberians aka Bely Ostrog is one of the performers in this exciting compilation of Russian music

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6EE15C044C6E60F3 White Fort Channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi0Hp3rhIa0 Lydia Bolxoeva, a last speaker of Tofa sings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF_d0DTgobA Lukeria Yakovlevna sings a Tofa song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuEXZjduF2w Varvara and Galina Adamova, last speakers of Tofa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-pLmJaack8 Tofa speaker Prokopij recites song lyrics ‘irgak kuuday’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsffmbcA4Uk [There is a cliff on the Volga (1965)] – Red Army Choir (soloist Leonid Kharitonov

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WQibvjYD0c Leonid Kharitonov & Alexandrov Choir – The Long-range Guns Keep Silent

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDdtLpPoXDw Leonid Kharitonov: Ivan Susanin aria (1988)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBdaf2xDEo0 Irkutsk Philharmonic Orchestra

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX5eZUGN1dc Irkutsk Philharmonic Orchestra – Della vendetta alfin giunge l’instante

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Alexander+Sokurov%22&num=100&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&tbm=vid&source=lnt&tbs=dur:l&sa=X&ei=l7ZxT5-2Ko63twf1sMzODw&ved=0CAsQpwUoAw&biw=1024&bih=740 Full Films of Alexander Sokurov online.

Kemerovo Oblast (Capital: Kemerovo)

Kemerovo Oblast is the West Virginia/Appalachia of Russia – at least in certain respects. Now, I do realize if you’re not acquainted with the maverick, only-semi-visible State of West-By-God, that may not tell you a lot. But, if one looks at the thing, the City of Kemerovo, one of Russia’s main coal capitals, looks like Charleston, WV, from an aerial view, and its Tom River is very similar-looking to the Kanawha (which flows past Charleston): they both have a bridge across the river into downtown, with an island off sitting to the right.

And, continuing the analogy, in the Southern part of the ‘State,’where this Russian Region is the most hilly and isolated, there is a ‘hillbilly’-like tribe called the Shors, or, as they are also known, the ‘Blacksmith Tatars’ – descendants of the Turks (as, OK, West Virginians are not); but who are (like West Virginians) a people quite musical; and who, like the people of the Mountain State, are mostly doing their best to preserve their music, traditions, customs, and culture despite the incursion of pressures and influences from outside.

Unlike their Appalachian spiritual brethren, who have been recorded to the fullest extent, the Shors have hardly been documented. I was only able to find one ‘click’ for them online, featuring a young woman singing and plucking a stringed instrument (banjo?) and a young man playing a drum. We need to get these people recorded before it’s too late. (Ironically, the to-us-Oriental-looking Burats think that the Shors resemble the Chinese.)

Both areas are kind of either prehistoric relics of the Bronze Age or else ‘Lithic remnants (you know, Neolothic – Paleolithic – all those ‘Lithics’), surviving ragtag into the modern age. And where you get places like that, it’s like the Writing on the Wall: you kind of pretty well know what sorts of cultural expressions and outcroppings to expect.

Which is appropriate since Bronze Age peoples are typically into ‘Signs’ of what to expect: you know, like in meteorology or farming, ‘When you hear lots and lots of frogs, or the saber-toothed tiger ranges far, it’ll be a bad winter’ – stuff like that. ‘When you enter a Bronze Age-ish area, you are reprising the world of the beginning of things, and there will be a lot of writing on rocks along the roadside saying things like, “Jesus Saves,” “The Lord Is Risen,” “Hell Is Real,” and (not the Beginning but) “The End Is Near.” True, you see.

West Virginia had North America’s oldest Neolithic stone walls, built along the ridge across the river above Rt. 60 East of Charleston –all the way up until 19-something-quite-recent (when they were summarily strip-mined without notice). There forever – then gone in a twinkling.

A fossilized saber-toothed tiger could still be seen imprinted on the underside of a shelf of rock in Marmet, WV, near Charleston, until they put the ‘new road’ (i.e., Corridor G) through, preserved from a time when that area of Appalachia — not too far from us — was Siberia-like. Of course Siberia is still quite Siberia-like. In Kemerovo there is some o the oldest cave art in Russia – and caves are something else that Oblast shares in common with Southeastern West Virginia and Kentucky.

West Virginia’s natural landscape includes the deep, deep, deep ‘New River’ (an ironic name, given that either it or the Amazon in South America is the oldest river in the world), along steep, steep, steep riverbanks that support an ecological miniverse inclusive of numerous plant and animal forms that are either unique holdovers from high ancient or are simply unique – not to be found anywhere else in the world. (Another bizarrely archaic freak of nature in West Virginia is to be found in the form of its Cranberry Glade area.)

Such mythic places tend to foster legends and mythmaking – some of them true, some not, but predictable as a cultural feature. Also pretty predictably, Kemerovo and WV are both trying as hard as they can to capitalize on all this and be tourist meccas but are having trouble. So they fictionalize: Kemerovo’s latest ploy is to parlay the tourist appeal of non-existent monsters into visits, specifically by capitalizing on the supposed Yeti sightings in the area. (I met a dog by that name in West Virginia once.) As an improbably neatness, the Yeti is of course supposed to make its home and appearances in the same cave that has all the Bronze Age markings. Now we know: yetis can be assumed to have an archaeological, anthropological, and artistic bent.

Compare our sister State to the East, with its mythic ‘Mothman’ (a Parkersburg un-phenomenon) and ‘Flatwoods Monster’ (which I am myself convinced, after reading about it, were just a couple of innocent radio towers as viewed by two teenage boys camping out and high on grain alcohol). UFO sightings in the Mountain State have been legion since Rod Serling was on TV and being snared, with difficulty given the mountains, after prolonged futzing with housetop aerials.

A tourism strategy perhaps more sound lies in the renting out of offroad, exploration vehicles in the hilly South of Kemerovo to its visitors – again, much like the ATV trails, such as the ‘Hatfield,’ popular in Southern West Virginia.

If Charleston, WV could be twinned with the City of Kemerovo, the Region’s City of Novokuznetsk might be not unlike Ironton, OH, across the River from WV, and formerly one of the pig-iron capitals of the world. And, like Appalachians, citizens of Kemerovo are very into sport; but, instead of basketball or football, this Region is the ‘bandy’ capital of the world (bandy being a cross between hockey and rugby; i.e., hockey, only even more violent). (How can that be? you ask. Easy: you just make tackling legal.)

I mean, how many parallels can one come across here? Biscuits (for God’s sake) are big in both regions, although those in Kemerovo are more of the chocolaty, wafery kind. (‘Tudor’s Biscuit World’ is the definitive WV chain for cuisine centered around this indispensable and omnipresent staple – I mean, wow! a whole ‘World’ in biscuits! – those little suckers being impressed into service as the [inexpensive] cornerstone of three square a day.)

Not surprising, then, given all these common denominators, big and small, as between Kemerovo and the Mountain State, is that they both produce, as among their many people who are musically inclined, not only those who are very tradition-oriented, but, in extreme contrast, those who try to distance themselves from their roots as totally and completely as they can — on the theory that, the further from what they have come from they can get, the better the artistic result is going to be. Which leaves them (to my mind at least) not just rootless – but heavily plasticized, in fact. ‘Heavily plasticized’ precisely describes their pop singer Masha Rasputina (and by ‘heavily plasticized’ I mean sterilized in the full, Michael Jackson sense; i.e., actual surgery).

But nothing to apologize for are the Region’s famous Russian vocal bass Boris Shtokolov and its operatic mezzo-soprano Marina Domashenko.

The raven is a bird associated with both death and Appalachia; and like West Virginia, Kemerovo has seen its share of horrific mine (and other types of) disasters. But one can spot a raven in the form of a statue in the town of Yurga, where he’s happily playing a guitar.

http://dalje.com/tv/en/index.php?id=13818sa5dcd040486a6 The Shors of Kemerovo (with Throat-singing, stringed instrument, & Drum)

http://rtd.rt.com/films/teleuts-novokuznetsk-horse-breeding/#part-1 Teleuts Part 1 (with singing)

http://rtd.rt.com/films/teleuts-novokuznetsk-horse-breeding/#part-2 Teleuts Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y5Ap9QMDzg “Masha Rasputin”Filip Kirkorov i Masha Rasputina- Roza chainaya

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ko6mokVX5I Filipp Kirkorov-Mechta (i Masha Rasputina)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGmS0AVgTKc Masha Rasputina. Otpustite Menya v Gimalai 1991.flv

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4S3QNMC7KM Georges Bizet – Carmen – habanera – Marina Domashenko

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH7vFANg1rc Marina Domashenko – The Queen of Spades – I’ll sing for you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKgb89hvdr0 Boris Shtokolov – Song of the Volga Boatmen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjHKskk850s Boris Shtokolov- Prince Gremin’s aria

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id3rKjgpkrc Boris Shtokolov- Alone I Pass A Lonely Road

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EX7gd184n8 Boris Shtokolov – A Letter To Mother

Krasnoyarsk Krai (Krasnoyarsk): Krasnoyarsk Krai: the epitome of Siberia; and even though Siberia is considered anything East of the Urals, when you are talking about Siberia (or thinking about ‘Siberia’), chances are you discussing/thinking of Krasnoyarsk, because it is so massive – and is the ‘Heart’ of Siberia. (Much in the same way West Virginia is the Heart of Appalachia).

Krasnoyarsk is the second-largest Federal Subject of Russia, encompassing 903,400 sq mi – 13% of Russia’s total territory (Sakha [Yakutia] being the largest). That is massive, Man! Much of the land seems to be inhospitable (except to the multitude of mosquitoes, horseflies, and reindeer that live there); certainly it is enormous — hard for one to get one’s mind around. The Krai is composed of some of Russia’s most beautiful wonders, such as the Putorana Plateau in the Northwest, the Sayan Mountains in the South, and a multitude of lakes and rivers. It is a land that has not changed in millions of years but for some reason struck the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen as the Land of the Future (and he had the idea to start a mini-empire there, at a spot which is now near Yeniseysk – an attempt at a canal to China was even partly built).

What we do find here of Modernist ‘futurism,’ in the ‘Russian’ parts of the territory, is the former USSR ‘secret town’ of Zelengorosk – secret because uranium enrichment/bomb-producing; the ‘capital’ of bleak and hazardous mining towns of enormous deposits of coal, uranium, and nickel; or of former Gulag prison camps or places of exile.

The Heart of Siberia, capable in the 20^th c. of spawning global cataclysm, has always been regarded as the End of the World. Nobody really ever went to Krasnoyarsk on purpose, so there are things here, remarkable things, that have gone un(der)investigated.

In a veritable early 20^th-c. science fiction scenario, the Tunguska Event, or ‘Blast,’ of 1908 sent shock waves around the world, as a gigantic either meteorite or comet, the largest ever to strike Earth, hit here. (Had it landed in New York or LA, the City would have been totaled – but it landing here, where it did, luckily no one was killed.) Stil, this scientific landmark explosion was only reported in some scant number of Central Siberian newspapers, escaping any real scientific notice until twenty years later, when Leonid Kulik discovered the area near the settlement of Vanvara in Evenkia.

Italian scientists believe that a fragment of that ‘asteroid’ created Lake Cheko – a landscape feature which didn’t appear to exist a hundred years ago. Spinning theories less sound than that of Italian scientists, some loonies believe that this occurrence was caused by aliens, and it is on this that some science fiction stories, TV Shows (like The X-Files), and video games have based Russia’s Roswell mythos.

But, far from being exclusively and surreally science-fiction‘futuristic,’ this land is also something of a sci fi throw-back in time — a portal to the Unknown Lands of ‘unknown’ and genetically unique human enclaves. Native populations found especially in the Taymyr Peninsula (whose largest town is Dudinka); the Arctic town of Krasnoyarsk; and Eastern Krasnoyarsk may be almost as elusive as the ancient Pazyryk, Afanasevo, and Tagars who used t roam the Krai. These areas in fact used to be their own autonomous Okrugs (of Taymyr and Evenkia) until as recently as 2007, when they were absorbed into Krasnoyarsk. As a result of these exotic peoples’ antique and extended isolation, a lot of their culture, way of life, and music have not really been recorded (except in just a few areas).

Here are some of them:

Kets – The Ket people are one of the smallest ethnic groups in the world, with a rich language (which might die out in the next generation), especially in its description of their natural world’s flora/fauna/hunting/fishing, has much to tell the experts about how we are all related. The Kets look like a hybrid of Finns and Mongols, with Shamanistic beliefs similar to those of Turks and our Native Americans; whose language has similarities to that of both the Vietnamese and the Athabaskans of Western Canada and Alaska; and whose DNA shows similarities to that of the Tibetans, Burmese, and others from Nowhere Close. Where could such a mix, a people so unlikely and unprecedented, possibly have come from? Living south of the Taymyr and west of Evenkia (north of the Sun and the Moon), Turukhansk, famous as the location of exile of Josef Stalin and other Russian notables, is their nearest town . . ..

Evenks (not Ewoks) – live primarily in the large Eastern district of Evenkia: below the Taymyr (the largest town is Tura), but are not exclusive to Russia. These are the most adorable, forest-dwelling reindeer-herders imaginable, responsible for some of the world’s cutest babies, and living in chums (tepees), while carving some really interesting folk art. I guess they are a little Ewok-like after all. Found mostly in Russia, but also in Mongolia and China, they seem to have been culturally ‘adopted’ by the Chinese as one of their own Native Peoples. For that reason it is more common to find recordings of Evenk music and dance in China than in Russia.

The elusive Dolgans, Enets, and the Nganasans (along with Nenets, and the Polar Bears) make up most of residents of the Taymyr. Like the Kets, these folk are not really documented musically – but the Nganasans are the most filmed simply because their Shamanistic culture, chanting, convulsions, and drumming seem to provide a link between Turkic Shamanism (‘shaman’ taking its origins from the Turkish word ‘šamán’) and Native American culture. The Nganasan Shaman’s heavy-metal-bejewelled clothing, and beaded-hanging-over-eyes helmet-with-metallic-reindeer-on-top, kicks ass. Even with the Internet, it is so hard to find even a picture of the Enets, or (especially the) Turkic-Oriental-like Dolgans.

So the Heart of Siberia – the vast, snowy-whiten fortress of All the Russias – is a secret place. We started out our journey on a quest to dispel the conceptual ‘blankness’ with which we mostly tend to envision its unending impasse (in those famous words of Al Stewart, ‘And the steely Russian skies go on . . . Forever’); only to have those vaporous dreams themselves melt away, grown even more fully evanescent, as (if we don’t hurry and document and get to know) we find them largely coalescing back once more into those eternally aporetic impressions in which they have always been shrouded . . ..

Modern musicologists really need to do some serious recordings of the native peoples of Krasnoyarsk Krai because for the moment they are still largely an enigma. . . on their mystic way to vanishing from the planet altogether.

Krasnoyarsk has produced two of the world’s greatest male opera singers: Pyotr Slovtsov aka the Krasnoyarsk Nightingale (1886-1934); and the silver-haired, elfin, Days-of-Our-Lives-ready-looking Dmitri Hvorostovsky, who made the People Magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People list and incorporates Russian folk music into his Opera.

The Sayan Ring Festival is held annually, Siberia’s – possibly Russia’s – largest ethnic music festival, in the village of Shushenskoe. Otamay is a great, ethnic-based Khakas rock band from the Region – their lead singer kind of reminds me of Bjork.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKUKNAoD5MI Aidym (Otamay)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEG_ggveDE0 Oyim (Otamay)

http://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/research/enets.php Enets people and photos.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6050673836854498204 Ket People description by Dr. Edward Vajda (w/ Ket people)

http://video.mail.ru/mail/natashalashko/492/655.html Beauty of the Dolgan and Northern Tungus Culture (w/ Native Dolgan Music? – Sounds a little Tuvan.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4zz1owqeU8 Nganasan Shaman Demnime (1913-1980) and family in tent w/ drumming & chanting – filmed in 1977.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbVnsS4VuDI Old Documentary of Nganasan Shaman (with some music, drumming, etc)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUJWCKccBwQ Tajmyr song Nganasan song of the Taymyr

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-RPYV61whU Russian Documentary on the Taymyr and the Nganasan (drumming & chanting) (in Russian)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RsBBJmhwJk Evenk Child Singing (And Lots of Reindeer & Tale)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyDYv9XwPZo Pjotr Starkov -(Evenk Singing & Drumming) (Russian but sounds a little Chinese)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3DpybQeR3Y Evenki Song – The Sun Girl (Chinese Evenki)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sknMMCCCpYw Evenki Song (Chinese Evenki)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tD1D5stxJI Evenki Song – Memories

http://www.youtube.com/user/hobojordo/videos?query=evenki with The Evenki (9 parts) (Evenki way of life)

http://vimeo.com/13413834 Evenki Art & Dwellings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np6vAuS0KNs Not Traditional Evenk Music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oednQ6CUAmY&feature=plcp&context=C40d5698VDvjVQa1PpcFOaSM04mdlKfgW4Flz-lNppkIoaYlBFxLo%3D A tribute to the City of Dudinka, Russian band Shanson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF6f9A0cCNQ A Tribute to the Taymyr Peninsula by Shanson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x43xSgxFEU Another tribute to the Taymyr by Shanson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tudVC8NSDHw 1908 Mystery in Tunguska, Russia. Meteorite, caretakers, star ship intervention? (w/ some Evenki dancing & music)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1jd5OchZds X Files Tunguska Outtake Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y__mMmUtz_0&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL19EEF897A632C150 Secret Files of Tunguska Videogame Playlist

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/П.И._Словцов_радиопередача_2008_года.ogg – Radio Documentary and music recordings of Piotr Slovtslov

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xwX4iuqB_8 ***Very Rare. Russian tenor Piotr Slovtsov

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh9vLmjap_s Pyotr Slovtsov – Romance of the Young Gypsy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f7HaG86sjk Dmitri Hvorostovsky: Russian Folk Song (Nočenka)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbXRMZ_Bhxs Dmitri Hvorostovsky: I Walk Onto The Path Alone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa_13xMhjkg Dmitri Hvorostovsky – Eugene Onegin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXNh_4K287g Dmitri Hvorostovsky sings Dark Eyes

http://www.youtube.com/user/MarinaKatarzhnova/videos?query=Olga+Martynova Olga Martynova Playlist (Classical musician born in Dudinka in the Taymyr)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmsjwgBBips (Conceptual Artist Andrey Bartenev)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1T61vX4wm4 ‘Evgeni Plushenko’ – Sex Bomb (male figure skater)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fy-iobu0pE ‘Alexei Rogonov’ (male figure skater)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsDRWTBMFg4 Minusinsk Techno

http://promodj.com/djsips/videos/1513379/Gastroli_g_Sayanogorsk_Nochnoy_Klub_Infinity_Video_2 DJ Sips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DctOI3Y6PI Helene Fischer (German Pop Singer born in Krasnoyarsk)

http://www.festmir.ru/index.php Sayan Ring Festival WS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tPjWEw-fsc *** Central Siberian Hare Krishna Song @ Sayan Ring

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sayan+ring+festival&oq=sayan+ring+festival&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=12&gs_upl=0l0l0l5130l0l0l0l0l0l0l0l0ll0l0 Sayan Ring Festival Web Search

***Novosibirsk Oblast (Novosibirsk): Kind of like something out of Dostoevsky, I feel at this moment the need to confess a deep, dark secret I have been harboring, for the good of my soul. And it is: that there is something about Moscow, after studying and cogitating upon it, that (almost) scares me. And I am somewhat confirmed in this impression after comparing it to other parts of Russia such as Novosibirsk. I have passed on to you all my very strong impression that in the past nobody really wanted to go to Siberia – a former place of exile and forced labor; or just some necessary evil because it was a place where you could go and find some way to make a living, either mining or in the oil fields.

All that about Siberia notwithstanding – how come citizens of other parts of Russia, including Siberia, somehow seem ‘freer’ to me, regardless of ethnic group, than people are in Moscow? Though ‘freer’ is the term that comes to mind when I try to figure out how to express what I mean, I do realize that that raises the question, ‘free from what’? And, again, words elude, but possibly it would be something like, ‘free from what people and society were like in the Victorian era, with the exception of being sexually repressed.’ Now, admittedly, I have never been to Moscow, and am only basing my impressions on its music – whether it is Muscovite Russian Classical, music of the Soviet era, or music of today (and as to the last category, I am speaking generally – what I’m saying doesn’t apply to Moscow’s contemporary music scene in all cases) – but Moscovite music seems to be about marching to conformity – to a disturbing, even gutturally frightening degree. Perhaps I am wrong; Russia is democratic – after all one can see how Russia loves Putin. (ie: 2000-2004, 2004-2008, ‘prime minister’ Dmitry Medvedev; just ‘re-elected’ recently.

Why am I rehashing the music of Moscow in Novosibirsk? Because even when it incorporates the Western musical styles, the music of Novosibirsk seems altogether free, artistic, and individual, and doesn’t try to conform to any certain performance style just to please the audience – rather, it sticks to trying to please the artist.

(BTW: Moscow & Chicago are sister cities: both are politically corrupt and sooner or later everyone will end up in prison — note: foreshadowing Putin’s end-life)

Novosibirsk – which is Russia’s 3^rd-largest city and the capital of Siberia, and a major manufacturing and industrial center, is the first huge Russian city I have come across that I would like to visit – I think it’s the Spirit of the town (which may be comparable to our Wild West). I have heard of ‘smiles’ in the Gulag — a concept so idealistically out-there it seems to me far-fetched — but perhaps, ironically, there is something cathartically free about the people and land of untamed Siberia – which takes you (in a good sense this time) far away from Moscow.

To get an idea of what I mean, take a look at the ethnic Siberian Russian folk music played at the Novosibirsk Festival (marked in asterisks). If you do, you will find that Siberian ethnic Russians are altogether different from Western/European ethnic Russians – I don’t know quite how to put my finger on it except to say that it is their version of the differing regional Spirits in the US that give us New Englanders, Southerners, Midwesterners, ‘hillbillies,’ Westerners, Californians, Alaskans, Puerto Ricans & Virgin Islanders, Hawaiians . . ..

Bugotak (aka ‘Bull Mountain’), from Altai, is the standout band from Novosibirsk – as one Russian fan online describes it, ‘It like big sticky orgasm.’ Bugotak – part Altai, part Russian — is comprised of three members: the larger-than-life stage presence (who oftentimes seems like the sole member) George Andriyanov (aka ‘Father Gorry’), who seems to be half Altai-half Russian and dresses in traditional Altai costume. George mixes the altogether better than fifteen differing styles of Altai and Tuvan throat-singing (including the obscure Altai dzarin) into one big, guttural ‘kargyraa moan.’ The other two members are Tanya Romanova — doing vocals, khomus, guitar; and Dmitry Shvetsov – in charge of tungur and percussion. Bugotak takes all the Central Siberian folk musics (Altai, Tuvan, Nanai, Evenki, and even others) and insinuates it into Western-style Rock and Metal. Repeat: ‘It like one big sticky orgasm.’

Pelageya is the female Bugotak – the main stage presence that combines various Central Siberian folk styles with Western-style rock.

No conformity – just good music in Novosibirsk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScxwVkTW9o8 Bugotak – Come Together

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhl5HMc9G6U Bugotak – Nothing Else Matters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Caxnn1mXno Kozhung Of The Rising Sun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1bFdO59yzE bugotak – Bahat’dzarin (kind of Altai Folk Singing)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzhUgblNlwc Bugotak – Nirvana’s ‘Rape Me’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zM2ufUfy8yA Bugotak – Thunder Dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPstTX0Uyak My Name Is Agdam Ynal – Bugotak

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsgg7edSd_g Bugotak on ProSvet Show (w/ Dmitry Dibrov) Interview and Evenki Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg3arEDOMBs&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL9EA7BF5B17FCBF6B Pelageya (Playlist)

http://english.pelagea.ru/biography Pelageya WS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIUji-zYNaQ Yanka Dyagileva (haunted, depressed folk-punk artist who died in the River Inya under mysterious circumstances) – Na Cherniy Den’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcgS9MypGaA Yanka Dyagileva – Domoi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgih8dwfPO4 Yanka Dyagileva – Polkorolevstva

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvkJkz4K5nY Yanka Dyagileva – Prodano

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjBUrOlfuEQ Kalinov Most (rock band) – Rodnaya

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU5rDgV9fFA ‘Белое движение’ Kalinov Most

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piQZn94Xogw Kalinov Most – Kamchatka

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK43FJdf-9A Hot Zex (English Speaking Alternative band) – Planets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyDco_OB91Y Insecure – Hot Zex

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyDco_OB91Y Supersonic Future & Hot Zex ‘Falling’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucEMkv5L1IE Hi-Fi (Backdoor Boys like band, but still artistic) – Don’t Give Up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vsUwgAWTnU HI FI – Chorny Voron

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mDNDtv9Lgo ‘Ne maneken’ Kristina Orsa & Mitya Fomin (Mitya formerly of Hi-Fi)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgG4NyDTyNs Eduard Artemyev (Hollywood Film Composer) (Burnt by the Sun Score)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDKN7AgHu30 Eduard Artemyev (Solaris Film Score)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZnKkvhe6hE Konstantin Shamray (Pianist) Pilbeam Theatre Friday 30 April, 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMBUZCNQ6Sw Anton Mordasov (Pianist) – Liebesfreud by Kreisler/Rachmaninoff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_F15yU4AYM Maxim Vengerov (Violinist) – ‘Playing by Heart’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt6nzIy66eQ Vadim Repin (Violinist as Boy)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFjieJmSY-M Evgeny Zarafiants – Scriabin 6 Preludes, Op. 13 – #1 Maestoso

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOMR_JwHa48 Mikhail Simonyan – Two Souls (moved to US as kid)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4_NHpU8WBA Irene Nelson (Russian-born German pop artist) – Sunrise

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-rtq6hGBe0 Stoyan si konche izvede (feat. Roman Stolyar – Jazz artist)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLhhD79m3zA **Central Siberian Horn at Novosibirsk Festival

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLD9oyw9EvU **Sandal Song at Novosibirsk Festival

Omsk Oblast (Omsk):

really

You may find yourself at something of a cultural disadvantage here – because probably you’re reasonably happy. It’ll take me a few minutes to drag your spirits down to the proper level, so that you can relate effectively to the place. But if you’ll just bear with me, I can think we can fix you up in a jiffy.

It provides us a great way in to the spirit of the Region if we just turn our attention to the fact that Omsk is best known as the place where the author Fyodor Dostoevsky endured four years in a hard-labor camp for refusing to spy or give information on his fellow writer, Belinsky, as well as for his association with the Socialistic Petrashevsky Circle, which the Monarchy at that time (even 60-70 years before the Russian Revolution) deemed a political threat.

Dostoevsky: whom we all think of as a renowned novelist (as of course he was). But whom we might not so much think of as (as he was) an alcoholic. An addicted gambler. Epileptic. Hypochondriac. Childhood victim of his father’s physical abuse. (See, you’re starting to feel more depressed already. And — though I would not want anyone to think I am sinking here into Schadenfreude – we’re just getting started.)

Fyodor’s problems started getting really bad when was arrested in 1849, at the age of twenty-seven, and, precisely eight months later, subjected to a mock execution that was designed to fuck him up psychologically (they stood him up against a wall; guns pointed at him, drums rolling; then everything brought to a halt while, amid appropriate fanfare, a decree was unfurled that condemned to hard labor in Siberia instead. Oh, joy).

He responded in a novel (forgive pun) way, devising as psychological defense-mechanism something along the lines of ‘. . . So if you can’t be with the one you love,//Love the one you’re with. Love the one you’re with. Love the one you’re with. (Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo-doot! doo-doot!) . . .’ (a song that, speaking personally, I always thought was inane).

Dostoevsky’s particular wrinkle on this concept was to decide not (as one might expect from his having lived in a labor camp) that Arbeit Macht Frei, but that suffering – the only prospect available to him — makes for happiness. (Yeah, I know — Go figure.) And, rightly or wrongly, he ascribed this to all the other Russians, as being their bent and lot in life, too.

As for Russia’s best hope for the future, Dostoevsky became persuaded, as a result both of his experiences in prison – where the guards were notable chiefly for their brutality and a lot of the ‘common criminals’ managed to exhibit a phenomenal degree of humanity — but also because of his epilepsy-induced religious visions, that Russia’s best bet lay not in overthrowing the monarchy and embracing Socialism in a strictly economic sense, but rather in all Russians’ uniting in a great brotherhood (so Socialism in a more strictly social sense).

So this universal banding-together he attempted, in his writings, to bring about. And did well with it: by the time of his death, at the age of fifty-nine, in 1881, he was at the peak of his popularity.

None of this is to say that he was not very deeply compassionate toward others’ suffering. He was. But he also thought that great good could somehow come out of all that pain in the end. Dostoevsky was a walking set of contradictions in this and in other ways. Despite his deep human understanding, he at the same time lived like his darkest characters. (Both his wives, for example, were really long-suffering.) He spoke out in his writings against militarism; his private diaries say different, and, once living free in Siberia, he joined up. And – anticipating, or perhaps paralleling, Nietzsche’s direction in philosophy (Birth of Tragedy did not come out until 1872), some people are of the opinion that little doubt that he did find murderers who were able to kill without guilt or remorse fascinating, and to a degree even sort of maybe kind of, in a way, admired them.

During his free years in Siberia Dostoevsky had access to books other than the Bible, the works he loved the most being those of Charles Dickens. Dickens had a profound effect on his writing; The Old Curiosity Shop,which provided Dostoevsky with numerous ideas for his work cheerfully entitled Humiliated and Insulted, was not only a special favorite but struck some chords near home. Borrowing from OCS, H&I has a heroine named Nellie, a thirteen-year-old orphan, whom a man named Vanya saves from an abusive household by taking her to live with him.

On a deeper level, Dostoevsky seemed to be the real-life mirror-image of Dicken’s character of the grandfather in Old Curiosity Shop. Both were addicted to gambling, and bad at it. Dostoevsky forced his second wife, a woman half his age, like Little Nell’s grandfather forced her, to travel around with him like a gypsy or a tramp.

Of course Victorians generally were deep into the cathartic rush of emotional intensities – Melodrama Is Fun kind-of-a-thing – and Dickens kept them weeping crocodile tears, month after month, as Little Nell suffered and wept and clung piteously to life and hung onto cliff-edges during the serialized installments of The Old Curiosity Shop. This taste of the times would have gone a long way to accounting for Dostoevsky’s entrenched belief that suffering not only ennobles – as well as toward helping him justify to himself how unhappy he kept his own family members.

But prison life blighted not just Dostoevsky’s family, but many from this area. So it is not surprising that the music of Omsk (no, that’s ‘Omsk,’ not ‘Angst’) reflects the psychological darkness of their prison labor-camp experiences. The songs of the Siberian Folk Chorus, a couple of whose titles are ‘I Was Making a Shirt’ and ‘What Is Burning, Burning’ and which was in fullest voice around fifty years ago, are darker and rougher than those of folk choruses for other areas of Russia.

So, in answer to a musician friend from LV who asked me if I thought the Gulag had affected the music and the musicians of Russia, I would have to say the answer is a half-yes. We see such effect here; more when we arrive in Magadan Oblast (Section VIII, coming up) – whose music and culture is the most terror-ridden and infamous of them all. There seems to be a harsh, altogether grim quality to the music from this part of the world that should make the Region a delight to Goth fans (see if you don’t agree); as if, among people who have been pushed to the brink, there is an I-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude, when it comes to expressing themselves. Another reason why, ironically, the music from Western Russia seems more ‘repressed’ than that of the people of black, White Siberia.

Grazhdanskaya Oborona, an 80’s punk band from Omsk, at times sounds almost Death Metal, spent their tour evading the KGB. Yegor Leteov (dead young, at 43), the band’s front man, was a case in point when it comes to free thinking within Russia – his attitude seemed to be, ‘We’re patriots, but not Nazis; all totalitarians, right, left, of all colors and stripes – fuck you.’ Something like Dostoevsky, he seemed to want there to be a united Russia, but was skeptical of all the methods that were being employed to try to run it.

I would conclude by saying that there seems to be a character of resilience, determination, and individualism that is unique to Siberia and differs very plainly from that of Western Russia. In certain ways Siberia even seems to be closer to the unbridled (Kentucky and) American spirit than what perhaps characterizes other parts of Europe or Asia (I could be wrong here). (Could it be all those horses?)

But while there is a kinship among all Russians that, I think, one intuitively senses, at the same time there does seem to be something of a gulf between Eastern and Western Russia. Those Russians with their roots in political exile may have never fully recovered or may never have reconciled themselves to the frustration of their original ideals.

And, despite the parallels that there might seem be between the Siberian and the American spirits, how starkly the two can be differentiated is evidenced, perhaps, in the fact that in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, when we were producing Abe Lincoln and Mark Twain and Will Rogers — humorists – they were producing Dostoevsky.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKZ9_67WnAg Siberian Russian Folk Chorus sings “I Was Making a Shirt”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SXVlSw1Vb0 “Siberian Russian Folk Chorus” – What is Burning, Burning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCE-t7wTil4 Nyet bez lyesa – Siberian Folk Choir

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m94tRyvwVS4 Siberian Russian Folk Chorus sings “Age Old Pines”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gFC3n9lRRU “Siberian Russian Folk Chorus” – Taiga

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i5wjTskmqc **Siberian Russian Folk Choir – The Bear Dance

Crime & Punishment Documentary Part 2 of 8 (turn on CC ‘English AutoTranscribe and go to 5:54)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eeFMnN67jY Dostoevsky – Biography, History, Impact (Russian source)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8XmDvh_cDA clip from Russian Film on Dostoyevsky being saved from his execution at the last second.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKZ9_67WnAg Siberian Russian Folk Chorus sings “I Was Making a Shirt”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-OLO9_ULeM Omsk-Dostoyevsky Charity Ball Waltz (you can’t make this stuff up – am sure that Dostoevsky participated in many balls while he was in the Omsk Labor Camps).

http://www.youtube.com/user/CzarDodon/videos?query=%22House+of+the+Dead%22 (Czech Composer Leoš Janáček) From The House of the Dead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIWOsZAMQdA Requiem for a Dream.Mikhail Vrubel`s Paintings (Painter form Omsk) (who sometimes combined European & Asian styles)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POo_uym6KlU Eduard Kunz (Classical Musician) Cliburn SemiFinal 2009 Performance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBi6_jzl5aU Eduard Kunz, Scarlatti: Sonata in B minor, K. 197

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faKVk2ha4YA Grazhdanskaya Oborona – Mertvye

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdvKQUA-oh0 Grazhdanskaya Oborona Dezertir

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K6N7HVadEk Grazhdanskaya Oborona – Nekrofiliya

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9utsHTAvoB0 Grazhdanskaya Oborona-Vpered! (original)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_zGG9L6Orw Grazhdanskaya Oborona – Horosho

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZTNUqp57Jk Grazhdanskaya Oborona – Bespolezen (1985)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOyfccNromE Grazhdanskaya Oborona – zoopark (based on American 50s doowop)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0dpip39DAI Grazhdanskaya Oborona (Гражданская Оборона) – Chelovek cheloveku volk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5VWxczsVHU Grazhdanskaya Oborona-Zombi 1986 (Siberian Omsk-Punk) (almost death metal)

Tomsk Oblast (Tomsk): Convicts, intellectuals, Decembrists, Bolsheviks and other Revolutionary-types, Polish rebels, 17^th-c. Jesuits – the list goes on and on. Since 1638 the City of Tomsk (and the City of Narym – where Stalin was sent and sent people of his own) and Tomsk Oblast has been a place of exile, and that has only stopped in the last twenty to forty years (or has it?). In an odd twist, the raison d’etre of the place has imparted to this University town its flavor – from the building the City and the establishment of its institutions, much as in Irkutsk, in a sort of subterranean, unintended, and unacknowledged brain-drain out of Moscow.

What else is found in Tomsk, besides peat bogs, wetlands, and marshes? A.: Oil and gas reserves – plus another formerly-closed city, Seversk, got reclosed again in 1992, just a year after it was declared open by Yeltsin, because another really bad nuke disaster occurred there. Seversk, the former site of the USSR’s plutonium- and uranium-enrichment (read, ‘nuclear weapons’) facility, is the only place left in Russia, possibly, where one must still get permission and go through checkpoints to get in or out.

Still, I found a Youtube clip which had been uploaded by some of the City’s teenagers that shows them dancing around happily in the streets. (Ironically, one of the top ten nuclear disasters occurred in the City a year after it was no longer considered a secret City after a tank exploded after being cleaned nitric acid releasing a cloud of radioactive gas – also ironic since Chelyabinsk was made secret by the USSR after its explosion. The media under-reported this event anyway for whatever reason).

Further relevant to local levity, there are two statues in the Region that caught my eye: the first one of a cartoon wolf, which is unofficially titled ‘A Monument to Happiness.’ The wolf it depicts is a character from a 1982 short film called Once upon a Dog. The dog and the wolf form an unusual partnership in which each makes sure the other is OK; the dog because he has been thrown out for being clumsy and in-the-way. Starving in the woods, he meets the wolf, who takes pity on him, and they hatch a plan whereby the wolf kidnaps the dog’s former masters’ baby, so that the dog can make a show of rescuing the kid and come off a hero.

Then, in the dead of winter, while residents are making Christmastime merry, the wolf comes cold and hungry to the dog (who is now well-fed and warm). The dog sneaks the wolf into a Yuletide banquet and positions him under the table, where the wolf feed contentedly under he is discovered (whereupon the dog pretends to chase him out).

In the end these two bosom pals must part, and the wolf return to his forest solitude. But we are now in a position to appreciate that the film, and its title, are allegorical for life in Siberia: ‘Happiness Is’ when freezing exiles arrive and are befriended by the up-against-it-but-surviving locals, so that, courtesy the locals, everyone survives, but, returning the favor, the local scene gets massively improved by the new arrivals, and then both are now equipped to go their separate ways again, now happy . . .

There is a well-known composer, Anatoly Alexandrov, who comes from here. But the high-tone intellectualism of the place, and its strong scientific focus, appear to have qualified these folks more as enlightened enjoyers of music than as innovative musicians themselves. So, possibly ironically, if the exiles hadn’t come, we might see more of a signature music scene here, as we do in Novosibirsk, where the wolf and the dog don’t part at the end, but more thoroughly intermarry.

The Region’s other light-in-tone statue that seems especially worth mentioning is of a buffoonish, cartoonish, effete-snobbish, pompous caricature of (of all people) Anton Chekhov. It was erected in response to the fact that, when Chekhov visited the town, eh wrote that all the residents were dullard drunkards (the intellectuals included). You may or may not be aware that the City of Louisville had a parallel episode transpire, in which a famous other, than other than the celebrated Charles Dickens, visit our fair City and then publicly wrote disparaging comments about the Derby City and its residents. Instead of erecting a statue of Dickens, Louisville elected to put up a plaque honoring the asshole.

Also from the Region is Edison Denisov (the area’s descendants of exile name their children after Western inventors and other notables), a mid-20^th-c.avant-garde composer who retains melodic elements – and in whose work giant pauses are so dramatically effective as to be like ‘notes’ in themselves. Some of his pieces would fit well in a horror-film score. My favorite composition of his is one in which he took a variety of sounds from live birdsong and edited them in such a way that the birds themselves were making classical music (no instruments added). It is entirely fitting that this should come from this hyper-lovely Region.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQeBOKDGivw Edison Denisov: Birds Singing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjtPg2RN_Hc Edison Denisov Requiem I (belongs in a 60s/70s/80s psychological horror thriller)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzL8Lh6xrI8 Edison Denisov: Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9b2jWG0RHc Edison Denisov Sonata for Clarinet Solo 2 mvt. Narek Arutyunian Clarinet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP4SLT66_S4 Once Upon A Dog (1982) – Animated Cartoon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meHZIHYBXdk Alexandrov – Six Preludes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE-lCbaJ2ek Anatoly Alexandrov – Obsession passee Op. 6: I. Longing, Languido

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni3v97rMp3E Teenage Russia Dance From Seversk City

*****Tuva (aka Tyva) Republic (Capital, Kyzyl): Tuva is a ‘Rootin-Tuvan’ musical goldmine – a multitude of Scythian riches (the ancient Persian culture left some of the greatest archeological finds of gold and other treasures). I have given Tuva two extra asterisks for that reason (along with Altai Republic & Khakassia) (and as a result will be handling the links differently compared to those for the other Federal subjects: paragraphs and the multitude of links will be interconnected). Have known about Tuvan music since the days of the documentary ‘Genghis Blues.’ If the musical riches of Tuva are only started to be discovered and promoted, what other well-kept secrets might be hidden in this vast, musically-ignored, but prominent country?

One of the few prominent outsiders who did think of Tuva (the official geographical center of Asia) as his own country and did not want to conquer it was, ironically, Genghis Khan. In fact, his second-in-command, who was responsible for the sacking of Europe, was a Tuvan. Tuvans do not see themselves as Mongolians, although there is of course some relation; nor do they see themselves as Chinese, nor even as Turks (to whom they are also related – always those back-and-forth invasions from Europe to Asia to Europe . . .), but rather do they see themselves as their own separate culture/people, despite their having been tossed back and forth among Chinese, Mongolian, and Russian rule from one time to another. (Tuva was supposed to have been its own country from 1921 to 1944, but it was really controlled by the Russians.)

(Interesting that each of these cultures that has been mentioned has a real passion for the Horse.)

Speaking of passions, theoretical physicist Richard Feynman (with his best friend Ralph Leighton) was obsessed all his life with going to Tuva — Leighton wrote a book about their exploits in 1991 called Tuva or Bust (about the time Tuvan recordings were starting to reach our shores – and Feynman’s papers, giving him clearance to go from the USSR, arrived in the mail a day or two after his death). Feynman asked, essentially, ‘Tuva or not Tuva; that is the question.’ (Ironically, it would have been so much easier after the collapse – and especially today). In retrospect, Feynman’s infatuation over an isolated Russian Republic has resulted, over a twenty-year period, in turning it into a tourist destination and almost making its music mainstream.

That doing for an intro, I want to get right to the music. (Who wouldn’t?) If you find yourself clicking on every single link, I wouldn’t be surprised (for Paragraph on Tuvan Instruments – see after first set of links):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2gkSXRCZfk Scythian Archeology in Tuva

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPSKkZjpn7s Tuvan Postage Stamp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mifi5iPzd8&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLF52C598B5CC0F5D4 Richard Feynman – Quest for Tannu Tuva Playlist (Five Parts)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZCCekUbPs8 Tuva or Bust Play

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrS3BtGhn-Y Tuvan Shamanistic religious ritual

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha1dFpiVe58 Tuvan epic tale of the f-to-m transgendered hero epic Boktu Kirish

The Region of Tuva is of course famous for its distinctive throat-singing, which often overshadows their wonderful musical instruments, integral to Tuvan music. So, let’s explore them first. Many of the instruments, like throat-singing, are designed to imitate the natural music we all like, meaning, nature, birds, brooks, wind, and horseback riding. Their basic musical instruments are no different than in any other culture: guitar/banjo-like instruments, fiddles, drums, zithers, and simple noise-making instruments like bells. Best way to explain each one is through a brief description and links:

http://www.alashensemble.com/instruments_doshpuluur.htm Doshpuluur (three-stringed, plucked, square instrument comparable to the banjo – their guitar) (single- or double-necked)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQdCUKdUE80 Chanzy — video only (guitar which is similar to ours)

http://www.alashensemble.com/instruments_chanzy.htm Chanzy — description only

Bichii chanzy (a mini-Chanzy with a higher sound – no link found)

http://www.alashensemble.com/instruments.htm Igil (horsehead fiddle) – info & audio example

http://www.alashensemble.com/instruments_byzaanchy.htm Byzaanchy (bullshead fiddle) (a type of fiddle whose playing is described as milking a cow; the word ‘Byzaanchy’ is rooted in the Tuvan word for calf )

http://www.alashensemble.com/instruments_chadagan.htm Chadagan (zither)

Yat-kha (a long. Korean. gayageum-like zither – no link found) (Yat Kha is also the name of a throat-singing rock group)

http://www.alashensemble.com/instruments_kengirge.htm Kengirge (large frame drum) and Shyngyrash (bells placed on top of drum)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1cGZHzPI8A Dungur (Native American-like drum used for Shamanistic purposes)

http://www.alashensemble.com/instruments_xomus.htm Xomus or Khomus (Jew’s Harp)

http://www.alashensemble.com/instruments_murgu.htm Tuvan Wind Instruments (murgu [end-blown flute with no holes], shoor (long, end-blown flute similar to a quray), limbi (side-blown flute with holes), amyrga (hunting horn that imitates Siberian red deer) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOS3rq-IsKI Shoor Flute video

Ediski (birchwood bird imitator)

Xapchyk (dried bull’s scrotum rattle with knuckle bones from sheep – wonder how on earth that sounds? but, no luck — no links found)

The instruments with no individual audio or visual representation probably feature in some of the music links below – and, um,– there is plenty of it!)

And I’ve dug up this really intriguing tidbit on just how demanding throat-singing really is, technically: while a regular singer sings only one, the Tuvan throat-singer is singing a multitude of tonal styles simultaneously, which could well be in opposite ranges (one deep, one high-pitched, in other words), with whistling or humming added to the mix. Impressive, right? Or is ‘I would have thought such a thing was flatly impossible, never EVEN could have envisioned it, let alone TRIED it,’ more like it?

Beyond that, what do you want me to say regarding the different styles of Tuvan throat-singing – it is fucking bad-ass! Just read the descriptions and watch the links below – rather than my attempting a lame description of the various styles that cannot possibly convey, I would rather want the uninitiated reader to be ‘hit’ with this music and to experience it as I did when I first heard (of) it. If you still do have your throat-singing cherry, what an experience you’re now in for ! You’ll never be sorry you clicked on these links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNWMPhnGp9M Ensemble Tuva – The 5 styles of throat-singing

Khorekteer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZn3e4UvZKs (hardest to find example of – term could also be used to refer all styles)

Khomeii http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfeAKC3307k (the most common style; the raspy, froggy drone – the backbone of throat-singing) (done here by an American, by the way, who appeared on one of those awful reality talent shows – and was shamelessly ridiculed by the shameless producers [no, not Americans this time], who, unbeknownst to themselves, were only demonstrating their own cultural gaucherie)

Sygyt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d92-hEhPTok (the famous quavering, whistling sound)

Kargyraa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4rppeqXjsc (deep, earthquake sound with high-pitched, whistling undertones – singing very deep and very high at the same time) two types – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihLEmRG7v7I the deeper mountain Kargyraa and the raspier, higher-pitched steppe Kargyraa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-qzpqOt8oQ

Borbangnadyr http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eittJ0DPPs mimics streams/brooks – recorded with a stream in the background.

Ezengileer-style singing (with doshpuluur accompaniment) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DrZ6GOaWAA mimics the sound of horseback riding

Chylandyk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjEIb_ck6bw mixes Karyraa and Sygyt simultaneously

Dumchuktaar (mixed in with other styles) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqRdGXuCsT8 throat humming

http://rt.com/news/prime-time/interview-with-olga-masalkova/ Opera singing & Tuvan throat-singing

(Wow! It’s all here! Can’t get enough of that Sugar Crisp . . .)

And, finally:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsSenMfLc_s Tuvan throat-singing (referred to in another link, above) on ‘The English (and One Canadian) Judging/Humiliating Americans For Their Own Financial Gain On American TV’

Before I get into the musicians themselves, I want to briefly describe the three periods of Tuvan throat-singing which have so mightily impacted worldbeat music in the past 20 years – there is: 1/ pre-collapse of Soviet Union; 2/ late 80s to Genghis Blues; 3/ after Genghis Blues. In the days of postage stamps and ‘Tuva or Bust,’ when Tuvan throat-singing was only a figment of one’s imagination, a musical unicorn heard only by a lucky few who were picking up USSR radio stations occasionally, perhaps rarely, that were playing the music on ham/short-wave radios (blind bluesman Paul Pena discovered it this way, but am not sure of the time period – he seems to be the first non-Tuvan or American to imitate the music out of love and sincerity). In Tuva itself, there really weren’t any groups that I am aware of – except for Oktay, a children’s ensemble, which still exists, founded in 1985 and dedicated to singing ‘Russian’ music.

All that dearth of exposure started to change with the first well-known group to tour the West, which was known as the Tuvan Ensemble and was founded one year before the collapse. The 90s marked the first boom-wave of Tuvan music; there was an explosion of groups and individual performers making recordings in this time-period, not only traditional groups, but also the first Smithsonian folkways recordings, as well as groups who wanted to incorporate Western-style music. And it happened all it once. This period also marked the first time Westerners got to see Tuvan musicians perform – it is when the first wave of touring artists came through. (This is how Paul Pena first met the master Kongar-ol Ondar in San Francisco, who invited him out to Kyzyl to perform in the annual symposium talent show – Tuva’s Got Talent!?!). Every single, known superstar of Tuvan throat-singing came from this period: Kongar-ol Ondar, Sainkho Namtchylak, Chirgilchin, Huun-Huur-Tu, Yhat-Ka, et al., as well as recordings from masters like Tumat Kara-ol, the controversial Vladimir Oidupaa Oiun, aka Oidupaa, and others.

When Paul Pena, dubbed ‘Earthquake’ by his friend Ondar, first performed in the symposium and won his style-division’s ‘Kargyraa’ (the prize was – right — a horse; just the thing for a blind American), with a documentary crew filming him, he and the crew were the first Americans many Tuvans had seen – (and this was almost a decade after Richard Feynman passed away). What struck me about the documentary was how sincere the Tuvans seemed to appreciate that an American would be fascinated enough to imitate Tuvan music and go to the trouble of participating in their national contest. Pena was self-taught, and he was the first non-Tuvan that Ondar heard sing Tuvan music (I believe). (Now there are Westerners every year participating in the Symposium.) The film was released in 1999 and has since acquired a cult following (especially among white males, who started imitating it – most notably Sean Quirk, who moved to Tuva, married a Tuvan, and now manages Alash). The film release, coupled with the fact that Tuvan throat-singing took off via YouTube, as well with the availability of all of these CDs on Amazon, has made Tuvan throat-singing so now kind of mainstream that it gets mentioned on TV shows like Big Bang Theory and True Blood. Twenty years after Feynman, it is much easier for an American to travel to Tuva (and vice-versa) than it was for him – and both cultures can ‘trade’ via exposure to the Internet.

I think that Tuvan music will continue to evolve and will handsomely repay those who continue to watch it. We have yet to see what might develop as Tuvan music undergoes continuing exposure to other cultures and as other ethnic groups (mostly us) start to incorporate the Tuvan style into their music (as the Asylum Street Spankers have). Tuvans have always have been able to keep their culture intact (thanks to their former relative isolation), but at the same time their musicians have been not afraid to experiment with other styles, which they have managed to do without losing their musical identity. What I hope doesn’t happen is that Pop erodes/weakens the Tuvan cultural music as it has elsewhere.

Too bad Feynman didn’t get to live to see Tuva (Leighton did) and the wealth of info about Tuva that has emerged to the world in the past two decades. Even in the 80s, travel books on Central Siberia avoided talking about the place, whereas now one can see an aerial view of the country anytime one wishes via Google Earth.

(Paragraphs on individual artists and corresponding links come after these links):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky7WflOknrU PTASHKA -Oktay

http://www.purenaturemusic.com/#!oktay—russian-old-believers-children%27s-choir Oktay samples

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-F-RxvXPB0 Tuva Ensemble – Performance by Gennadi Tumat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t3myy1Hb2k Throat Singing – Tuva Ensemble – Ögbeler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwtkqzaB9s8 Tuva Ensemble – Vancouver Folk Festival – Performance – 1992

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t3myy1Hb2k Throat Singing – Tuva Ensemble – Ögbeler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnrAfFmyMLg Tuva Ensemble – Khomus Performance by Anatoli Kuular 1992

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8Lr_27MkzA *** Genghis Blues (Full Movie) w/ Paul ‘Earthquake’ Pena and Kongar-ol Ondar

http://movie.subtitlr.com/subtitle/show/129252 Genghis Blues Full Transcript

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0if2T0atID4 Tuvan throat-singer with Guitar and possibly Western folk-influenced (Paul Pena perhaps)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh3o1_whqu4 Tuvan throat-singing by the Asylum Street Spankers on Bob & Tom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-RsB4a4ogc Tuvan Throat Singing on Big Bang Theory

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arWNPor5AEw Tuvan Throat Singing in True Blood

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tuvan+throat+singing+tutorial&oq=tuvan+t&aq=3&aqi=g4&aql=&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=69524l72073l0l75314l11l11l2l0l0l0l164l977l5.4l9l0 multitude of videos of White Dudes giving Tuvan throat-singing lessons (WTF!??! – boy, aren’t we arrogant – most Tuvans hone their skills through childhood & adult life, like practitioners of flamenco and other similarly demanding art forms)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbpslQD080Y Japanese man doing Tuvan throat-singing

Here are the first guys who were played on Russian radio or were released on the first Tuvan recordings. These guys should be regarded as legends of throat-singing in the West, as I am sure they are remembered in Tuva – but names like Tumat Kara-ol, Oleg Kuular (the first Tuvan to sing in the US), and others are already starting to be forgotten – probably due to lack of internet, touring, and recording presence. The one possible exception, ironically, is black-sheep Oidupaa, whose style of singing was banned from the symposium for many years. He spent more than half his life in the prison work camps (33 yrs.) and was considered to be a rabble rouser by the Soviets and was not really liked by his own people. He is the Leadbelly of Tuvan music, in other words, and, much like Leadbelly, he lived in his world, playing in his own style with the accordion. He took his native art’s traditional form and made it personal, unique, and artistic. (More musicians after links):

http://www.amazon.com/Tuva-Voices-From-Center-Asia/dp/B000001DGS/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1331769404&sr=1-1 Tuva / Voices from the Center of Asia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3Vj7WGWMGg&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL0475DA6890B3FB87 ***Oidupaa Vladimir Oiun Playlist (Divine Music from Jail)

Tumat Kara-ol – the forgotten legend (no links – but is featured in Genghis Blues – was Paul Pena’s idol along with Oidupaa)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tObL2t_DGQ Sygyt — Mergen Mongush

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO9eJBx13mM Anatoli Kuular: Borbangnadyr

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-qzpqOt8oQ Steppe Kargiraa – ‘Fedor Tau’ & Mergen Mongush’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuNPVQ_Yrg8 Oleg Kuular

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnjGKTgE2iw Balgan Kuzhuget’s Jew’s harp set to a woman on a toilet!?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuNPVQ_Yrg8 Oleg Kuular

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEJZZLz7e-Q Igor Koshkendey — Dingildai

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD2HP7PJOjA Oidupaa – Only You

Kongar ol-Ondar: this venerable dude is the Modern Master of Tuvan throat-singing and educator – his personal goal is not only to be an ambassador of Tuva and throat-singing around the world, but also to teach young children so they can have the same opportunities he has had. He is the one responsible for bringing his American friend Paul Pena and the documentary crew of Genghis Blues to Tuva. His impact on Tuvan music cannot be understated. He has performed with a variety of musicians, ranging from Bela Fleck to Willie Nelson to Randy Scruggs to Native American singer Bill Miller (whose singing style resembles Tuvan Shaman) – and has performed on Letterman! (More musicians after links):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD-VGQGPpZY ***Different Styles of Tuvan Throat Singing with Kongar ol-Ondar (& Bela Fleck)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVyyhHFKI8E ‘Kongar-ol Ondar’ on David Letterman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgnud6S5m9A Tuvan Jingle Bells – Kongar-ol-Ondar & Bela Fleck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoR23_308Q4 Where Has My Country Gone? – Kongar ol’Ondar & Willie Nelson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MleqbNfYa64 Kongar-Ol Ondar and Bill Miller (Native American type Shamanistic singing) – Alash Khem – Back Tuva Future

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugeyOCrs_4M&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL800C364E5D4533D3 Kongar-ol-Ondar Playlist

Sainkho Namtchylak – This lady is the Diva of Tuvan throat-singing and, like Madonna, she rises from the ashes. Very successful since the early 90s, she was beaten (and raped?) into a coma in 1997 (which lasted for several weeks) by jealous thugs on a return trip to Tuva (there is some sexism directed toward women with regard to throat-singing though attitudes have greatly improved in recent years – thank God). Doing Tuvan throat-singing set against music against modern pop, electronic music, and experimental jazz – this Vienna-based artist infuses nature, traditional, and her own style – and at times reminds me of Yoko Ono, but I love her anyway. Personally, she was one of my all-time favorite musicians regardless of genre and location. Sainkho surpasses boundaries both personally and creatively. Boundaries are nothing to Siankho.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXI0HcC1VRk&feature=autoplay&list=PL61EDFBD62020A06F&lf=results_main&playnext=2 ***Sainkho Namtchylak Playlist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MATlEKqauvk&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL11FF845FFDC448BF ***Sainkho Namtchylak Playlist #2

Tyva Kyzy (headed by Choduraa Tumat) is an all-female throat-singing ensemble, and of course they have toured the world. Despite a lot of people’s preference for the male singers, and despite the fact that men can perform a lot of throat-singing technical feats the ladies can’t, female Tuvan throat-singing has always had an edge over the men’s to my ear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_3wvsBvL2g&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL0AF3E794215DD729 Tyva Kyzy Playlist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJr5aCVNjzk Choduraa Tumat

Chirgilchin! This touring group features one of my favorite Tuvan performances of all time – they are notable for having a female throat-singer who sings along with the males, making a bold (in their culture) statement against sexism. Chirgilchin has performed with Laurie Anderson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZvYPxWExuc Chirgilchin Darlaashkyn – Freedom Song.wmv

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkrH7rrefgA Chirgilchin – Mongun-ool Solo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPUqSgKi0PI Chirgilchin – Goats

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qqS5zO9S7k Chirgilchin – Lonely Man

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lrWaMGSeyk *** Chirgilchin – Chirgilchin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adTyJKq2FS4 Chirgilchin & Laurie Anderson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgJhrZn8o-s Chirgilchin – Khoomeige Yoreel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK4SwWn0UMk Dembildey – Rock Version – Chirgilchin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5Zx5xxQXxU Chirgilchin 8-minute long, fantastic performance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXh5_G9NjJI ***Chirgilchin – Daglarym (one of my favorite throat-singing performances of all time)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7VEKSYP9JE Chirgilchin throat-singing with peacocks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJWaVlGc31k Chirgilchin in Wales

Alash Ensemble, a popular touring group, now managed by American-Tuvan transplant Sean Quirk, are, like K. Ondar, traditional but not afraid to perform with other Western musicians of other styles. They have performed with Western performers ranging from Sun Ra Arkestra to Bela Fleck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsQQxSKFa44 Alash-Ensemble, Ene-Sie ‘Shaman’s Prayer’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQuSo0VL8q4 Alash Ensemble w/ Bela Fleck – Jingle Bells

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5xwPSWqUw0 Alash Ensemble & Sun Ra Arkestra – ‘Amazing Grace’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIaTlQpja6I Alash Ensemble ‘Dyngyldai’ – Arts Council of Princeton

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avPX-4wTB0E Bela Fleck and Flecktones, Alash, and Casey Driessen – ‘What Child Is This?’/Dyngyldai

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vdw8RB9xEI Alash Ensemble ‘The Reindeer Herder’s Song’

Olchey is a newer touring group which appears to have either European or American members: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO42AVg6SeM

Yat-Kha (named after the zither) was formed at around the same time as these other, more traditonal groups, and in some cases earlier (1991). Despite their being mostly Tuvan, they formed in Moscow, and they mix Western-style music (rock & metal) into their music and kick ass. They have their original songs but are more known for their covers ranging from Joy Division to Motorhead. I love them: they are like a musical bad-ass teddy-bear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_8CPhfTxyU Yat-Kha – Love Will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division cover)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6DP1aFeHbs Yat Kha – Black Magic Woman (Santana cover)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5FqWPeDZM8 Yat-Kha – When the Levee Breaks (Led Zepplin cover)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBkRI_aDFKo Yat Kha – Orgasmatron (Motorhead Cover)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2ZVpFL8uqk Yat Kha – In A Gadda Da Vida (Iron Butterfly cover)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQxahlynNOE Yat Kha – Ahoi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bJKnXhPnS8 Yat Kha – Eki Attar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykeTkyVgUVY Yat Kha – Coming Bhudda

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qClXtvkxsVA Yat Kha: Yenisei Punk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKeDseoUZXg Yat Kha – Kaa-Khem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUqpShR8WcY Yat Kha – Toccata

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4IwxzU3Kv8&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL5071FEBAE29D16AB Yat Kha Playlist

Of all the Tuvan bands that have gained a cult following here and helped to make the Region’s music famous was Huun-Huur-Tu – and I think the reason why may be because they brought a sense of fun to their music. They performed with a variety of different performers, perhaps more than any other Tuvan artist, anyway: Frank Zappa, Angelite (the all-female Bulgarian choir), Kronos Quartet, Moscow Trio, Carmen Rizzo, The Chieftans, bluesman Johnny Watson, the Japanese Kodo drummers, and Hazmat Modine).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bDntRWfL70 Huun Huur Tu – Chiraa-Khoor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsVzm-rgS-w Huun Huur tu – Kongurei

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBP3Dq2UXJY Huun Huur Tu & Hazmat Modine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRC7fiCNZCY Angelite (Bulgarian Female Choir) & Huun-Huur-Tu – Fly, Fly My Sadness

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIejNvRVU_A Angelite & Huun-Huur-Tu w/ Moscow Art Trio

Khakassia Republic (Abkhan):

The music of Khakassia has always been traditional but inventive and blends well with modern music. How to wrap the mind around Khakassian music? The first thing I notice is that there are a lot of female musicians. And, although there is throat-singing, it is not the main aspect of the Region’s music. Its two principal traditional instruments are the homys, which is a two-stringed banjo with two giant tuning pegs that look like they belong on a weaving apparatus of some kind; and the chathan, which is a kind of lap zither.

You may have heard about music-writer Nick Tosches (Where Dead Voices Gather, et al.), who was also the biographer of the legendary Emmett Miller: the minstrel-cum-falsetto-yodeler-cum-jazz artist from Macon, who was at the height of his career in the 1920’s. Tosches had wanted to write about Miller all his life, but when the moment came – what he found was that there was almost nothing to be found, in terms of Miller’s personal history and early life. So instead he had to cover just Miller’s plethora of styles and the mega-giants he influenced: people like Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Merle Haggard, Van Halen, Bob Wills, and Leon Redbone. (As for the mark he made on jazz, he gave Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey and Gene Krupa their training in his backup band.) So Miller was sort of a musical Yeti: big footprint – but little ‘Miller’ to be found to go with it.

If he wanted to, Tosches could have a field-day in Khakassia: enigmatic emergences of musical figures, effecting startling new musical hybrids, but who subsequently disappear – but NOT leaving no trace. Leaving big trace. One such figure of Khakas music would be the rock group Kaigji (from some decades past). Another is the mysterious Tom Sibday, who first materialized on the scene – then dissipated, like mist – after first Russian-musically inscribing ‘Kilroy Was Here’ for all those coming after to find.

I also love modern Irenek Khan. (It’s great to know garage bands exist everywhere.)

I don’t know if any Khakas folk groups or bands have toured the US as of yet, but hopefully that will change, and some will come to our shores so we can sight them. One possible contender here is Ulger, author of Khakas folk music and traditional dance that strikes me much like modern (rock). And, as if that weren’t enough, Western-style Valdiswar Nadischana appears on the surface to be ethnically Russian but grew up four hours away from Abakan. He is an amazing man who invented the dzuddahord, a three-in-one, combinatory instrument: mandola, guitar, and gusli all in one. This now Berlin-based artist plays over a hundred instruments, in fact, especially the folk instruments of vast Siberia – a land so big (5.1 million sq. mi.) that, were it independent, it would be the largest country on earth. (So I guess they need over 100 instruments, to fill all that space.)

Ah, immense tracts, originating at points now invisible, stretching to infinity and leading us who-knows-where along the way! Kakash culture, music, and people are as heaven.

http://nadishana.com/ Nadishana WS

http://hang.su/ http://nadishana.com/ http://www.framedrums.net/hang-cd Nadishana’s Personal Playlist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_yZAHBBoxY Ulger

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO1FoAG805g Ulger

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lByxFUvkBpo Siberian shamans: ancient magic in the modern world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR58fDl6jRs Russian Esoteric Academy of Happiness (Siberian Shamanism)

Khakas Anna Burnakova, Sergey Charkov, Slava Kuchenov, Aleksandr Samozhikov, Yevgeniy Ulugbashev. Folk music ensembles include Aylanys, Sabjilar, Ulgher, Khyrkhaas.

http://www.purenaturemusic.com/#!sabjilar—folk-music-from-khakassia Sabjiilar samples

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz0DHEmAgsc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaFd7bLMMfs Female Khakas duet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMyjWXoWcfE Same Female Elderly Singer from duet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZga7GVxtpQ Khakas Folk Song among Friends/Family

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLmEBvFBnFo Russia Music on a Khakassian Bus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnvtFWYwGig khakas group with traditional instruments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_EP5m98ZRI Irenek Khan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnnXaX8jZSs **”Irenek Khan” — Saryn Sarnaza
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4329GF0TK4 “Irenek Khan” Song of the Young
http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3YPMuRndX0 “Irenek Khan” – Kurgans
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqA6CD5sh1w “Irenek Khan” – The New Beginning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqFHqAQKZVw khaigjy (mysterious khakas rock group from yesteryear)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC121dmXIqI Ulger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDF-0bht95U Khakas Dance & Singing – Ulger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf_SYTRukJY Khakas Dance & Singing – Ulger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TfqCNYrZCs **Throat singer Eugene Ulukbashev performs the song and plays Khakas folk instrument chathan with Classical Orchestra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh_FKLUsC9s **Julia Charkova Khai epic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc7SysX16Qk Julia Charkova sings Takhpakh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPOAlblLlQ8 Han Tigir Ensemble – Khakasia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxEWMmAQ2AU Haunting Khakas Duet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK_APOB3T1o Tom Sibday? Playing the Chathan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7-mF4CxzM0 Homys (a Homys appears to be a two stringed giant instrument with two giant tuning pegs)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfgUk9CJDHc Homys maker Mr. P. Topoyev
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls83HN5Meqk National Orchestra From Khakassia (incorporates Native Khakas music)
http://www.khakasmuz.org/ Khakas Music Blog With Videos Added Everyday!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT3DfWdE5bc Ornate Khakas Classical Singer

To Russia With Love: Ural Federal District (aka Western Foothills of the Urals)

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Mar 032012

Ural Federal District:

1 Kurgan Oblast (Capital: Kurgan) 2 ***Sverdlovsk Oblast (Capital: Yekaterinburg) 3 Tyumen Oblast (Capital: Tyumen 4 ***Khanty–Mansi
Autonomous Okrug (Capital: Khanty-Mansiysk) 5 Chelyabinsk Oblast (Capital: Chelyabinsk) 6 ***Yamalo-Nenets
Autonomous Okrug (Capital: Salekhard)

Kurgan Oblast (Kurgan): A kurgan is a kind of tomb/burial mound. Not all Russian Regions turn out to be balletically swan-like or to produce great ‘Aht.’ One example is the oil/gas- and Russian pop-rich Oblast of Kurgan. Kurgan is sort of noted for its revolutionary adopt-a-granny-program, where grannyless Russian families can adopt a never-married, childless senior woman and take care of her. Aging in Russia is purportedly one of Russia’s greatest social challenges (even given their other, overwhelming social problems such as war, terrorism, national disasters, and crime). (I might like to add modern Russian pop to their list of most pressing social challenges.)

But seriously – even amid conditions such as these, art can bloom. Of course (a truism), it is often precisely from and out of conditions such as those that art is created: that notorious Russian capacity for tragedy and suffering, that Dostoevsky famously noted, is not unlikely the progenitor of much that is passionate and intense – and thus artistic – in the Russian national character. So where one does not always find a lot of art from bleak areas, one can often find some pretty great art about bleak areas. Given Kurgan’s cultural bleakness (the sort of milieu that can conjure up in itself a kind of Cormac McCarthyesque, grotesque exoticism), perhaps relevant at this point is the (to me) brilliant and remarkable 1999 documentary Bread Day, by writer-director Sergei Dvortsevoy.

Though it was filmed 80 km. from St. Petersburg (and we are better than 1,000 miles east of St. Petersburg at this point), and though the film’s creator was himself born in Kazakhstan (and the Urals are far north of Kazakhstan), the fact that an Adopt-an-Old-Woman program originated in Kurgan Oblast would seem to suggest that Bread Day captures a poignant and tragic social dimension that characterizes much of Russian reality across a huge expanse of its geographic area.

Bread Day itself is a simple – a very Simple – artistic construct: it records the weekly ritual whereby the (increasingly aged, in fact now quite elderly and largely decrepit, and thus increasingly depleted number of) residents (the elderly, alcoholics, and goats) of an isolated Russian village go out each Tuesday (if I’m remembering correctly) and meet the delivery train that brings them their bread supply, and fetch it back. Through the snow. Deep, deep snow.

Because the thing is, the bread delivery train only comes so far – not completely into the village. Someone, or some number of someones, must hike out to where it stops; and then from there, where the narrow-gauge boxcar bearing the loaves of bread (black bread, naturally) has been uncoupled and left standing on the track, then push the car along the track into the village the rest of the way.

Ohmigod! So – (next question you, that everybody, has is, so How Far is it on into the village, that these oldsters have to push this railway car???). Well, Dvortsevoy tries to answer this for us: most of the film consists of the camera trudging along behind the this-week’s bread retriever (because there is only one person, this week, who is able and willing to go – and – you guessed it – it is an ancient lady, whom we have just witnessed on film trying, angrily, to rouse one or more other elderly villagers to trudge out with her – but this octogenarian Little Red Hen’s efforts to get anyone else to help out have failed, at least for this week).

So first, in the film, we visually walk along . . . and walk along . . . and walk along, behind the old lady, on the way to where the boxcar with the bread’s been left. Then, we watch (painfully) as she pushes the boxcar, all by herself, along the tracks, heaving and swearing, pushing the car along . . . pushing the car along . . . slowly, slowly pushing the car along . . . for MINUTES of agonizing film-time.

Finally, she/we arrive back at the village. Boxcar is opened – door slid back. Camera jumps into close-up, focusing in on the bread on the boxcar floor, and – SHOCKER!! The bread is not stacked. There isn’t enough of it. The bread, that has occasioned all of this herculean and inhuman effort by this pitiable, aged woman, is at first barely visible down there, consisting as it does of just a few (half dozen, maybe?) baskets of loaves of bread – a quantity that could be easily carried by a couple of people, it looks like – or maybe even by one, if they came equipped with a large enough bag or basket or even shoved some of the bread loaves into oversized coat pockets.

Why, then, has this woman elected to push an entire train car all that way – and she does this every single week! – when all she’s trying to convey weighs maybe 2? 3? pounds at the most — if that? Or – why doesn’t she just hike out and bring back a loaf or two for herself, and leave the rest of her neighbors to do the same? This latter question becomes especially pointful as the film’s next sequence moves on to What Happens at the Bread-Store Once the Bread Has Been Brought Back.

And what happens there is that the proprietor, or local bureaucrat, or whoever he is, behind the counter proceeds to argue violently with anyone who comes in requesting a loaf of bread – he refusing to give them any, on the grounds that there’s not enough to go around. Basically, he tries to talk everyone who comes in into going without entirely. The only way to get him to give you any bread is to have an exhausting shouting match with him, yelling at him (again, for minutes on end) that you really do need something to eat. Apparently anyone not up to screaming loudly or long enough at him just misses out for the week. The old woman who stars in this follow-up sequence inside the glum little boulangerie is a particularly screechy and unpleasant old battle-axe – a veritable real-life fairy-tale witch, and no mistake. But then I guess she needs to be, in order to get anything.

The horrifying take-away from all this is supposed to be what a crime it is, what these old people have to go through, just to survive – how they have been abandoned by their social system to an end-of-life fate like this. And that’s certainly enough of a punch. But the other thing that whams you as you see this is the godawful power of mere, dumb Habit: one can infer that, long ago, the bread boxcar did have to be pushed along into the village because it contained a lot of bread – more than could be carried — because there were still a lot of people there, both who needed to eat the bread and who could march out and tow the train car. But, despite the dwindling of supply, need, and human horsepower over a lifetime, the Procedure never has changed. It’s never occurred to this old woman – to any of them – to do things a more efficient way. It seems like these peasants must all be a bunch of fairy-tale simpletons.

And of course the final Question one is left with from this gritty, unforgettable cinematic experience is, What’s going to happen when the last of the old people in the village (and this old lady might be exactly that) is no longer able to go get the bread? Well, the answer doesn’t take a rocket scientist from Western Russia to figure out, it seems simple enough – they’re all going to starve. And despite the simpleness – the obviousness – of that fact — despite the surreal Grimm-ness and unreality of it all — it seems doubtful that a Simple Hans is going to happen along and win magical benefits by selflessly helping the old woman out of her near-hopeless dilemma. (I mean, given her ability to get that train car into the village, which she has unbelievably managed to do right before our very eyes, at her age, it might seem like she really is a witch possessed of magic powers – but, in the end, I don’t think she could possibly have gone on much longer. Think of that very much, and she starts to haunt your dreams . . ..

Well – we’ve trudged an awfully long way to get here to Kurgan – and the supply of music here turns out to be about as meager as the bread on the floor of the train car on Bread Day. But, such as it is, here it is (and I guess, given conditions in some places throughout Russia, one can understand . . .):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggno4jZ2Wpg Maxim Fadeev – Googoosha (in English)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9G7DQbDFlc Yulia Savicheva – Otpusti Menya

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCi_fa-Vszs Elena Temnikova (Russian Idol 2)

http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/68398/bread-day.html Reviews of Sergei Dvortsevoy’s documentary Bread Day

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0176568/ Further specs on Bread Day

***Sverdlovsk Oblast (Yekaterinburg): Russia has surprised me with its vast number and variety of ethnic groups, even within relatively contained areas. And the same goes for its mined resources. Thus, while in the US, the disparate minerals tend to be more spread out and ‘specialized’ – i.e., gold (once) here, silver there, coal someplace else, other minerals other places — in the Ural Mountains all minerals co-exist in a spot as if they were appearing in a Disney animated film – Disney’s The Minerals: coal, oil, natural gas, titanium (some of the world’s largest deposits), gold, salts, bauxite, quartz, nickel oxide, aluminum, platinum, emerald, aquamarine, jasper, malachite, chalcopyrite, manganese, potassium, magnetite, chromite, malachite, amethyst, rhodonite, andradite, beryl, and (last but not least, speaking of Disney – I can hear the bird chirping even now) diamond.

This close proximity of all different types of valuable minerals is a lot of what make the Urals fascinating. Imagine being a prospector there – you might discover either oil or gold or coal or diamonds – with so much there, how can one miss? But even so, with mining, along with the valuables that are excavated, a lot of hard, crappy, valueless rock come with it.

That description could also be applied to the music of the Sverdlovsk Oblast and its Capital Yekaterinburg (the 4^th-largest city in Russia due to the wealth of its vast resources). It is appropriate there are a lot of rocks nearby — Yekaterinburg is one of Russia’s Rock capitals and is even known for its own genre, dubbed ‘Ural Rock.’ (some of it valuable; most of it crappy rock). UR is (not surprisingly) a little heavy, with the biannual Old New Rock Festival set in freezing January and then again in July. If St. Petersburg is the Beatles of Russian R&R, so to speak, then Yekaterinburg is the Stones. (Pun intended.)

Late avant-garde artist poet/singer-songwriter Alexei Khvostenko, aka Khvost, hailed from Yekaterinburg and used to co-perform with the St. Petersburg band Auktyon. (Honestly, if I just heard him without knowing who he was, I would have just assumed he was part of the Ural Rock movement.) Some of the more popular bands/performers included Chaif, Nautilus Pompilius, Trek, Chicherina, Nastya, Agata Kristi, and Smyslovye Gallyutsinatsii.)

Yekaterinburg fills a rather notorious place in last’s century history as the site where the royal Romanov Family from St. Petersburg were kidnapped, imprisioned, and eventually executed by the Communists. That of course included the mythically famed Anastasia and her siblings, heir Alexei and Maria. Unfortunately the DNA evidence has proved that the urban legend that they escaped to be just that. However – speaking of indestructible and diehard Russian women, it has also been asserted that the girls along with their mother, the Grand Duchess Maria, taking a page from her Spiritual(ist) advisor, the famously nearly-impossible-to-kill Monk Rasputin, did survive the first effort to execute them because the GD sewed all their family jewelry into their brassieres to act as body amour (hell with the men!). There are other, less showy stories, of the lesser, less-showy people who were involved in those events: there was also a guard, who hated the Royal family as much as everyone else, until he met them. After that he contemplated rescuing them but was too much of a coward to actually do it. Darn. And never mentioned are all those around the Tsar’s family, who served them, and were included in the massacre: their family doctor Yevgeny Botkin, valet Alexei Trupp, cook Ivan Kharitonov, and maid Anna Demidova.

The State Ural Folk Choir Collective spent over 60 years vocalizing and touring the world with an altogether varied repertoire: comic, game, wedding, and traditional national songs, and lyrical and round dances. Not sure if today’s Ural Folk Choir and Dance Troupe is related to the one of yesterday. Am getting to the point where I can actually tell the difference in the sound between Folk Choirs West of the Urals (heartier, extroverted, cheerful) and Choirs East of the Urals (lonelier, dark, haunting). These people are particularly interesting as being the watershed.

Other of Yekaterinburg’s musical things-of-note include several popular venues/classical groups (such as the Sverlovsk Academic Theater of Musical Comedy and the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra); Vladimir Yelizarov’s recording studio, SVE Records; the historical Father of Radio Waves, Alexander Popov; the nationally famous opera star Yuri Gulyaev; and a baffling statue that honors Michael Jackson of all people.

Yekaterinburg Oblast is also known for being the place where Jenkins, KY native Francis Gary Powers in his U2 plane was captured for spying (and inspiring the name of a very popular and influential band!?!). Powers flew, one might note, from one coal field to another, was sentenced to ten years (three years of imprisonment, to be followed by seven years of hard labor), all of which was blessedly cut short, so that he could be exchanged in a spy swap. Last year the Air Force announced they would award him a posthumous Silver Star (Powers died in a ‘77 bush-fire helicopter crash), in honor of his ‘steadfast loyalty, sustained courage, and gallantry despite cajolery, trickery, insults and threats of death’ — which came from both from the Soviets and from the US Government and others in his return home.

Come visit Yekaterinburg, Russia’s mining and minerals capital city of the Urals – formerly one of the former hearts of Communist Country and thoroughly dangerous place to visit, now transformed to a thoroughly modern and open safe City in just thirty years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shigir_Idol (Oldest wooden sculpture in the world, found in the Region in 1894 – 7500BCE)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i6Et7QE1G8 ** State Ural Russian Folk Choir – very old record (side 1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JduLY3xWgo ** State Ural Russian Folk Choir – very old record (side 2)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyP1Aev0ERA Moya Rossiya. Ural Folk Choir

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9kELUNz8PA Белым снегом.(White Snow Ural Russian Folk Chorus)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd6dfuae6OM Kate Popkov and Ural Folk Choir ‘Lullaby’ (Today’s )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8ckC_iUZJc&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLD2959AB284C5854C (Fall of the Romanov Dynasty Playlist – The Story of the Bolshkivek Revolution Using Actual Rare Film Stock)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q5i4ZGtv00 Alexei Khvostenko, aka Khvost

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i7yMVM_Xwg Alexei Khvostenko, aka Khvost Чудовище /Нега Неголь

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v1C6Pyw_uY Trek/Nastya – Ural Rock Festival (Big Rock Festival?)

Agatha Christie (band) Nautilus Pompilius (band) Yelena Konshina

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EanutlSL4wY Nautilus Pompilius – Прогулки по воде

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT1c7wJ0Njk Nautilus Pompilius – Chained Together (Washington, DC Concert)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxTtdND84yI Chicherina – Poka

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc1aMjkWn5U Chicherina – Sama

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnmiLRANuEI Chicherina – Tu Lu La

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycPFTHNurmU&feature=autoplay&list=PL59D3267268610E9B&lf=results_main&playnext=2 Chaif Playlist (11 Videos)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-vt9b7LDos Agata Kristi – Opium

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-3GwTXzkkg Agata Kristi – Dva Korablya

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S3KbYvWs6M Dmitry Geller – Boy, aka The Rain Horse Part I ‘Script by Oleg Bogaev’ (Oleg Bogaev – local playwright)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCqV_i3wRp8 Dmitry Geller – Boy, aka The Rain Horse Part II ‘Script by Oleg Bogaev’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMJcq2jsW3o Musical & Operetta Gala (Academic Theater of Musical Comedy at Yekaterinburg)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S18qej3LQXc Alina Ibragimova on freedom of expression in Britain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA7Fev_uLWQ Yuri Gulyaev – Il ballen (Verdi ‘Trovatore’)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WgCUNIXib8 ‘Yuri Gulyaev’ (Tchaikovsky, ‘Iolanta,’ Robert’s Aria)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxJm7pvczN4 Ural Philharmonic Orchestra (Dimitry Liss Conducting) Bruch Violin Concerto No. 3 (1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiYP4GiobyM Ural Philharmonic Orchestra (Dimitry Liss Conducting) Bruch Violin Concerto No. 3 (2)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-nl-dMupnE The Trial of Francis Gary Powers by Red River Dave

Tyumen Oblast (Tyumen): The term ‘Siberia’ refers to anything West of the Urals; and most of it has always been considered dank, dark, and inhospitable (despite its vast mineral wealth) (and the only reason why you would be there was always assumed to be because you were exiled, imprisoned, or forced to work in labor camps).

But Tyumen is beautiful and relatively new-looking, with its relatively new population owing to the multitudinous oil and gas in the Region. It is amazing that a place that was considered Verboten for hundreds (possibly even thousands) of years could suddenly become such a civilized, desirable place to live in a matter of decades. The social fabric of Tyumen is interwoven from 30 different other cultures (including a prominent Chuvash group), and I have seen it referred to as ‘the real Siberia.’ So it is perhaps ironic that this Region has produced the most whimsical, childlike, and imaginative of musicians, dancers, and entertainers, ranging from American popular songwriting icon Irving Berlin (who remembered it as a hellhole); ballerina and American film actress Tamara Toumanova (whose mother was a Georgian Princess, apparently of Polish-Armenian descent) (TV trivia: she apparently provided Kukla’s name to famous Western puppet trio Kukla, Fran, & Ollie); Pyotr Pavlovich Yershov, author of the fairy tale ‘The Little Humpbacked Horse’ (a camel? or just a deformed horse?); and Alexander Alyabyev, composer of ‘The Nightingale,’ who went to prison (in Siberia) for supposedly murdering a gambling partner.

Then there is the larger than life, egomaniacal, alcoholic, opium-addicted (due to a knife wound by a crazed ex-prostitute), sex-crazed (he can’t be all bad), holy-man /healer/hoaxter (he had a charismatic power over women), who wriggled his way into the confidences of Grand Duchess Maria Romanov by claiming to be able to heal hemophiliac heir Alexei. That’s right: Rasputin himself. I am sure he has reincarnated into a Hollywood actor. (His assassination in 1916 by several of the male Royal Romanovs, supposedly in cooperation with the British Secret Service, was botched several times, when it seemed that nothing could kill him – likely he had taken care to gradually build up an immunity to several poisons — until he finally expired under the pressure of being severally shot). In retrospect, it seems that the male Russian Royals were kind of wasting their time killing a ham like Rasputin, when they could have concentrated – on – I don’t know – perhaps Lenin!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1Mt9yBfGnI ‘Dancing Cheek to Cheek’ – Fred Astaire in Top Hat (Irving Berlin)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJSUT8Inl14 ‘White Christmas’ – Bing Crosby (Irving Berlin)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co6-tYS9k1U ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’ – Young Frankenstein (Irving Berlin)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG3PnQ3tgzY Taco – ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’ (Original Uncensored Blackface Version)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECL1h133Dps ‘Blue Skies’ – Willie Nelson (Irving Berlin)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLh-m1Z_feY ‘Always’ – Frank Sinatra (Irving Berlin)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BBLIMlgnaM Backstory on the writing of ‘Always’ (it was originally written for the Marx Brothers on Broadway)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4plpRCUqj4 Tamara Toumanova and Serge Lifar – Impromptu Dance in an Australian Garden

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=xyhOvGU_uUU Tamara Toumanova as The Doll in a Ballets Russes ‘Petrouchka’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWTx6_IGWU4 Days of Glory (1940) w/ Tamara Toumanova and Glen Morgan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehIqw2hS-pE Tamara Toumanova and Gregory Peck in Days of Glory [1944]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIm6emjewu8 Tamara Toumanova – Solo from Don Quixote

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D12P4v6Kw20 The Little Humpbacked Horse (Ballet Version) (The Animated Frescoes), Pyotr Pavlovich Yershov

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN_2BPgLDos Alexander Alyabyev – ‘The Nightingale’ (sung by beautiful voice Anna Gaifullina )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flR4WI_M8Xg Alexander Alyabyev: ‘Choosing a Wife’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71WkjSEXII4 Alexander Alyabyev: Violin Sonata in e minor, Adagio cantabile

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEEsJC07_h0 Chuvash in Tyumen Russian News Clip w/ Chuvash Dancing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UUBSx85TzI Mi kredas nur je mastoj kaj kuraĝo (based on a story by Vladislav Krapivin)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhow8SR7SRw Finala kanto de ‘La Trio de Karonadplaco’ – based on a story by Vladislav Krapivan)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvDMlk3kSYg ‘Boney M’ – Rasputin, aka ‘Russia’s Greatest Love Machine’ (not the greatest lyrics, but surprisingly not far off from historical fact, although he may not have been Grand Duchess Maria’s lover – “lover of the Russian Queen”)

***Khantia-Mansia Autonomous Okrug (Yugra): U Khanty Touch This Region Musically! Fortunately there a lot of recordings here, in the Oil Capital of Russia (the drilling in Yamalo-Yenets’ vast oil fields is a recent development – which could be the one of the many reasons why we are drilling in the tar sands of Alberta – are there some aspects of the Cold War left?). The music and the people of this Region seem to have an identity crisis: the ethnic walls/barriers by which we have been taught to distinguish Europeans from Asians from Arctic/Native Peoples come crashing down in Khantia-Mansia.

What would you say to an ‘indigenous’ Arctic tribe that has been in this region for over a thousand years and is related to the Finnic-Ugric Peoples (like the Mari, the Karelians, Komi, and others) but also has its lingual roots traceable to the Hungarian language? – Well, that would be the Khanty and the Mansi, who have similar Shamanistic rituals and beliefs to the Inuit and other Arctic peoples, and (the Mansi) are an endangered people, making up less than 2% of the Region’s population. Complicating their roots further, the Hungarians, aka Magyars, are also strongly related to the Oriental-looking Madjars (Magyars and Madjars) of Kazahstan, and there is possible evidence that the Hungarians came from Central Asia. So when Genghis Khan came knocking on the door of Hungary to ‘invite’ it in his empire (which was at that point about ready to implode), he was knocking on the door of an old foe and not really a foreign people).

Someone uploading Khanty and Mansi music videos online has tended lately to be setting tradtional music with with light pop and techno music backgrounds, and that is producing an interesting variant that ‘highlights’ the music, bringing out the beat, and is not intrusive at all. There is nothing wrong with making regional/traditional music more palatable to mass markets if it helps get the music out there and it doesn’t destroy the substrate music itself. (So you can follow the bouncing ball on this development, I have marked which links [singing/dancing/instrumentation] have the pop and techno backgrounds.)

There is a great rock band from Khanti-Mansia by the name of H-Ural, which combines R&R (defined as Sugri-rock – i.e., acoustic guitars intermixed with electric guitars, traditional instruments, singing-styles, and folk songs). They are fucking fantastic, unbelievable (whatever GD cliché’ed adjective you might want to use that is guaranteed to get your attention).

To sum up: mining (so to speak) just north of the Ural Mountains, there are a shitload (there is no better adjective to describe a lot than ‘shitload’) of music, especially ethnically-based music.

Who can make great music? The Kanty-Mansi can – ’cause they mix it with love and make the world taste good . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03uQKIuDigc H-Ural – Hanti-Mansi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl82gJcz6sA **H-Ural – The Crow Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E2z-BQeQmk H-Ural – Saly Urne Oika Eryg – Old Hunter’s Song – Песня старого охотника

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKrdCSq_20c H-Ural Song of the Bear

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq2XfIJkQTM H-Ural – Mish Ar (The Song of a Mish Spirit – Good luck dance) (live)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wBEi1I3ym0 hanty Song ‘Ļaņki’ (‘Squirrel’) with hip-hop beat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCkrPOXIw5o Olga Alexandrova sings Khanty-Mansy Shamanistic song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cCRv-Y3J1Y Khanty song ‘Akem ar’ (‘Old Man’s Song’)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff_peM6zro8 Khanty Dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA3RjAbOuD4 Male Khanty performing a female dance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmjYHN770n0 Khanty Song with some history

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3u9xdXO-28 **Mansi music on the Sangkvyltap with traditional stringed instruments

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3ZQjwvNkSI Mansi Song (with light pop beat)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gec0BSTaNds Mansi Song ‘Kukkuk’ (‘Cuckoo’) (with light pop beat)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLC-yOjU9SE Kurinka (The Mansi Dance)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PCMcOKALbw Mansi Song ‘Hos Oś Ńor’ Мансийская песня

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRiDXumd1Og ** Виктор Шесталов – Мансийская №4 Mansi Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpaYqf6LIiU Мансийская песня ‘Аюмне’ Mansi Song ‘Ajumne’ (with pop beat)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrTijdOJm44 Khanty-Mansi Dances and Song

see Russia today http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDqC42oR9oo Mansi & Khanty Tumran (Vargan)

http://www.youtube .com/watch?v=ZjKx3NtaXWI ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ in Khantia-Mansia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QddPWzD_alk River Ob Girls’ Song in Mansi language (w/ techno beat)

http://www.youtube.com/user/mrdojs/search?query=the+mansi Playlist on the Mansi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmna38W1OXQ Mansi Part 3 (has traditional Mansi musical instrument)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QwzNjCLN_o Old Manty Women Singing

http://www.myvido1.com/wUW5kcU5mWzEGbGFWTxsWP_mansi-song Manty Song (w/ Pop beat)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj_fHPg-HHg Hungarian Language and its relation to the Khanty Mansi (Hungarian language might be one of the most root-ancient of all European & Asian languages)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxVz1cZYnMU The Magyars of Hungary and The Madjars of Kazahstan

Chelyabinsk Oblast (Chelyabinsk): Chelyabinsk’s capital, formerly dubbed both Tankogrand (‘Tank City’) and ‘Atomic City,’ with its top-secret atomic nuclear research, perhaps once targeted on the West (and closed to all foreigners from 1957-1992 due to one of the worst – perhaps the worst — atomic/radioactive accident ever (even worse than Chernobyl) – leading to a massive cover-up by the Soviet Government), was actually purposely omitted from the Russian map during the Cold War. (Look for the three-eyed fish.) The fact that Chelyabinsk is the most radioactive/polluted area in the world is especially tragic since the area has some of the most beautiful, whoo – gorgeous touristic scenery in the Urals.

Several years ago Danish filmmaker Boris R. Bertram created the documentary Tankograd, about a dance company based in Chelyabinsk that interprets modern dance by day and go-go dance by night. . .

Seventies rocker Alexander Gradsky, from Chelyabinsk, grew up listening to Western Rock that had been smuggled in by his traveling dancer uncle, and ended up defining the fine link between Classical and rock. He would have been famous in the US if he had been English (although he did collaborate with John Denver in 1986 and has performed at NY’s Carnegie Hall). Another find from the area is Russian 70s & 80s Progressive Rock band Ariel. Additional music notables include Oleg Mityaev (bard/actor); Anna Trebunskaya (Dancing with the Stars celebrity dancing partner); Lera Auerbach (pianist); Viktor Suslin (Russian composer); folk metal band Kauan; and Pavel Zhagun (poet/trumpet player raised in the Ukraine).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0MyU8Vab8s Tankograd Trailer: Story about a World Class Dance Company in the most radioactively contaminated place on Earth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLNjYZLexx4 Dancers living the dream in Chelyabinsk, Russia (from the movie Tankograd)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM_cmjSaGzM Romance for Lovers OST (1974) Alexander Gradsky, George Garanian and The Melodia Ensemble

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyzJIJqIhfA ‘Yesterday’ — Alexander Gradsky, Larisa Dolina & Yevgeny Svetlanov’s Orchestra

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isuiokmX2cQ Oleg Mityaev – Proidet Zima

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFwSYIeptss Oleg Mityaev ‘Krepites Lyudi, skoro Leto’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ6uZdl3opQ Anna Trebunskaya and Evan Lysacek freestyle on Dancing with the Stars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkt1LetdbcM GOGOL by Lera Auerbach (world premiere)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omy2eufUuAM Viktor Suslin ~ Madrigal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdPDKeUNSYw Kauan – Orkidea

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZylVombQ2E Kauan – Suora Liila Sydänkäyrä (2011)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSoyefVd0UA Soviet pop band Ariel performs funk (1977)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jluCP3g_6rA Ariel (incorporates Russian Folk (1983) ‘Порушка-Параня’ (1983 г.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ms-l_jqv2I&feature=related Ariel Где ждёт любовь (1975)

***Yamalia Autonomous (Yamalo-Nenets)Okrug: (Salekhard)

Even though I have given this Region three asterisks as a way to key the reader to zero in on this region musically (and the same goes with the Komi Republic), Yamalia is still a frustrating enigma musically – and I have little to show for trying to crack it. It is not to say there isn’t good music here – it is just that for some reason little has been recorded from this Region, and what is out there is very rare and hard to find. Mainly I got what I have managed to glean from news reports about gas, oil, and drilling! in which accounts the Nenets or Selkups happened to be standing by or focused on for the moment.

This is frustrating. Musicologists: I know it’s cold up here, but the Arctic peoples are in neglect. Get busy, please.

Perhaps it will encourage more people to come and record what’s here if I we offer some touring experiences from the area (or not):

Reindeer Games #1 – Reindeer herding/breeding is how many Nenets and Selkups make a living – vast, grueling, arduous Arctic journeying takes up most of their year (during which time they are separated from their families). On the reindeer trail, it is symbiosis between man and reindeer – not much money is to be made (to their chagrin they must make money from cutting off reindeer antlers, which they do only out of desperation , but they are careful, at least, which reindeer they select. They are in service to the drug trade doing this, but their logic is that if they don’t do it, other people who don’t care anything about the reindeer will.

Reindeer Games #2 – Yamalo-Nenets is the prize catch for oil and gas drilling. It has the undivided attention of Gazprom, Russia’s #1 gas and oil concern, and Novatek, Russia’s 2^nd-largest, whose HQ is in Tarko-Sale, Yamalo-Nenets. These companies use the local news to tout how much ‘good’ they are doing for the native peoples — improving their quality of life, providing better education, providing better employment, better infrastructure and housing –all opportunities the people would not have otherwise. While that might be to some degree true, if you listen in interviews to the the native people who are being benefited in these ways, they are more angry than grateful due to the environmental hazards, the waste and trash (from steel drum barrels to soda cans) that is being generated and then just left without being cleaned up. I guess they just need to reevaluate their priorities. The Karabash Copper Smelting Plant is supposed to be one of the greatest environmental hazards in Russia. My impression is that the natives would be less upset if the companies and the people associated with them cleaned up after themselves – such a simple thing to ask. And the reindeer are being affected: the lichen that the industrial activity removes is reindeer food and takes an extremely long time to grow back. Then there’s the fact that the locals are unhappy about being forced to move their homes due to the drilling (though the geological engineers claim on TV that the people don’t mind). I can see that – I mean, I never mind being pushed out of my home – do you?

There all these brand-, spanking-new, civilized cities and towns in the Arctic, with thousands of new residents and modern amenities (such as yoga studios – that’s one I can get behind). But how long will it take for these Arctic cities to become ghost towns? A mere matter of decades, I would guess. For now there are some bands forming in the Region as something to do – we find up there the group Vertex. But, unfortunately, they are not incorporating local music of the native peoples.

I do hope that the Nenets and other reindeer-herders will soon become able to obtain (and afford) cell phones and internet access so that they no longer suffer so much from separation from their kids. That is something modernization might be able to offer them. Many hardly get to see their children – not only because the kids leave as soon as they can for opportunities elsewhere, but also because educating children generally requires that they be sent away to boarding school (which of course takes up a large percentage of what little cash the families have). But of course as electronic communication with the world outside steps up, so will emigration of natives from the Region – and as this culture dries up and dies out, what (like the people on Bread Day) will the reindeer, left to the mercy of industrialists, do?

To summarize, I am disappointed regarding not the music in this Region., but its availability. (But that’s not the fault of the Nenets or the Selkups or the Komis). The little of their music I have heard I really liked. The only people who appear ever to have given a shit about recording up there were Melodiya, decades ago. Rare music and dance have been recorded from all over the world by musicologists, and they have done a superb job in most of the isolated areas of the globe for the past hundred years. So hurry up and save the Arctic’s music, too, you guys!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2kKm1Oe7rA Selkup drumming and dancing

http://www.qwiki.com/q/Selkup_people Selkup Qwiki

http://vimeo.com/17931464 Nenets Song about Reindeer, performed by Yaungad

http://vimeo.com/34844298 Nenets Reindeer Herder Migration Documentary (Must See)

http://vimeo.com/24715347 Yuri Kozyrev | Russian Legacy and Loss | Karabash

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SNXCNdpAmo Vertex band ‘Vecher Blagodati’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfsA260xQ2Q&feature=plcp&context=C3214534UDOEgsToPDskLsr_81w5_2LMLA06lzOFn- End of the World Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xq47Vsp764&feature=plcp&context=C30f3ea8UDOEgsToPDskLcVslLpDzgO_GLRpc0NBZH End of the World Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lyuba+mammoth+national+geographic+&oq=lyuba+mammoth%2C+national+geograp&aq=0w&aqi=q-w1&aql=&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=18130l20564l0l23166l18l16l0l0l0l0l158l1481l12.4l16l0 Lyuba – The Baby Mammoth

http://www.amazon.com/Samodeyatelnoye-Iskusstvo-Narodnostey-Amateur-Northern/dp/B005Z25Q3E/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1331096002&sr=1-3 Samodeyatel’noye Iskusstvo Narodnostey Severa (The Art of the Amateur Groups of the Northern Natives) Siberia LP (one of the few recordings out there!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FudYACGcwL8 Nenets – Nenot!

To Russia With Love: Northwestern Federal District (aka NW Arctic Russia, Kaliningrad, and Saint Petersburg)

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Mar 032012

To Russia With Love: Volga Federal District (Where Europe and Asia meet along the Volga River)

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Mar 032012

Volga Federal District:

1 ***Republic of Bashkortostan (Capital: Ufa )2 Kirov Oblast (Capital: Kirov) 3 Mari El Republic (Capital: Yoshkar-Ola )4 ***Republic of Mordovia (Capital: Saransk) 5 Nizhny Novgorod Oblast (Capital: Nizhny Novgorod) 6 Orenburg Oblast (Capital: Orenburg) 7 Penza Oblast (Capital: Penza) 8 Perm Krai (Capital: Perm) 9 Samara Oblast (Capital: Samara) 10 Saratov Oblast (Capital: Saratov) 11 ***Republic of Tatarstan (Capital: Kazan) 12 ***Udmurt Republic (Capital: Izhevsk) 13 Ulyanovsk Oblast (Capital: Ulyanovsk) 14 Chuvash Republic (Capital: Cheboksary)

***The Republic of Bashkortostan (Ufa) has its place in musical history by being the home of the Quray flute and of Rudolf Nureyev. The Quray flute is a long, walrus tusk-like flute that is blown on with the mouth facing down. Rudolf Nureyev was an ethnic Bashkir/Tatar who grew up in a poor military family in the Ural Mountains. Was Nureyev born Muslim? – possibly/likely. (Talk about your secret Asian man.) He was somebody who not supposed to be famous or even a dancer but who somehow beat all of the odds, including his safe defection to the West in 1961. The Republic is also home to one of Russia’s most famous female Rock musicians Zemfira – she does meticulously handcrafted, slick Russian pop; and also one of Russia’s most successful bands of the 20^th/21st centuries: DDT. Visit Bashkortostan and drink your local alcoholic milk. Hip, hip Quray!

Lumen (band)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQVoBaw1AGU Muppet Show S2 E13 P1 – Rudolf Nureyev
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n73-BPvC62o&feature=related Muppet Show S2 E13 P2 – Rudolf Nureyev
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_ptXSzhfaE&feature=related Muppet Show S2 E13 P3 – Rudolf Nureyev

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4kTw-c4hok DDT – Rodina

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhaVzOtzeNU DDT – Eto Vse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPZhRSVrIrA DDT – Osenj (Autumn)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-jWevhdgtI Andrey Gubin (MY DOPPELGANGER) – Milaya Moya

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAs4DO7hAJc Andrey Gubin – Zima Holda

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAC0tXPYOzM ‘The Nameless Guitar Torturers’ Lumen (formerly known as the Nameless Guitar Torturers – listen and you will find out why)

Kirov Oblast (Kirov): Kirov, near the foothills of the Urals, was known during Soviet times as a place of exile. Kirov is a perfect place for exile since there is very little music for entertainment. You have the local, but internationally famous, Kirov Ballet and that is about it. The 1985 film White Nights with Mikhail Baryshinikov and Gregory Hines took place in Kirov.

Farming & grains, ballet, clay statuettes and whistles (dymkovo toys) (place of exile), boredom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUwCNwdR2fQ Kirov Ballet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otLG-7V5tdo jumpstyler battlers of Kirov

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiJOPqUmrxY Gata e Trilho (play fighting with music)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvFr-7RSuqI Spraying graffiti in Kirov

Mari-El Republic (Yoshkar-Ola): The Mari are a Volga-Finnic group that live near the Urals and are divided into two distinct groups, ‘Hill’ and ‘Meadow.’ They are known for practicing a pagan faith based on Nature. Their music, I hate to admit, doesn’t leave much of an impression and a lot of today’s is sung similar to pop music. Modern composer Alexandre Moutouzkine is from Mari-El.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McNl027LeZk Mari Folk Music & Dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5lspRljmOw Mari Folk Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V0rdSKMtxc Mari song “Šüšpyk kalaset ala”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tL58B4cPoY Hill Mari Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7e_Z_h8ZSM Hill Mari Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGgya_-xvdo Alexandre Moutouzkine, Schumann: Fantasy in C major, op. 17

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZTEO9gaBrc Mari traditional song ‘Keče lekteš, ončaleš’

***Republic of Mordovia (Saransk) – Finnish-like/European like — get a little past Moscow and close to the Ural Mountains, and it gets a little difficult to tell where Europe and Asia diverge — although, geographically, the center of Iran is directly to the South.

The Christian Republic of Mordovia (as well as adjacent Chuvashia) can be typified as Bulgar-like CaucAsian, though their language is ‘turkic’) is filled up with the Mordovin people, who are divided into distinct groups with their own language and culture – Moksha and Erzta). Mordovins, purportedly related to the Finns, are almost like the last blast of a clear Europe in Russia before one moves on to the Muslim Turkic Tartarstan and Bashkortostan – but that isn’t really true, either, since the murkiness will continue for some time. But there is another familiar sound to the music of the Mordovin peoples — that of Native American and Arctic peoples. There is a Celtic sound to Finnish music and these EuroAsian people are related to the Finns, and Finnish people have Asianic eyes.. A glance at Mordovia tells us that we are all somehow interrelated. The male chanting ensemble Toorama favoring the Erzya a little more, and playing traditional Mordovin musical instruments such as puvama (a double chantered bagpipe), a garzi violin, drums, and tambourines , was one of the big groups to make Mordovin music popular.

Nizhny Novgorod Oblast: (Nizhny Novgorod) Classical Go Boom! in this former chemical munitions-producing Oblast (putting the blast in Oblast). Nizhny-Novgorod is the consistently Classical Russian music region. Most of the music I find here, whether past or present, is predominantly classical. Nizhny-Novgorod is also unique for its Russian-Jewish composers/pianists (specifically Alexander Krein, who based his works on Jewish folksongs and themes, and Issay Dobrowen) and its young composers/pianists

Mily Balakirev one of the Five — Russia’s greatest Classical wave (1850-1870) who based their Classical on Russian Folk music is NN’s most prominent native.

You know, I’ve always felt you can tell how quickly time flies if you base it on ‘masturbation time’ (i.e., when you started masturbating). Denis Kozhukin – one of the Region’s young classical music notables, was born in 1986 (a mere two years before I started masturbating), Igor Levit in 1987 (just one year before I started masturbating), and Danil Trifonov in 1991 (three years after I started masturbating!). Measuring things in masturbation time puts ‘real time’ into a frightening perspective. (Also, what prodigies these young musical lights are, to have come [pun not intended] so far so quickly . . .)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDb8lx19sGQ&feature=fvst Mily Balakirev – Islamey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlEh8iZUhb8 Mily Balakirev – Toccata

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_MVEnDQszA Mily Balakirev – The Lark (played beautifully and flawlessly by a little girl)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gLugTGrl-8 The First Clip – David Ashkenazi (where a little dancer dances on his piano keys)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn0_x-689PY Alexander Krein – Three Sketches on Hebrew Themes opus 12

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyZgLEtX5eE Alexander Krein – Elegy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1lpe8QFqow Alexander Krein – Ornaments

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5jXY-hZIpY Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 – Solomon/Issay Dobrowen/Philharmonia (1/5)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PJzylKvwH0 Denis Kozhukhin plays Haydn (1 of 2)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lhiSZ2Qh58 Elisium – Chesea Grin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Uh3ocgfjQI BBC Radio 3 – Interview with Daniil Trifonov and Narek Hakhnazaryan 20/09 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8fG7x8tiAA Igor Levit BBC Radio plays Bach

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh-ut5zpkB0 Pavel Filonov (Moscow born avant-garde painter/composer instead of Mikhail Matyushin because I cannot find any links)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8xp0u17ClA Natalia Pankova (paintings of Russian abstract artist)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpelTzG-wnc Folk Orchestra in Nizhny Novgorod

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68ZHcfx3QIE Los Banditos – Kalnka as Techno In Nizhnij Novgorod (Korobeiniki / Korobushka Cover).

In the large breadbasket region (wheat, rye, sunflowers, potatoes, peas, beans, corn, gourds) of Orenburg Oblast (Orenburg), within the foothills of the Urals and its magnificent rivers, one can say – say – um, it is hard to pin down the character of this Oblast; forget the Regional music there — there just doesn’t seem to be any. The only thing that I discovered that makes Orenburg Oblast distinct from other parts of Russia is that that is where the Orenburg shawl originated — the famous Russian shawl. Although, I did find a rock band ОБаНа (Oban) that uses recorders! (from the City of Orsk (known for its archeology and jasper, both things you look around on/in the ground for).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvlaDC7dWtc ОБаНа – Нет проблем (singing ‘Shiny Goose’?)

As one ventures out further east into the Russian sticks, into the Land of 3,000 Rivers Penza Oblast (Penza), one stumbles into a surprisingly elegant and sophisticated Oblast, one with a rich artistic and artisan heritage (consisting of ceramics, food, toys, bicycles, etc.), and including both literary critic Vissarion Belinsky and famed Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov (born in Moscow, raised in Penza region), whose poems have been adapted by many Russian musicians.

Larisa Novoseltseva: M.Lermontov. Zvezda. Music by L.Novoseltseva (Premiere of the song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIasnrYLE6o A Dream (Lermontov) / Сон (М. Ю. Лермонтов) – art song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ7VkRX4lhg Angel (Lyrics by Mikhail Lermontov)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pCyfYeNBe4 Lonely White Sail by Lermontov-2.wmv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7bcqtrwO6M Oleg Pogudin – The Sail (Парус)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWs-eEiqAY4 Maxim Ustinov. Romance to Mikhail Lermontov’s lyric 1831 ‘The Angel’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAD2PHQ1G3Q Libera Sing ‘Mother Of God’ (Lyrics M. Lermontov arr Prizeman)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu-Z_aBOkj4 Галина Беседина, Сергей Тараненко Я к Вам пишу (Lyrics by M Lermontov)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLZC87tLm9E G.Sviridov/M.Lermontov, ‘Your Gaze Is like the Sky’

Perm Krai (Capital Perm): Near the Ural Mountains, in the wintery territory of Krai, there exists an unlikely association between Louisville and Krai’s capital, Perm. Perm is our Sister City, and this seems to be based on the fact that they are both business centers situated below a river of some size (the Ohio for Louisville [I guess you knew that]; the Kama for Perm); they look similar from an aerial POV. Let’s take a look-see for some other possible relationships between Louisville and Perm, Krai: Perm, Krai was known for their gulag labor camps (not as horrific as Magadan in the East, however), but it was a place where one could suffer a beautiful death of hard labor and isolation – while local residents feigned the non-existence of these places and prisoners. (Louisville has Jeffersonville and the West Side.) Perm is known for their bee-keeping and bee acupuncture. Louisville has ‘float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.’ Perm is known for their salt (potassium chloride) mines, while Louisville is known for being Hqs for several major, salty fast-food chains. Perm has the Kungur Ice Cave and Louisville has the decorated-with-lights Mega Caverns underneath the Louisville Zoo during Christmas Season. Ivan Larionov wrote Russia’s most famous song (Kalinka) and Louisville Natives, the Hill Sisters wrote “Happy Birthday” — US’s most famous song. I am sure there are other similarities but I have to move on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8IebXPx7E0 The Aquanauts TV Theme by Yevgeny Krylatovh (Soviet Film & TV Composer)

ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gC_qus3tfg 1980 Soviet Film music by Yevgeny http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwcD_RIFWuk Krylatov ‘Kalinka’ (Калинка) Ivan Larionov (1830-1889) (Folklorist/composer who wrote ‘Kalinka’)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH4fL0rOOFk Vladimir Galouzine and Tatiana Borodina, Chapter 6, Scene 2, Queen of Spades (Opera singer)

Modernity in the middle of nowhere – which is very typical of Russia (wait until we get to Siberia) lies, among other places, in Samara Oblast (Samara). This nexus is a huge airplane transportation hub connecting Russia with Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia. Samara (which has the most Germans east of Germany) has gone through periods where it was open city (some have called it ‘Russia’s New Orleans’ or ‘Russia’s St. Louis’ — the Volga equaling the Mississippi), and it has been a closed city that, despite its modernity, heavy industry, and good-sized population, still smarts of something of isolation. Tolyatti, Samara Oblast’s other big city, is Russia’s car capital, where we get the infamous Lada (the Soviet Union’s chief car) – you know (or maybe not), this sort of boxy dutch oven on wheels (had the experience of being in one once — the heavy smell of the plastic interior never goes away, you could fry eggs on the car in the summertime in the coldest of climates — it is good at trapping heat for cold winters – not surprising, and it is the only car in the world to make one seasick. The car, in other words, is a deathtrap with a personality.

Unlike, St. Louis or New Orleans (more’s the pity), there really is no jazz or blues, but rather chirpy, infectious techno (Ruki Vverh, who has had an international hit with ‘Pesenka’), to show that this is no longer a closed city of the Soviet era – but rather one to make one sing Lada Lada La. (Lada is the Slavic pagan Goddess of Love BTW.)

Ruki Vverh – ‘Pesenka’ (La La La) — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsrklSlDA7w

ATC – All Around the World (based on Pesenka) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRvGZffXhfk

Alvin and The Chipmunks covers ‘All Around The World’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44CjkyzNB_s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHWfIubQBJ0 ‘Willow Weep For Me’ – Yakov Kazyansky (jazz pianist born in Samara Oblast, but now the musical director of the Yaroslavl Puppet Theatre)

Musical Education is extremely important of course and Saratov Oblast (capital, Saratov) seems to lead the way in Russia’s musical education. It is purportedly the home of Russia’s first University, Children’s Theatre, and Conservatory (all three). There is also a small jazz following there. Casmonaut Yuri Gagarin landed in the Oblast when falling from space; it is otherwise known as a Russian parachuting and skydiving haven due to the presence of a former air base. Valeriya is a classically-trained pop star whose videos are really sophisticated in a juvenile, MTV sense. Finally, Saratov was home to the rich & popular, mother of Russian folk music, Llidia Ruslanova who was sentenced to the Gulag for associations with Stalin after the fall of Stalin — she was eventually released, but the experience quickly made her old and frail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLR1CaGlnmw Lidia Ruslanova – Valenki (Saratov)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzADrNmwYI0 Lidia Ruslanova – Katyusha

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5dfWXXMi6s&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLBED89761E338F3F5 Lidia Ruslanova Playlist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGKnyddqO1k –

Jerusalem Fantasy by Alexander Vinitsky, Recorded in Saratov Conservatory

Shostakovich, Concerto op. 35, mov. II.wmv, Vladislava Henderson. Saratov Conservatory Concert Hall http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILD3E_M7jGs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIWre8VCJxc Saratov Choreographic Conservatory

VIII Charity concert for Saratov Region orphans.Art School # 8.August 31, 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK74eUi3wJk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GgEy4QW31g ‘Autumn Leaves’ by Carina Cooper

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9T4qZ1KzFc Nikolay Grigoryevich Minkh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaL57d9R038 Acid Jazz in Saratov

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkq2Lngi060 Valeriya – Wild

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_1nvevRGEw Valeriya – Back To Love

*** Republic of Tartarstan (Kazan) (Tatars): I have just created the new tourism slogan for Tatarstan – Tatarstan: Just Plain Beautiful. Beautiful People, Beautiful Culture, Beautiful Costumes, Beautiful Cuisine, Beautiful Horses, Beautiful Trucks. Tatarstan just plain beautiful. No matter how much I listen to music from the Republic of Tatarstan (capital, Kazan), I cannot get a grasp on it — it is just too much and overwhelming, except that I am entirely fascinated by the Tatar culture, which seems entirely both familiar and foreign at the same time. They are Muslim, and Kazan, with Russia’s largest mosque, is known for being one of the most tolerant and open Russian cities throughout. It is clearly a Central Asian culture with European touches thrown in. I am just hungry to go over and visit Tartarstan and Kazan — Russia’s best kept secret. The cooking is supposedly phenomenal and the women are beautiful — angular, with oriental features, olive skin and blue or green eyes. There is so much music — I cannot say that it floored me as the music from Republic of Tuva has, but it is very good. It is not quite European, not quite Turkic, not quite Oriental — but all of the above. Unfortunately, as Tatar music becomes more influenced by Western music, the more it is in danger of losing its flavor. Although, the most melodic hip/hip group ever, İttifaQ, manages to balance it out nicely. The most striking thing about Tatar music is its use of the pentatonic scale, which is the same, familiar scale as in Chinese and Vietnamese music. The Kubyz is a Tatar Jew’s Harp that you would normally see in Mongol Siberia. (Other Tatar instruments include the Middle Eastern surnay, the Bashkir Quray, and the Russian accordion). Speaking of Tatar Jews, worthy of attention is Aida Vedishcheva, known for her Soviet film songtrack vocals, from the 60s, sung somewhat in a pentatonic scale despite her being Jewish. But that is Tatarstan all over – perhaps one of the most beautiful, unique, fascinating districts in Russia. Oh, did I forget opera singer Feodor Chaliapin (not really)?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX8fzZQhWUI&feature=endscreen&NR=1 Tatar folk song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE6iQ_Lr5y0 Alina Safiullina – Tatar folk song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KGpj14B-kI&feature=endscreen&NR=1 Tatar’s music (Accordion)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSv66gAF_9s kubyz (Tatar Jew Harp)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EAFEqPzFx8 Tala Tala
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SFSk4-bdlM ar Bashkurt Song Yoruzan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtaMpc_gLB4&feature=related Tatar Song Soyembike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB-OfaHuo1w Tatar Song- Music of Tatars in Romania Bostorgay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaQffm2fWYg Ruslan Ğalimullin – ‘Tәftilәü’ – (lyrics by Ğabdulla Tuqay)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMrVMRw4Vbw&feature=player_embedded#! Tatar song Aidar Galimov – Tulpar Atim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVOx08sgB-Y Tatarstan Cөmhüriyәte folklor muzıkası dәülәt ansamble
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQWumM9E0lY Tatar Song Qarligachlar by Asilyar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CIXStULhak Always On My Mind – Alsou

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t533Aa5j6E İttifaQ – Yalqyzlyq
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbZ2Av1_YjY İttifaQ Сəрлəүхəсез» (Татарский рэп!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32-el0A5cDE DJ Noiza & Radik Salimov & Ittifaq – Tügərək sannar (frystale)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=EDmcLF6VcsQ “Sornay” фольклорный ансабль

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEFnOCl5Ufo Sophia Gubaidulina — Biography of a Violin Concerto

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndhlgpe2Phc Tatar şağire Gabdulla Tuqay äsärläre

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tif6dPjWFxM Aida Vedischeva – Something

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uieiD3oJnho Amazing Aida (Vedishcheva) – Come Back, Forest Deer [with English subtitles]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqZgNHJgH9o Aida singing in film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIcPey_PfEw Song of the Volga Boatmen – Feodor Chaliapin for the Red Army Choir (popularized it; became a cross hit in US – Glen Mliler made it into a #1 hit in 1866)

***Udmurtia (Udmurt) Republic: Capital (Izhevsk)

Udmurtia is a musical AK47 (and is where the weapon was invented). Not only is it the birthplace of Pyotr ‘Friggin’ Tchaikovsky (associated with St. Petersburg), but it also the home of the Udmurt people, who have some great, melt-in-your mouth, complex but simple, great (whoa, I’m repeating here) ethnic music. Tchaikovsky was very forutnate, despite having failed marriages, was sort of openly gay and had understanding friends in family in a time and part of the world where gay men were imprisoned or put to death.

The Udmurts are among the Finnish ethnic groups that settled in Russia, but they have clearly mixed with the neighboring Tatars. Also the Udmurts are known for their high percentage of people with red hair! Some of their dancing seems not unlike Flamenco (similar arm movements, palma-like clapping, golpe-like steps – and both incorporate plenty of costume changes). One thing that is a little eye-catching is that there seem to be more male dancers than women, and more women playing the instruments (at least in the clips I have seen). The sound seems almost Mediterranean-like when slow, and polka when not pokey. There are some instruments peculiar to the Udmurts, most notably the Krezh, aka the Udmurt harp, which has a rich, classical melodic sound. Ryba Mutant is an excellent techno-band (possibly the best I’ve heard yet in Russia) and has incorporated Tchaikovsky in one of their songs. Oh God that is good. For added bonus check out Queen’s ‘We Are The Champions’ sung in Udmurt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S76CGGPqI3s Tchaikovsky – Swan Lake

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0cpKzDoOdA Tchaikovsky – 1812 Overture

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNeCaLH52B0 Udmurtide laul – Udmurt song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i32rch9HTYc Udmurtie – Udmurt Folk-song theatre ‘Aika’ Izhevsk music and dance (dancing looks Flamenco-like with the biggest-ass bass balalaika you’ll ever see)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPLp5DXSHIM Dina Vasiljeva from Izevsk (Izkar) Udmurtia, Plays Udmurt Harp (aka a Krezh)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqV4IgCa9n0 Udmurt Music on Krezh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6SDt0zYPFs Queen’s ‘We Are The Champions’ sung in Udmurt (kicks ass) while wearing traditional costumes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6Lrqj5Ijok Ryba Mutant (includes Swan Lake Techno)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kotek_iosif.jpg Tchaicovsky “I’m queer and I am here” photo.

Ulyanovsk Oblast (Ulyanovsk the Capital) is a countryside oblast, on the edge of the Central Steppes, with the huge Kuybyshev Reservoir, mountains, deciduous forests, meadows, national parks, apparently lots of wasps, dedicated animal husbandry (Russian cowboys/ranches?), and a matching abundance of animals and birds (i.e., moose and squirrel — where Rocky, Bullwinkle, Boris & Natasha really lived while Boris & Natasha from Kostroma tried to capture Bullwinkle for his prized milk). But Ulyanovsk is more known for being the home City and Oblast of (get this line-up) Vladimir Lenin, Alexander Pushkin, and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Pyotry Chardynin.

Русский народный танец http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anb1RQI3VLg&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gz79ygcjBw For Lenin!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=746Hf–Pt24 ДЕМОН (Александр Пушкин) / Demon (Alexander Pushkin) – art song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofFQo-ysKSM The Day-Star Is Gone (A.S. Pushkin) – art song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8MkwSnwObE Kazbek Monastery (Pushkin) – art song (Монастырь на Казбеке – Пушкин)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUq0KEXayZQ The Fountain of Bakhchisaray by Vladimir Vlasov words by Alexander Pushkin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2l0ytu8RE8 Ja vas ljubil, I loved you, Alyabiev, words by Pushkin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mypNb1l_C2Q dj vital ft. Ruki vverh – Mne s Toboj Harasho (Haiducii covered it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYlVHvvTAqI Jimmy (Russian Mix!) Ruki Vverh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBBpL11dECQ — Madrem/Mix’usha/Samara Techno Mafia~Victim Of Selfishness (Madrem Remix) [Deepcontrol Records]

I was a little disappointed in the music of the Chuvash people of the Republic of Chuvashia (Cheboksary), where homebrewed beer is more popular than vodka and where Russia’s supply of race-walkers for the Olympics tend to hail from. Chuvashia does have traditional music and dance, but it is familiar and not as grabbing, compared to the art forms they are really known for: embroidery, literature, and making industrial tractors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K9sVKbmILk Chuvash Song & Dance Ensemble
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K9sVKbmILk WMDF2010 ‘Song and Dance Ensemble,’ Chuvashia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4dbhE1f2hU Chuvash Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlAXxFXtEE4 Chuvash Song

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