terrabeat

To Russia With Love: Far Eastern Federal District (aka The Far East And Fishing)

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Mar 032012

Well, I really hope you’ve been enjoying the trip so far . . . lots more to come, and very soon.  You’re eager for us to get there? . . . Super!  But Russia’s a really big place, you know, and it takes us a while to get where we’re going.  Here, we can all sing (so sing along) — that’ll make the time go faster:

‘B-I-NGO! . . .

B-I-NGO! . . .’

Posted by terrabeat at 5:09 pm

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

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Mar 032012

# Flag 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-oRvbGiTI 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- 3rd 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!!!)

    ***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.)

 

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?)

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

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 20th 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 20th-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 3rd-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): Here, at the threshold of Omsk Oblast, we’re entering Russia’s really Dark Dark – as to the mood of the whole territory as well as of its music. 

    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 19th and early 20th 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, 17th-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-20th-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=oLmEBvFBnFo Russia Music on a Khakassian Bus

Posted by terrabeat at 5:08 pm

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 4th-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=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=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.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 2nd-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!

 

Posted by terrabeat at 5:07 pm

To Russia With Love: Northwestern Federal District (aka NW Arctic Russia, Kaliningrad, and Saint Petersburg)

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Mar 032012

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Posted by terrabeat at 5:06 pm

To Russia With Love: Volga Federal District (Where Europe and Asia meet along the Volga River)

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Mar 032012

  1. 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 20th/21st centuries: DDT. Visit Bashkortostan and drink your local alcoholic milk. Hip, hip Quray!

Lumen (band)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MwntaDPJOU Jone Takamäki plays Quray flute
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XaBJIFpTsE qurayQurai (kurai) flute from Bashkortostan ◦¤₪¤◦ Nadishana .com ◦¤₪¤◦
Robert Yuldashev We Will Rock You http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZXli3GdR_g&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTMT5TyhTNw&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLCDFC5F962F274880 Zemfira Kukushka x Zori Zdes Tihie (земфира кукушка)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq1LzypoK2w&feature=BFa&list=PLCDFC5F962F274880&lf=results_main Zemfira Cigarettes – сигареты земфира
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUEFPP0IOtA&feature=BFa&list=PLCDFC5F962F274880&lf=results_main Zemfira ‘Beskonechnost’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUsvJcO5uf0&feature=autoplay&list=PLCDFC5F962F274880&lf=results_main&index=15&playnext=2 Земфира ‘Красота;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6IDpfhjAWw Nureyev Documentary – part 1 of 6

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qgg7IxU-PWk Erzyan folk song, Baevo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMMwEp0NbaY Moksha traditional song ‘Aj säźgata, aj šäkšata’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj5ojMJRqrk Moksha song ‘Ciftamas vele’
‘http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNKBr9DR3L8 Erzyan song ‘Söksj’ (Autumn)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMCc-ZKvdik Lost nation – Mordva (Toorama)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQaFZmGt1JQ Toorama #1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgC5-eXmrY0 Toorama #2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rm7vKNarL0 Торама (Toorama) ‘Имя финно-угорского мира’

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

 

Posted by terrabeat at 5:04 pm

To Russia With Love: Central Federal District (aka European Russia)

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Mar 032012


Central Federal District

1 Belgorod Oblast (Capital: Belgorod) 2 Bryansk Oblast (Capital: Bryansk) 3 Vladimir Oblast (Capital: Vladimir) 4 ***Voronezh Oblast (Capital: Voronezh) 5 Ivanovo Oblast (Capital: Ivanovo) 6 Kaluga Oblast (Capital: Kaluga) 7 Kostroma Oblast (Capital: Kostroma) 8 ***Kursk Oblast (Capital: Kursk) 9 Lipetsk Oblast (Capital: Lipetsk) 10

***Moscow 11 Moscow Oblast (no capital) 12 Oryol Oblast ( Capital: Oryol) 13 Ryazan Oblast (Capital: Ryazan) 14 Smolensk Oblast (Capital: Smolensk) 15 Tambov Oblast (capital: Tambov) 16 Tver Oblast (Capital: Tver) 17 ***Tula Oblast (Capital: Tula) 18 Yaroslavl Oblast (Capital: Yaroslavl)


Belgorod Oblast (Capital – Belgorod): where half of the world’s iron ore is located. So, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that there is a solid concentration of Russian Heavy Metal here! Belgorod has some of the most beautiful and scenic quarries in the world — most of it iron; some of it chalk; some of it good fossil-finding grounds. You would think it would be a dirty Oblast, but it is known for having the most relaxed and clean towns/cities in Russia. Belgorod actually has more of a European in look and is very close to the Ukrainian border. This Oblast is also known for the Great Battle of Kursk, fought in WWII: the stage of the largest tank battle in world history, right there in the village of Prokhorovka; and it is home of the extremely talented, hopelessly romantic bard/folksinger Nikolai Silchenko.

Nikolai Slichenko – Милая http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6o1Xvghb2Y
Nikolai Slichenko – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9BxS7iAwVA “Ах, ручеечек, ручеек”
Nikolai Slichenko Очи чёрные http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz_ykWW_C38
Belgorod Beatdown http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xowpzoh5hG0
Septemberdead – Holy War http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO5ia7WvDnE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6ozwsXpkXk Cia de Musica classica de Belgorod, Russia

Bryansk Oblast (Bryansk) — Let us ‘brisk’ through pretty Bryansk, which borders the Ukraine and whose residents were affected by Chernobyl (one doesn’t want to stay too long in a place like that). Bryansk looks like a place where Russian soldiers would be shot in a James Bond film during a winter scene. Music-wise Bryansk is known for being the home of the ‘Russian Nightingale,’ Evgeny Belyaev, famous soloist of the Russian Red Army Choir. He is best-known in the West for his Russian version of ‘Kalinka’ (you know, the theme of Tetris). ‘Kalinka’ is the ‘Scotland the Brave’ or the Flamenco of Russian music; which means that whenever something Russian is represented in film or television, ‘Kalinka’ is what they will play (and Evgeny Belyaev’s version is the one most often used). So though no one may recognize his name, pretty much everyone in the world has heard his voice. It is ironic that Russia and Russians are typically thought of as being dark, intense, and complex, when the song that represents Russia to most of us, ‘Kalinka,’ is a light, fluffy song about a snowball tree.

Bryansk native Fyodor Tyutchev figures among Russia’s greatest Romantic poets along with Pushkin and Lermontov. Bjork sang one of his poems, entitled ‘The Dull Flame of Desire.’


Valentina Igoshina (Known Bryansk Classical Musician) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R3pjDWRKmQ Chopin – Valentina Igoshina – Étude Op. 10, No. 5
Valentina Igoshina http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_Pbbcfjw4c Chopin – Valentina Igoshina – Chopin Prelude Op. 28, No. 7
Valentina Igoshina http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa0Z6g1XJkU Chopin – Valentina Igoshina – Fantasie Impromptu
Evgeny Belyaev, ‘Kalinka’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ku7T5bqGik Belyaev: ‘Kalinka’ (ca.1956)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0wzMbmP1HI Evgeny Belyaev Sings ‘Unselfish Soul’ Бескорыстная душа

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGpm9bQPM-A Bjork sings Tyutchev’s ‘Dull Flame of Desire’

Vladimir Oblast (Capital: Vladimir): This Region is best-known for its 12th-c. building (still standing such as the City’s entryway – The Golden Gate and its ancient Cathedrals (listed among UNESCO’s designated World Heritage sites, no less: Vladimir, Suzdal, Bogolyubovo, and Kideksha). If Walt Disney had come from Russia, Vladimir could have been his hometown since several forward-thinking people in the photographic arts also hailed from Vladimir – The Land of the Past and the Land of Tomorrow. Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, father of color photography, and Vladimir K. Zworykin, the (disputed) father of television. Produkin-Gorsky’s pictures look like they were taken yesterday but were actually taken a hundred years ago. The technology of hundred years ago sported full-depth color photography. His photos show a Russia, long before bad pop music, that no longer exists – well-dressed people in their native ethnic attires, in the most impoverished surroundings. Based on those photographs, one might say there really isn’t much difference between Europe and Asia in a lot of respects. Prokudin-Gorsky considered the project of documenting Russia through color photography his life’s work and was responsible for the only known color image of Tolstoy.

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/L.N.Tolstoy_Prokudin-Gorsky.jpg)

Prokudin-Gorsky hoped that his thousands upon thousands of photos would be used to educate Russian schoolchildren about the Russian Empire. Zworykin and Philo T. Farnsworth (a Mormon kid from Utah) were inventing the television at roughly the same time (in the 20s) – there was big messy trial over who invented it first. Farnsworth won, but it is still said that Zworykin was the true father of TV.

Not only to ancient buildings, but Vladimir Oblast is also home to one of Russia’s oldest instruments – the rozhok, aka the Vladimirsky Rozhok – a medieval horn (ancestor of the cornet), often played altogether in unison with other VR’s, and whose sound is similar to that of bad, unpleasant farting. They once caused the enemy to double over in laughter. Would have made a great Monty Python sketch.

(Guess World Culture can’t win them all.)

Muroma and Meshchera are two of the many isolated Finn ethnic groups peculiar to Western Russian, and those two in particular are peculiar to the Vladimir Oblast (Zworykin’s home town of Murom is where the Muroma settled). Cannot find any music representative of the Meschera, but folk-ensemble Muroma makes melodic Muroma muroma.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwk9KzfTmuQ (Theater Example of a Vladimirskiy Rozhok)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9whSGnoge4 Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky – Russia 1905-1915 (Slideshow for Fotojatka 2010)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mzmo2XXfSg Russia in colour – Pictures from the Old Russian Empire

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUOsQ0Xu96M Early TV: ‘Tomorrow Television’ circa 1945, Army Navy Screen Magazine 12min

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQvV6E2S3b0 Muroma Singing Muroma Music

***Voronezh Oblast (Voronezh) is a beautiful, classical Russian city, known for its horse racing; and its music fits right in. Voronezh is also known for its chalk quarries and (more interesting here) world supply of mammoth bones. Its music is plentiful: folk, 80s rock (Sektor Gaza), film scores (Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov), classical, and bards playing giant balalaikas (the bass balalaika) — the very epitome of what one thinks of as ‘Russian Music.’ Voronezh is home to the world famous Trio Voronezh, who are best known for their great balalaika music (could be the best balalaika group in the world). Victor Nikitin (who was ‘Kalinka’s greatest singer before Ivan Bunin – not to be confused with Evgeny Belyaev, mentioned above) is also Voronezh’s greatest literary icon – he was the first Russian novelist to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, and he loved the idea that Russians were unique because they lived in a wild, untamed country. Russians and animals (in the nicest way) seem in a way similar – they could be compared to bears, wolves, or horses – perhaps an Orlov Trotter, which is native to the region. Voronozeh is also home to music critic Nikolay Kashkin, who was Tchaikovsky’s biggest promoter – and is for that reason (given all our yearly stagings of Nutcracker performances) perhaps the Russian musical figure who has had the greatest influence on the contemporary American scene the most.  (Good Grief:  Forgot to mention the famous folklorist Mitrofan Pyatnitsky. and his famous folk Choir — so much musically in Voronezh.)

‘Spit Angel’ is the romantically-titled song from a little tyke named Mikhail Puntov, aka Misha, who managed to squeak into Eurovision several years ago (and who seems so out of place compared to Trio Voronezh and Ivan Bunin).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkvQBMzO0Os Trio Voronezh – New York Tango
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBZqybQNy0g Trio Voronezh Polka Pizzicato
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CttcO-U0Y0 Trio Voronezh – Astor Piazolla
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekpojiXXj_0 Nikolai Anosov – Balakirev Overture on 3 Russian Themes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkgHZ8JYfoM Victor Nikitin: Kalinka (1948)Berlin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wYBMlEWdro Victor Nikitin (1950) with Alexandrov Ensemble
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5xCzyiD3h4 Nikitin: ‘Come To Me Young Laddie’ (1946) Prague
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3Ex8NAD5S0 Sektor Gaza Chastushki
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4Xyr92fN3g&feature=related Сектор Газа (Sektor Gaza) – Взял вину на себя
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPNMtq2rPes — Sektor Gaza
http://www.youtube.com/results?search=Search&resnum=0&oi=spell&search_query=Vyacheslav+Ovchinnikov+andrei+rublev&spell=1&suggested_categories=10&sa=X Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov – YoutTube list for film score of Andrei Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnvBFQgUAgU Mark Hambourg Plays Manuel de Falla!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7U9XWjsFec “IRISA” from ‘ Choral Book on Lyrics by Ivan Bunin ‘

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjjRuNQJUXo Elena Gantchikova. Sings Ivan Bunin Midnight Sun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAGxGXUc0-M Ivan Bunin – Wolves (short story)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTM0FaE509o Mikhail Puntov, aka Misha – ‘Spit Angel’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxve1sT4FeE Русский дух Хор Пятницкого Поехал казак Pyatnitsky Choir Cossak

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrhORDlL0UQ Хор Пятницкого У нашей Кати New Pyatnitsky Choir U Nashei Kati

 

 

Ivanovo Oblast (Capital Ivanovo): What is Ivanovo known for? Just follow the ‘thread’ and you will see it is all interconnected: from textile manufacturing to Russia’s fashion epicenter to known Russian designers (most notably Slava Zaitsev) and models to bridal gowns to mail-order brides ! (a lot more women than men; for those unlucky ladies who are unable to become models or seamstresses – it is off to America). Ivanovo has produced a couple of tortured, tempestuous geniuses who in turn produced ironically calming masterpieces, most notably mentally-disturbed composer Alexei Stanchinsky, who committed suicide in his mid-20s but meanwhile worked in fits of hallucinations and rage; and symbolist poet Konstantin Balmont, whose suicide attempt changed his life for the better by more or less launching his career. His poems seem to be the favorite of young Russian female folk singers and are hauntingly beautiful. Cannot forget, the popular singer of Russian prison and criminal songs, Arkady Severny (who was marketed as being troubled and tortured, but really came from a well-off family and had never been to prison or was a criminal – sort of Russia’s Johnny Cash).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZgQVGnUWyw Alexei Stanchinsky, Andante Epico

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLWwg4BVN8M Alexei Stanchinsky Piano Sonata Number One E flat minor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZikU0d_4bY Alexei Stanchinsky – Prelude en Mode Lydique

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MM3LrelEUg Larisa Novoseltzeva sings Konstantin Balmont: ‘Безглагольность’ (Wordlessness)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEqzG7NnxcU Larisa Novoseltseva: Konstantin Balmont. Sneginka. Music by L. Novoseltseva

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dvalG49spo ‘I caught the fleeting shadows with my dreams’ – Zlata Razdolina – Composer – Konstantin Balmont

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I6qXoKl-HE MARIA MARACHOWSKA ‘Questions’ & ‘Blue Wave Siberian Blues’ 2011 (Lyrics by Konstatin Balmont)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxLQg7bNMqk Arkadij Severnyj Chernaja Roza

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHt-1soe53o Arkady Severny – Murka

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scAnt5h0UjE Arkadij Severny – Concert v Tichoretske s Ansamblem ‘Vstrecha’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zL3rzefvNA Slava Zaitsev at Moscow Fashion Week

Kaluga Oblast (Kaluga) is pronounced like the urgent sound of a car horn from the nineteen-teens (kal-ooga) — this emergency, ‘sound-the-alarm-order-the-attck’ name is also appropriate for Kaluga Oblast (Capital City Kaluga). Obninsk, another city in the Oblast, became the home of the world’s first nuclear power plant on June 27th, 1954, and it also doubled as a training base for the crew of the Soviet Union’s first nuclear sub, the Leninsky Kosomol aka K3. Radiation technology, medical radiology, meteorology, and nuclear power engineering are some of the fun activities going on at Obninsk’s twelve scientific research institutes. ‘Blowing Up is Hard to Do,’ that classic 1962 Neil Sedaka song, is not very hard to do, but very easy in Kaluga Oblast, which, come to think of it, is a poor place to put a nuclear reactor since the Oblast is only roughly 93 miles south of Moscow and it is also a Region known for its rivers (2,043), flora, fauna, and, in general, wildlife. If Simpson-like three-eyed fish, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were to come to life — it would happen here. You thought Chernobyl was bad — imagine what would happen if this nuclear reactor, near Moscow, were to blow?

The high concentration of rivers in the area might be one of the reasons why the nuclear reactors were built here, and it should be no coincidence that the famous meteorological tower, also in Obninsk, was built to study radiation spreading from the nuclear station.

Maybe there is something in the air (or, rather, atmosphere) since one of the Planet Earth’s most amazing individuals, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky — Father of Spaceflight and Rocket Science — lived, studied, and died in Kaluga. He modeled the design of the rocket ship after the Eiffel Tower (Roman-candle design – surprising how he was art- rather than science-inspired, being a scientist; and friends of mine who know about such things tell me the Roman-candle-shaped rocket that’s grown to be so defining for us is shot full of technical holes, just in principle – but, never mind, many of his ideas and theories became the basis for designing rocket ships and launching us into space travel before anyone had come to realize their fundamental design flaws).

But never mind. He designed steering thrusters, multi-stage boosters, airlocks for exiting a spaceship into the vacuum of space, closed-cycle biological systems to provide food and oxygen for space colonies (yet to be applied), and space stations. Werner vonBraun and many other modern ‘rocket scientists’ borrowed heavily from Tsiolkovsky. If that weren’t amazingly enough, Tsiolkovsky, who lived form 1857-1937, only had a third-grade education (in terms of formal schooling). He was already working on his 90 works on space travel; on 400 others, on various other topics, including pan-psychism (now we know); experimenting with the world’s first aerodynamic laboratory in Russia (in his apartment); concepting the space elevator (long about 1897); building the first Russian wind tunnel with an open test section (1897); developing a method of experimenting in it (1900), with a grant from the Academy of Sciences; and (also in 1900 – busy guy) determining the drag coefficient of the ball, flat plates, cylinders, cones and other bodies — all before the Wright Brothers were inventing and/or flying their first airplane in Kitty Hawk.

So the Russians were already way ahead in the Space Race while were still trying to get off the ground. People make much ado of the fact that the science of today was inspired by people growing up on Star Trek (communicators=cell phones), but it is clear in the case of space travel that entertainment and imagination provided the initial thrust and propulsion to the global effort because it was Tsiolkovsky’s love for Jules Verne that fueled his drive to turn space theory into reality. He was a real life Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot, who lived in a log cabin and was considered strange and bizarre by the local denizens.

If that weren’t enough, Alexander Chizevsky (1897-1964), the ‘sunspot’ scientist who founded heliobiology (the study of the sun’s effect on biology) and ‘aero-ionization’ (study of the effect of the ionization of air on biological entities) was from Kaluga. He also was a scientist of predictability and cyclical behavior (solar cycle, biological rhythms, the predictability of war), and had the Chizevsky Science Center in Kaluga named after him.

All that being said — the music from this Oblast is Classical (represented by Nikolai Rakov). So bring along the theme tunes from Close Encounters, Star Trek, and The Twilight Zone to set the mood for your stay in Kaluga.

Katyn massacre.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFSI5T62sXc Konstantin Tsiolkovsky: space prophet (the original rocket scientist – three years of elementary school)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B3mFZTxh3w&feature=relmfu Father of Space Travel is 150
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fydmZ90DT4M&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL7F9CD4E4D8036DA0 Tsiolkovsky’s Dream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7wPt5oZ9pY Daniil Shafran plays Nikolay P. Rakov ‘Serenade’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LaVVxJI6fo Rakov Piano Concerto No. 2 in C major – Alexei Nassedkin

Kostroma Oblast (Kostroma): Kostroma is home to two of Russia’s greatest folk heroes/heroines.

NB, though: one really lived, while the other is ‘real’ only in spirit.

Ivan Susanin purposely sacrificed his life to ensure the coronation of the future Tsar-in-waiting Mikhail (progenitor of the Romanov Dynasty/Empire), who was hiding out in a Kostroma monastery (believe with his Mother – not sure how kingly that is), by purposely (mis)leading Polish forces who were looking to stop the coronation off into the woods. Susanin was killed, and the Poles never made it out of the woods (lost and died of starvation – some woods). Tragic and real, but has become sort of a Russian fairy tale over time. In fact ‘susanin’ has become a Russian term for a person who leads somewhere claiming to know the way, but who eventually proves not to.

Snegurochka is Santa Claus’s (Ded Moroz, aka ‘Father Frost’) special helper (sometimes referred to as Santa’s granddaughter, father, or sometimes as Santa’s hot young girlfriend – getting his stocking stuffed on the side). In the fairytale she was the daughter of the Winter and the Spring and took a mortal form (but was cursed with never being able to love). She gave up her life by melting in order to discover what true love is. She has been celebrated in fairy tales, animation film, classical music/opera, children story books; and Russian strippers will (un)dress (a form of ‘melting,’ I guess, or maybe it’s the men in the audience who melt) up as her around Christmastime.

Both Ivan Susanin and Snegurochka (Snow Maiden) appealed to the Russian romantic imagination, and their exploits have been preserved in Russian literature and music. Kostroma is also known as the place where idiots, I mean local ‘ditzi-zens,’ have attempted to domesticate the moose (surprisingly unsuccessfully) for its prized milk. Sure there have been many moose-related injuries throughout the years, ranging from cracked rib cages to the after-effects of moose rape. So now we know: Boris and Natasha were not trying to kill Bullwinkle, they were trying to tame him for his prize milk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAtBvdGLGUI Mark Reizen Ivan Susanin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBrJpHHYAzw Glory to Our Tsar Chorus from the Russian Opera Ivan Susanin by Mikhail Glinka – HQ audio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDzjILyA9-I Anna Netrebko – Glinka – A Life For The Tsar (Ivan Susanin)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=humQo4RXp8M Ivan Susanin Entertainment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTHRbNMSRhM&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL09099EFC00B525E1 Snow Maiden (Snegurochka) – Rimsky-Korsakov

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ0Hf_u7HHk Snegurochka – Ludwig Minkus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOz2srhNAzc The Snow Maiden (Tchaikovsky – composed for the play by Aleksandr Ostrovsky)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=Y7Lrh5UN58M The Snow Maiden-Part One (Ivan Ivanov-Vano (The Patriarch of Soviet Animation)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mMQk7selMY When Christmas Trees Are Lighted (with English subtitles) 1/2 Snegurochka

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuAcbWZgMN4 From Pagan Deity to Modern Sex Symbol – Snegurochka Revealed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJMgaOzaDJY Snegurochka Striptease (Santa Klaus irlfriend Снегурочка)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKYRGAUetv0 Ivan Kupala Day – Kostroma (A traditional Russian folk song mixed with electronic sounds – Ivan Kapula is a Russian festival which involves jumping over bonfires )

***I love ‘what-the-fuck-IS-this? music’ that creates the illusion that you are the first person to discover it. The traditional music of the Kursk Oblast (Capital: Kursk) sounds like hoedown at war. If all of Europe including Celtic and Scandinavia and Eurasia were to become a one-man band — it might sound like the traditional music of Kursk, which uses the Volynka, or Russian bagpipe – which is probably the folk basis for Russian Metal out of Moscow. (Many Russian metal bands use bagpipes). Never did cacophony, off-key, and off-beat sound so like music to ones ears. It is more of that Circassian music, but with horns, flutes, tweets, and bagpipes – along with fiddles that almost sound Scottish. Kursk, like other nearby oblasts (e.g., Bryansk), boasts some of the richest iron-ore deposits in the world, as well as other rare-earth and base heavy metals, loam, chalk, and other forms of metal gear solids, all of which contribute to the ‘Kursk Magnetic Anomaly’ that renders compasses useless.

(Though GPS now renders compasses needless.)

So it might be fitting that Hideo Kojima, creator/director of the Metal Gear Solid video game series, was accused of plagiarizing the MGS theme – just like what happened to Kursk’s native son, the splendid classical composer Georgy Sviridov, with ‘Winter Road’ from his Snowstorm composition.  If that were not enough, Kursk is also home to one of the mothers of Russian folk music, Nadezhda Plevitskaya, Bohemian-before-it-was-fashionable who loved the West, but also a Soviet Spy (a folk Mata Hari figure).  She died in a French prison, who was sentenced along with her husband, for the kidnapping of General Evgeni Miller. Oh, I should not forget to mention the vaudevillesque, little-girl duo act, the Tolmachevy Twins – they do have great deep vocals and should make fine adult singers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk9Lz8_fa3Y Nadezhda Plevitskaya ‘Rasstavajas’, ona Govorila’ (Kursk)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MiqnUh7qhQ&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLC3323AC2F974CDE3 Nadezhda Plevitskaya – Kudelka

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSOoDJLnt4E Plevitskaya\ Russian folk song – Luchina, Luchinushka

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP8TSyCgF_A Plevitskaya – The Seagull

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m99Rk4-Ue1k Traditional music of Kursk Region (Russia)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yUVP5rtl0M Белорыбица – Тимоня (наигрыш)/Belorybitsa – Timonya (эфир на 100ТВ) (note the Russian bagpipes)

Georgy Sviridov:
Sviridov – The Snowstorm – Troika – PART 1 of 9 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1FtL4uIQ0c&feature=related
Sviridov – The Snowstorm – Waltz – PART 2 of 9 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57KCUHNkk5A&feature=related
Sviridov – The Snowstorm – Spring and Autumn – PART 3 of 9 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lf020Uv5Qk
Sviridov – The Snowstorm – Romance – PART 4 of 9 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJVyBjdeTuM&feature=related
Sviridov – The Snowstorm – Pastorale – PART 5 of 9 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OrUtA-v4Vk&feature=related
Sviridov – The Snowstorm – Military March – PART 6 of 9 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRyN_20i5Uc
Sviridov – The Snowstorm – Wedding Ceremony – PART 7 of 9 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH1HR96Y8Xg
Sviridov – The Snowstorm – Echo of Waltz – PART 8 of 9 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd418MhT7VY
Sviridov – The Snowstorm – Winter Road – PART 9 of 9 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JL4JXEv-RY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k7DrIWcrdI&feature=related Hideo Kojima Creator/Director of Metal Gear Solid listens to Sviridov’s ‘Winter Road’ for the first time. (Metal Gear Solid Theme has been accused of plagiarism)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBO_ujPHYYM Georgy Sviridov – Time, Forward !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g03Z59UtZGo The Tolmachevy Twins



Lipetsk Oblast (Capital: Lipetsk), like surrounding oblasts, is known for its deposits of iron ore, peat, and its therapeutic springs. Lipetsk ranks as the Pittsburgh of Russia, with the nation’s largest steel company, Novolipetsk Steel, headquartered there. There are a bunch of factories around — tractor factory, pipe factory, refrigerator and other households factory, lathe factory, chemical factories, ice factories, and on & on — but Lipetsk is pretty miniscule when it comes to being a music factory. People in Lipetsk seem to like their techno, though — which is kind of metallic in sound:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwnIiEcPkaE Липецк, Торнадо.m4v

***City of Moscow: Things have always been a little freer in Moscow — creatively or musically-speaking, anyway. Moscow, along with Saint Petersburg, is one of Russia’s most prolific urban centers in terms of music, and many of Russia’s most famous musicians hail from the Capital.

Voice and music are an expression of freedom. Regardless of time-period, genre, or style, the musicians of Moscow have always kept up with what was popular in the West, even during the repressive Communist regimes. ‘VIA bands’ (which imitated the Beatles and Mersey bands) were State-approved bands that passed censorship – and they allowed the USSR to experience a little of the music of the West. This usually hybridized music with various types of Russian folk-styles (which could also have been banned by the watchful eye of the Ministry of Culture of the Soviet Union), but generally the release of these products was allowed by the State label, Melodiya. A lot of this music could be anti-Communist and quite political, however (or at least somewhat). Such artists usually were released at first, but then banned; following which they would try to find a way to survive and get their music out, anyway, over time.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow musicians still amalgamate what they like with various folk styles and, ironically, face a new type of censorship – the popular commercial music which used be their music of freedom is now the new threat, stifling the creativity and uniqueness of their voice. Culprits are Ahem, Eurovision, Russian Idol (which encourages pop sung in English without any ethnic strains – Simon Cowell is the new demagogue), and others.

The best of these, t.A.T.u is Russia’s most famous pop band and has had hits in the US. NeoClubber has also had some success here. Ranetki Girls music was featured in Grand Theft Auto IV, and Irson Kudikova had a photo spread in Maxim (what is it with Grand Theft Auto, Maxim Magazine, and Russian Pop?) There really is a Russian Idol, and it is called Star Factory, of which former-80s USSR pop-idol Alla Pugacheva is a co-Producer.

Song of the Year is the big Russian pop/rock festival and has been held there since 1971. Nashestvie is one of Russia’s largest annual open air rock/pop festivals, and Nashe Radio is Moscow’s most popular music radio station. The sad thing is, the more Russian music sounds like bland Western music, the more likely it will be successful here.

Coming across Inna Zhelannaya and The Farlanders (containing members of the rock band ‘Alliance’) is why I wrote this ambitious blog in the first place. Would not have known about any of this fantastic music to begin with, but for them. She and her band were big in the 90s, and their music is like an orgasmic release. Listen, Listen.  (There is also a techno band called Volga whose links I put in the Novgorod section.)

Dmitri Pokrovsky (1944-1996) was a folk music researcher who had his own ensemble incorporating the different styles of Russian folk music. Melnitsa is another well known Russian folk band.

Other notable Moscow musicians include:

– the ethnic Georgian bard Bulat Okudzhava, the 80s punk band Kino

–opera singer Irina Arkhipova

– symphonic metal band Catharsis, which makes Metal pretty

– metal opera, the missing link between metal and classical — Epidernia

– folk/metal band Arkona, notable for using the Russian Bagpipes (the Volynka)

– VIA Bands for novelty purposes only, such as Poyushchiye Gitary (aka the Soviet Beatles)

– late 80s rock band Autograph, which had a hit in the US with ‘Turn Up The Radio’

–classic rock band Mashina Vremeni,

– 80s indie pop band Zvuki Mu

– popular eclectic band Nogu Svelo, perfectly balancing between popularity and non-comformity

– folk singer Zhanna Bichevskaya (known for trying to get Sainthood for Ivan the Terrible)

– Parasense: a dark psytrance duo

– Dvar, a darkwave music band

– Mikhail Shufutinsky – popular singer of Russian Chanson music (Russian music about the criminal underworld, sung in a French fashion)

– Leonid Derbenyov – poet/songwriter, whose songs have been sung by many pop artists

– the missing link between Russian folk and commercial pop

– Russian short story writer and jazz musician Yury Kazakov, to whom I cannot find any links, however

Moscow is also home to many Russian metal bands which use the volynka or Russian bagpipe. There has been little of the experience of the Russian Bard (musical style)/Poet/Musician since the time of Alexander Pushkin, who moved across Russia because his works got him in trouble with the Russian authorities — and whose works were occasionally turned into Classical Music. (The same was done for Valery Bryusov’s works.) Located in Moscow is one of two major ballets in Russia – the Bolshoi, with its famous Prima Ballerina Maya Pisetskaya.

One might summarize the music of Russia, for all its diversity and magnificence, in just two words: Conformity and Non-Conformity. Comformity might spell survival, but of course non-comformity represents freedom; and the lines and definitions as between these have gotten a bit blurry: at issue with conformity is no longer political, but commercial survival; and at issue with freedom is no longer political freedom (i.e., having the freedom to imitate and draw on the music of the West), but rather that doing that is often really just comforming – it isn’t really freedom at all.

I have to admit that I have had less of a ‘way in’ to relating to Russian-Louisvillian Misha Feigin’s avant-garde music (although I am crazy about his Russian gypsy music) – but I can now see where he is coming from and understand why he goes in for the avant-garde sound – it is the most non-conformist sound there is in music. (Am also coming to understand Misha’s deep passion for the Beatles)  Coming from a Celtic background, I always found my own native ethnic music to be a bit confining, but you can get to the point where folk music is freedom itself, as in the case of Inna Zhelannaya and Dmitri Pokrovsky.

Crap, almost failed to mention that literary elephant from Moscow: Dostoyevsky! (really shouldn’t say that listening to Moscow Pop can be like Crime & Punishment . . .) The very last links listed below are those of Louisville’s own Misha Feigin:

http://inasound.kroogi.com/ru/download/471435-City Inna Zhelannaya Full Album

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li19i_bH7qY Inna Zhelannaya & The Farlanders

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfhI8cnqheQ Inna Zhelannaya & The Farlanders – Maryushka

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR5C-jrINTM Inna Zhelannaya – live from Apelsin club 24.02.2007

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq97mmcYhXo Russian Folk Rock [Pelageya & Inna Zhelannaya

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbkwTWbrrnw Inna Zhelannaya Blues Cm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JWj46fGcgM Dmitri Pokrovsky Ensemble – Porushka

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNkurm9ANr4 Dimitri Pokrovsky Ensemble – Mosquito

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZkMXrHe-i8 Dmitri Pokrovsky Ensemble

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uImGPVsthzY Melnitsa (Мельница) - Korolevna

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEEuPlDZcNE Melnitsa Doroga sna (Dream way) (set to Dr. Who)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMd1p0ckHtA Stas Namin & all The Stars - We Wish You Happiness, 2001

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3lbtUj0bcc One World Festival on the Red Square presented by the Stas Namin Centre (1997)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKuQ-psNVH4 Bulat Okudzhava

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii4pvpHpVnM Булат Окуджава (Bulat Okudzhava) - По Смоленской дороге

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCnlaBJRKcE- булат окуджава молитва (Bulat Okudzhava)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgihOJamrqg Окуджава (Bulat Okudzhava)"Грузинская Песня" ("Виноградная Косточка") 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=104cOJeGeTA Koni Priveredlivii - Vysotsky Vladimir

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWGZBg5XcVM Eugenio Finardi & Vladimir Vysotsky - Ginnastica & Utrennyaya Gimnastika

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6mMbJgWfe8 Mashina Vremeni Povorot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQyLrysIXuc машина времени у свободы не детское лицо

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s42ZvgFYhRA АлисА - Власть (AlisA - Power)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNp9SBW4xTA Kino - Кукушка"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTPwzEWzlGs Kino КИНО CCCP 80s punk rock

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcyQrCLDwp8 Кино - Перемен (Финальная песня фильма Пыль)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WRPLXJ_nhI Kipelov - Ya svoboden

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYaWfNozqhQ Kipelov - Babylon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFobMRtwTxA Arias - Heroes of Babylon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqDrYfOx5kY&feature=fvst t.A.T.u - ya soshla s uma (All the Thing's She Said Russian Version)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2SIUU_i6v8 t.A.T.u. – ‘All The Things She Said’ Russian Invasion extended remix in Russian & English

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZnYHP8551E t.A.T.u. – ‘All The Things She Said’ on MADTV in USA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua8fOnrWHic t.A.T.u. - No Gonna Get Us

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfwxtY5IhQc t.A.T.u - Malchik Gay Russian Version (Eng Subtitles)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6mCTt7XOG0 t.A.T.u - Malchik Gey (Uncensored)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1-UOaw9HQQ NeoClubber - Noch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSm2I5QYlG4 Neoclubber - S.O.S (Russian Version)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFolqIIEAEY Nikolai Rubenstein Tarantella per pianoforte a quattro mani-live

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNAxMcL-ryQ Alexander Pushkin Biography

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkBhbH0LezM Glinka - Pushkin's Russian and Ludmilla (Ruslan and Ludmilla ) Overture

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz7JREul22g Tchaikovsky - Pushkin's Eugene Onegin Opera - Waltz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlg5-UUA6iw Tchaikovsky Pushkin's Mazeppa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDChOMBPP9g Tchaikovsky Pushkin's Queen of Spades

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA8ZQCBRh4E N. Rimsky-Korsakov: Pushkin's The Tale of Tsar Saltan - Aria of the Swan Princess

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFWhl13AEuU Mussorgsky - Pushkin's Boris Godunov. Coronation scene. Bolshoi Ballet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4gi6uZiLmw&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL5027A20567E16194 Students documentary in Bolshoi Ballet Academy Playlist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-AMH_Woywg Maya Plisetskaya Dying Swan 1959

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Luz5g-doa34 Maya Plisetskaya Dying Swan age 61 (really a dying swan, I guess)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgDTLHnMKRM Sergei Prokofiev -- Valery Bryusov's The Fiery Angel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7EiRkxCODo Russian pop song written by Leonid Derbenyov (poet/songwriter)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irina_Arkhipova Ave Maria - Irina Arkhipova (Russian Opera)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E38-v2eseU Ranetki Girls Grand Theft Auto IV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxyM3C0jkXE Linda

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NdH66lEFcU Zhanna Friske -la-la-la ( Russian Pop)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exHJytoWMdY British Rocker Chris Norman on Star Factory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xViterRinFM Fabrika on Star Factory

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qNXPMTqiy8 Lara Fabian sings at Song of the Year

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UQ52tExb0E Julia Kova – Beep Beep Beep

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5Qe6EFl4Us Julia Volkova – All Because of You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enrCLgnNU7A Sergey Lazarev ‘Zachem pridumali lubov’(Russian pop – was in the Russian version of the Backdoor Boys called Smash)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tF2x7FxELk Kristina Orbakaite - Как я буду без тебя. Признание (Russian pop)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MSH2yqA8JQ Olga Orlove – ‘Ya Badu Pet’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4LT5AK1cKI Marina Verenikina (folk singer living in US)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO9doTyOqm0 Tatiana Kochkareva (soulful singer living in the US)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIFmhye6fqw Million Roses (Russian pop from the 80s) - Alla Pugacheva (coProducer of Star Factory)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3wV4AsSBuA Alla Pugacheva Pozovi Menya s Soboy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2HVhqpacY8 Olga Zarubina - Snow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY9sCSmwwYY Poyushchiye Gitary Соловей

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac-U2bWFbwk Poyushchiye Gitary Сумерки (VIA Band - 60s)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCwADH8UYKI ВИА ‘Поющие гитары’ Синяя песня (VIA Band - 60s)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDsEF8OemDQ Tsvety (VIA Band)(The Flowers)-Цветы (VIA Band - 60s)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoDwm36ixqE Vesyolye Rebyata – ‘Drive My Car’ (VIA Band - 60s)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHLXnyY537c Autograph (Russian Rock) – ‘Turn up the Radio’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_zhUgFLYXk *** Catharsis Die Verbannten Kinder Evas (beautiful metal)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpBExAzdUJw ***Epidernia – The Elven Manuscript

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsgSsyu3W2M *** Arkona - Slovo Teaser (uses the Russian Bagpipe)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I16Adqpxk3k - Catharsis – My Love The Phiery

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opmFgYAUgIg Tarakany! (Russian Punk)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2VXgC3bfr4 Mechanical Poet – Stormchild

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz6TF5UuM0I Master – Talk of the Devil (Russian Metal)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoGcgX5xNyg Disen Gage (Russian Metal)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Cq62cNSRYA Krematorij

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6mMbJgWfe8 Mashina Vremeni – Povorot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZo1-7YRABg Center – Russia Forever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDJNTd18ANA SLOT – 2 VOINY (modern Russian rock)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyCsJAj69sc **Zvuki Mu (Russian Indie Pop Band)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gISU6jQNLp4 Nogu Svelo - Haru Mamburu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFV15ZqWszs Nogu Svelo - Unie smeshnie golosa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA4OmOFU6VQ Mashina Vremeni Za Teh Kto v More (incorporates Dylan, Beatles, and soft classic rock from the era)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxglSRSMWyc **Zhanna Bichevskaya - Gospodi Pomiluj

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmanXZcOep8 Tracktor Bowling - 'Scars'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeijMF6w3dU Kindzadza (Russian Technodub)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nauk4FfvwHA Parasense - Paranoia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpYuyzC4Bys Dvar - Vah Raii Uvah

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07nS33rc59w Dolphin feat. Stella - Glaza (Eyes) (Russian Techno/Hiphop)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V-YkZFca_8 Ligalize (Russian Hiphop)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL6If8gCWxA Mikhail Shufutinsky – Pesnia Evreiskogo Portnovo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeR_7tX2Bho Mikhail Shufutinsky - Taganka

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhEfQgFnqj8 Mumiy Troll on Nashe Radio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP35P3V00oI Turetsky Choir Art Group (found out about them after writing the post -- mix pop, classical, opera, other - members come from all over Russia) - crossing all boundaries both geographically and musically.  Nothing holds these guys back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyw9ZJc86e0 Misha Feigin and the Abu Danza at the Kulktur Tempel

http://www.mishafeigin.com/site/en/ Misha Feigin website

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWR3cNS9v9Y Misha Feigin, Sound Calligraphy Project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QkFHCd7qFg Misha Feigin on Louisville Late Night

Moscow Oblast:

Moscow Oblast (no capital – largest city Balashikha) surrounds the City of Moscow, with the famous Moscow Ring perimeter serving as the border. Moscow Oblast is one of Ruissia's central industrial, manufacturing, and science research (i.e., physics, energy) hubs and is home to many Russian cosmonauts. In its ‘Star City’ incarnation, it serves as the Houston for the Russian space program. The Oblast is extremely populous and has many little cities that could be independent from Moscow. Nestled in these suburbs are also many summer homes for the rich, called ‘dachas’; despite being industrial, suburban, and populous, the Oblast is comprised 40% of wild forest and steppes. Its soil contains leftover memories of the Cold War – it is described as ‘heavily polluted with chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and household and industrial waste,’ as accompaniment to the painted-over block apartments of that era http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Ramenskoye_houses_%28rzhd_pan2_b%29.jpg

The foregoing attempts to remind citizens that they are living in a prosperous new era. Musical changes have accompanied the coming of capitalism, but in this case not (in my humble) for the better -- classical music is no longer in fashion (i.e., Yakov Flier) and trained opera singers now sing Backdoor Boys-like-pop (Nikolay Baskov).

One high point, is that their is a town named Lozhki (perhaps the origination of the Russian same-named Russian spoons)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPd63W2fP58> Russian Dance with Spoons - Traditional (Lozhki)

Yakov Flier - Claire le Lune http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC58xdalCo8
Yakov Flier - The Night of Romanticism http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65mhebtbgSQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEKtzPp1jXo Nikolay Baskov i Oksana Fedorova

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xazMJtUXCbg Those Were The Days Nikolai Baskov

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9wSgC4DhXQ Russia - Ekaterina Ryabova - Malenky prints (Junior Eurovision Kiev 2009)


You might think that Oroyl Oblast (with Oroyl as its capital) is rife with music because its name is similar to that of a songbird, but you would be wrong, unfortunately. The biggest export from this tiny little oblast was the philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin, who’s best known for his concepts of Dialogics and ‘the Carnivalesque.’ He did, however, also come up with the literary concept of polyphony (a diversity of ‘points of view’ of sound and voices), which was based on the musical concept of the same name.

Leonid Andreyev was a famous playwright, novelist, and short-story writer whose style encompassed the realist, the naturalist, and the symbolist. Noted music collector Aleksandr Viktorovic Zatayevich, whose specialty was Kazakh folk music, lived here. Oryol is also home to the livenka, which is a type of garmon (Russian Accordion), but to which I can find no sound-links (darn). Here, to suffice instead, is a Russian band that employs the garmong, but I am not sure whether it hails from this oblast or not:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib3tB6-7vN8 -- Beliy Oryol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5gpqZnC7LE Lazarus (Horror Story) by Leonid Andreyev


Ryazan Oblast (Ryzan) You are starting to salivate Pavlov's Dog; you are such a good boy. Yes, you are Pavlov's Dog. You are hearing the rustle of the food being poured into the bowl, or the ticking sound associated with your dinner, and your saliva glands are starting to act up. The famous pioneer of reflex conditioning, and considered to be the father of classical/operant conditioning, Ivan Pavlov, scientist/mathematician (and, note, not a psychologist), was born, lived, and did his experiments in Ryazan, Ryazan Oblast. Yes, he did, yes, he did. Pavlov was such a good boy. Oh, yes he was, oh yes he was.

Since you are all good boys (even if you are girls), you will be provided with music written by native son Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov, the infamous director and founder of the Red Army Choir (known in Russia as the Alexandrov Ensemble), who conditioned the West to ‘what Russian music sounds like’ and conditioned the Soviet Union/Russia to ‘what the National Anthem should be.’ Would you also like music by non-Rayazan natives, but with lyrics written by local Romantic Pushkinist poet Yakov Polonsky? Oh, yes, you would, oh yes you would. Would you like to get into the philosophies of religious philosopher Pavel Florensky – oh, no we don't, no we don't. If you are really good, I might give you a Russian-Orthodox Easter cake.

Also, popular comedic actor (silent era to the early 70s) Erast Garin, whose name alone conditioned Russians to laugh, hailed from Razan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOAtz8xWM0w Russian National Anthem by Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=red+army+choir&oq=red+army+choir&aq=f&aqi=g4&aql=&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=100188l102475l0l105601l14l14l0l7l7l0l211l813l2.4.1l7l0 Red Army Choir Playlist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE8pFWP5QDM Pavlov's Theory as interpreted on The Office when it used to be funny, well-written, & well-produced.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4spfoJGUik Rachmaninov, 'Yesterday We Met' sung by Sergei Leiferkus and Dmitri Hvorostovsky (lyrics by Yakov Polonsky)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX8GRL9s4YY Vakula's Arioso from the opera Cherevichki (Act 1 Scene 2) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Christmas Music) (lyrics by Yakov Polonsky)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQq9Alr4UvY Танеев ‘На могиле’ / Taneyev ‘On the Tomb (Na mogile)’ (lyrics by Yakov Polonsky)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1im5mvIYSE Да здравствует Я! (Long Live the Z) New Year speech of Russian President with voice one of personage of
popular Soviet tales-pamphlet about mythological King Cain XVIII, who
is speaking about how he wants to blow up several countries and after that
enslave all world. Putin speaks by voice of great Russian-Soviet actor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL9TBI5xZSY Монета -- Воскресенье в джунглях (starring Erast Garin) aka "Coin" - a collection of film short story,

Smolensk Oblast:
In this very cultured Oblast (capital Smolensk), center of cap-C Culture, diamond cutting, writing, art (painting/sculptor), and vodka-making (coincidence - alcohol & creativity) – of Mikhail Mikeshin and Sergey Konenkov, and music-cum-architecture reminiscent of Russian Fairy tales – one can also find the origins of science fiction writers Alexander Belyayev and Isaac Asimov (his birthplace). I notice that a lot of the successful people from this Olbast were sickly invalids -- being confined to your bed gives one a chance to hone one’s mind and imagination, I suppose. Famous Russian Cosmonaut also hails from this Oblast. Da. Musically-speaking (as with Voronezh) the balalaika is a native (but in what appears to be smaller form). Smolensk Oblast is known for its ancient Russian flutes (the svirel); opera (Alexander Pirogov); Classical (the proud & stodgy Mikhail Glinka – one of the critically important fathers of Russian Classical); 80s Pop (Gorky Park); sambo (Russian martial arts formed by native Anatoly Kharlampiev); and its trololo (Eduard Khil).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23b8xvc9-Qw Opera Singer Alexandr Pirogov sings Variagian Guest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sth9GriI6W0 Alexander Pirogov - Boris Godunov - 1937
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Uki4WA4BTE Pirogov sings Russian folk song ‘Iz za Ostrova Na Strezhen’
http://trololololololololololo.com/ WS devoted to Eduard Khil's most famous song – ‘Trololo’ aka ‘I Am Glad, Cause I'm Finally Returning Back Home’ (Я очень рад, ведь я, наконец, возвращаюсь домой
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRjEl9DvQco Mikhail Glinka - A life for the Tsar or Ivan Susanin (1836) - Selected highlights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkBhbH0LezM Mikhail Glinka - Russian and Ludmilla (Ruslan and Ludmilla ) Overture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi-bgz0f9bM Patriotic Song (failed anthem) - Mikhail Glinka

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roKJnUXoe6c Gorky Park – Moscow Calling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir5fuqw7-B8 Svirel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtTWwcreqoQ Anatoly Kharlampiev (Founder of Samba)

The sounds of nature twitter and buzz, and tweet, birds sing, the rivers strum like guitars, the wind passes though flute-like, woodpeckers drum, various animals make harmonious noises, and the crickets’ cacophony is a full-blown band, in Tambov. But in the forest steppes of Tambov Oblast (Tambov) (a heartland of Russian agriculture) the music of Tambov seems mostly silent (any songbirds?) -- maybe because the Oblast is known for its plant life, thanks to native son Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin of Michurinsk -- one of the founding fathers of scientific agricultural selection. His work on experimentation on genetic plant selection is the basis of why he is also regarded as one of the Russian promoters on the theory of evolution. He invented hybrids of apple, pear, cherry (regular and sweet), rowan, grapes, and apricots that could grow in climates opposite to their natural. All I can find musically is composer Ivan Dzerzhinsky

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnOuv9BPsuo Choir of the Bolshoi (Ivan Dzerzhinsky)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKdCU4uNP-w (Song written by Ivan Dzerzhinsky)

Tver Oblast (Tver): Tver Oblast, with its natural protective areas, and its wildlife (bear/wolf sanctuaries), has a very traditional way of making music. A lot of the musicians that have come from the region are interested in old types of folk music (Vasily Vasilievich Andreyev 1861-1918 – father of the modern balalaika and the Folk Instrumental movement in Europe; Nikolay Lvov 1753-1803 -- compiler of the first significant collection of Russian folk songs); in classical/opera ( Boris Alexandrovich Alexandrov, 2nd head of the Red Army Choir and son of Alexander Alexandrov, Sergei Lemeshev – opera tenor, Venjamin Fleishman – composer); and even the shanson, the famous 'criminal' songs about the criminal underworld that are sung in a French style (Mikhail Krug). The Oblast produced two American classical conductors: Serge Koussevitzky (Director of the Boston Symphony from 1924-1949) and Fabien Sevitzky, (Director of the Indianapolis Symphony during 1937-1955). Plus it is home to Russian Parmesean Cheese (what more could you want?).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leHJlF3X63Y March In American Style written by Vasily Vasilievich Andreyev

http://www.amazon.com/Balalaika-Favorites-Nikolai-Pavlovich-Budashkin/dp/B0000057KI/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1330812415&sr=8-9 Balalaika Favorites CD (recommend)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqnZVcUN9lk&feature=fvst Serge Koussevitzky - 1946 - Parsifal, Good Friday Spell (Karfreitagszauber) Wagner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv3NR1ZpVGE Sergei Lemeshev Eugene Onegin (live in 1936?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Vb8PdrQsyQ Sergei Lemeshev / Pearlfishers/ Nadir's Romance 1938

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s66ta-9CnKI Mikhail Krug - Vladimirskiy Central


What can be more Russian than Tula Oblast (Tula), a place known for being the center hub of the accordion (aka garmon) and of samovar-manufacturing for all of Russia; of engraved gingerbread with honey; and the home of actress Maria "Wolfman Gypsy Woman" Ouspenskaya and Leo Tolstoy (War & Peace, Anna Karenina) -- one can visit his beloved home 'Yasnaya Polyana' today. (But that’s Russia all over: big lands, big novels, big blog posts . . . so, rather than saying that with this post I’ve written War and Peace, please don’t blame me.) The Oblast is also a coal-mining hub, with coal towns such as Novomoskovsk, Schyokino, and Uzlovaya. Tolstoy's music connection is through his great-great granddaughter, Swedish Jazz Vocalist Viktoria Tolstoy. The Oblast also habitats a higher average percentage of atheists than most places in Russia (figure that out). I guess Tolstoy would agree.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBgXj-GcepE Mikhail Morozov on the Tula Accordion. (fantastic)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZgYpyntSdU Mikhail Morozov (a little blues sound)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyCRoY0N1hg Mikhail Morozov Е. Дербенко Волжская рапсодия Button Accordion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd_NDUZkSs8 Ой, мороз, мороз русская народная песня Mikhail Morozov (Tula Garmon & Electric guitar)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XjN4DCNt6E Leo Tolstoy on Film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAVoaZGOlVY CIA Archives: Leo Tolstoy Biography (1970) (must see)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG2DNC_2tC4 ‘Stranger In Paradise’ (from My Russian Soul album) Viktoria Tolsty

 

Yaroslavl Oblast (Yaroslavl): Yaroslavl is one of the main tourist attractions cities along the ‘Golden Ring,’ which features some of Russia’s oldest architecture and other historical sites, all within the twelve historical Cities that encircle Moscow (they include Alexandrov, Gus-Khrustalny, Ivanovo, Kostroma, Myshkin, Pereslavl-Zalesskiy, Rostov-Velikiy, Rybinsk, Sergiyev-Posad, Suzdal, Uglich, Vladimir, and of course Yaroslavl). Yaroslavl features some of Russia’s most historic churches and other Millennia old architecture, situationed oddly in this hockey-crazy city. Yaroslavl houses a real musical treasure, Nina Shatskaya – one of Russia's modern jazz vocalist greats (she was born Ninel: Lenin in reverse because she, like he, was born on April 22nd [which also happens to be my birthday]. Tumulus (formerly Scald and renamed after their leader died) is an ethnic folk Metal band, whose Metal is based on the local folk music. (Wrote on that topic over a year ago – ‘Cold Season of Barren Earth.’) http://www.louisvillemusic.org/terrabeat/2011/01/

The local poets are Ivan Surikov (self-taught), who wrote on the peasant/working class he came from; and Mikhail Ivanovich Popov. Also, an opera librettist, Leonid Sobinov, was one of Russia’s most famous opera tenors (he died in the mid-30s, I believe).  There is also a great folk band called Rusichi who I believe hails from Yaroslavl but for other reasons have put their links in the Novgorod section — see NW Arctic Russia).  Yaroslavl is home to a great folk center (in Rybynsk) — founded by native folk musician Mitya Kuznetsov ethnosmithy.com/ who I think is the founder of Rusichi.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp6qZAZgCQI Sergei Lyapunov (composer)

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Mikhail+Ivanovich+Popov&oq=Mikhail+Ivanovich+Popov&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=6856667l6856667l0l6857659l1l1l0l0l0l0l101l101l0.1l1l0 Mikhail Ivanovich Popov Playlist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX4OdHo8FUo Scald – a Tumulus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sOYHn-2sj0 Tumulus – Yavir

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CASP44aFZFE Tumulus – The Other Path

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0QESblIaBU Galina Vishnevskaya sings Tchaikovsky-Concert 1964-p.1 (lyrics by Ivan Surikov)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7cSd4gbxSw Artemy Troitsky (former Soviet rock critic) talk RUS/ENG 1of7 (on the music industry today)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L_6QQxBsgc Nina Shatskaya (Summertime)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ5ni_3d06A Nina Shatskaya (современный романс)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kClziLgk65c Nina Shatskaya ВОТ МЧИТСЯ ТРОЙКА ПОЧТОВАЯ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1EbNvHDxbA Aleksandr Petrov (Yaroslavl animator): The Old Man And The Sea part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClqNn4G5TUc Leonid Sobinov (Documentary – In Russian)

 

ch?v

Posted by terrabeat at 5:02 pm

To Russia With Love: Southern Federal District (aka Black/Caspian Sea Region)

Uncategorized No Responses »
Mar 032012

1 ***Republic of Adygea (Capital: Maykop) 2 Astrakhan (Oblast (Capital: Astrakhan) 3 Volgograd Oblast (Capital: Volgograd) 4 ***Republic of Kalmykia (Capital: Elista) 5 ***Krasnodar Krai (Capital: Krasnodar) 6 Rostov Oblast (Capital: Rostov-on-Don) 7

 

***Adygeya, aka Circassia, is a tiny Republic, capital Maykop, surrounded by the Krai of Krasnodar, but it has an identity and musical sound that is at once unique and characteristically Russian. Adygs Adyghe Адыгэ or شركس/جركس‎, or Circassians or Cherkes(s), are a Sunni Islam ethnic group, but only make up 16.65% of the population – but for all that, they justify having the place named after them because they seem to be the heart and soul of the music of this Republic. They were the roving minstrels during the Middle Ages in that part of Russia. The local ‘folka-polka’ music seems to be accordion-prevalent and is very sped-up — like accordion jazz, almost, or similar to what the French Acadians do.  Native Aslan Tlebzu, and his collaborator, the Adyghe pop sensation Aydamir Mugu, with their hit ‘Chyornye Glaza’ aka ‘Black Eyes,’ have an international following.  Their Nalmes Folk ensemble has toured the US and the world.  Did I mention that their native dancing has those familiar Caucasus horse-clops sounds to it?  Ah, Russians and their horses.  Don’t forget to catch out the haunting Circassian Minstrels with their unintentionally humorous lyrics — such as one praising their blessed mower.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9crNMZEPdc Khazret Ramazanovich Chich – Circassian Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvPiWVwdum8 Аслан Тлебзу – Песня (Танец) джигита

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6YS4uor6vw Abida Omar -the Queen of Circassian Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vymhrXiOCsA&NR=1 The best Pishenawas in The World

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUhSKiB7304 Аслан Тлебзу – Горцы / Aslan Tlebzu – Highlanders

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR13rkCBX3k Nalmes in USA on Virginia TV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEcVnVC3iJQ Аслан Тлебзу – ” Къафа ” – Адйга ”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83FPiUehktE Aslan Tlebzu – Shichen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDndIeTRSYI Aydamir Mugu and Aslan Tlebzu – Fatima (Adyge Pshashe)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aevK-A_DUJw Aydamir Mugu Chernie Glaza aka Black Eyes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8616NYxy3KI KUBE SHABAN -Psyichizh G’ybz (Farewell to the Fatherland)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPifgMZ2yPs State Folk Dance Company of Adygea

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4wdOnGy8Ak Адыгэ диаспорэм и къашъохэр — Distinct — Individually

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“NALMES” -Си Пакъ (“My Pak” -circassian folk song) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDE8vqeWKXA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K56FOm3nOMI&NR=1 Comic Circassian Wedding Song: ‘My Pug-Nosed One!’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEpBtghcygo Circassian Minstrels – The Mower Song: ‘Our hired haymaker is blind in one eye…’

http://www.youtube.com/user/CircassianMinstrels#p/u/9/duqZBgtcxoI “Shirt’im” [«ЩыртIым»], The Adigean State Folk Song Ensemble ‘Yislhamiy’

http://www.youtube.com/user/CircassianMinstrels – Circassian Minstrels (w/ Noba Rey)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eDmqM9dvJw&feature=related Circassian Nart Legend: ‘The Tale of T’ot’resh’s Two-Pronged Spear’ – Zubeir Yewaz (Evazov)

http://www.youtube.com/user/CircassianMinstrels#p/u/7/7YpNdIyt-jA ‘Psixeghe’ [«Псыхэгъэ»], Circassian Magic Melody to Recover the Drowned
http://www.youtube.com/user/CircassianMinstrels#p/u/5/JcvAOpul5sc A Circassian Abrek Song: ‘The Song of Murat Wezi’ [«УЭЗЫ МУРАТ И УЭРЭД»]

 


Astrakhan Oblast (Capital Astrakhan), a Denmark-sized Oblast, which is still small by Russian standards, is a growing transportation hub (rail, air, trucks, and ports) (and salt center). Also Russian farm country (famous for the watermelons — and used to be the Caviar capital of Russia before being fished out), whose same-named capital city borders the Caspian Sea, and where the headwaters of the Volga River lie – whence it winds its way toward Russia — steel and oil – as Russia’s gateway to the Caspian, strategically close to Iran, the MidEast, the Baltic, and not too far away, India.  This might explain Astrakhan being a Russian belydance center.  (For more on Russia and bellydance please read http://www.louisvillemusic.org/terrabeat/2010/04/10/pelvicity/)  Znamensk, aka Kapustin Yar, in the far north of the Oblast, is known for being Russia’s Roswell and Area 51, with a top-secret military base notable for loud explosions and weird fireballs. All the noisy clanking and grating of metal might be what is reflected in the folk music, jazz, classical, and electronica from Russia’s gateway to the Orient.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnWymZXR74o — Psychedelic Electronic from Astrakhan (Salt & Mud)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU07WL-yu1A
Sad Vo Dvore — Astrakhan Folk Band

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGzv7S6z6rA Astrkahn Pop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_mxsdQYAvc Aliya Kurbanova: Russian belly dancer

 

Some places in the world are musical and some places are not. Had always been under the assumption that rivers produced musical places, and then I came to Volgograd Oblast, where this assumption is way off. (Volograd aka Stalingrad aka Tsaritsyn is the capital famous for the Battle of Stalingrad, where Stalin defeated Hitler, and also produces Russian tractors [also historic and iconic]). This is all I could unearth here within this Oblast through which the ‘Mississippi of Europe,’ the Volga River, passes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PN9I0sPWuo Ivan Shapovalov RARE DEMO!

 

***Republic of Kalmykia (Elista capital)

One of the great American tribute songs of the Cold-War spy era 60s was ‘Secret Agent Man’ (most famously sung by Johnny Rivers), which sounds to my ears and a lot of other people’s like Secret Asian Man. After all, there is an Asian in every CaucAsian — a term now used for all whites, but once relegated just to describing the inhabitants of the Caucasus, from which Kalmykia is not so very far. Of course part of Russia is in Europe, while most of it is in Asia – and, accordingly, a large number of ‘Slavic Russians’ are Caucasians with Oriental undertones – hence the old [albeit somewhat paranoid] saying, ‘Scratch a Russian — find a Tatar.’  Beyond that, a Greater Transcontinental Russian might be Greek Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish, or Buddhist.

In fact, now that we’re mentioning it, Russia’s largest Buddhist population is in Kalmykia, which is also the home of Russia’s Chess Capital (a European game or an Asian one?), in Elista. The music and dance thereabouts are extremely exotic — Mongolian influences (as with throat-singing) as well as Chinese (the pagodas and prayer wheels there are precursors to Buryatia) are quite prevalent, as are Russian folk and Circassian and Caucasus influence – a mixture that comes out to be bizarrely fascinating.  Even if Johnny Rivers was really singing ‘Secret Asian Man,’ he was, ironically, singing about a Russian spy – since Russians are the secret(ly) Asian men.  (And Russian spies would then be doubly secret.  And Russian double agents would then have to be triply secret[ive].  And Asians are thought to be ‘inscrutable,’ so . . .  OK, never mind.)

The folk music, dress, and dance of Kalmykia seem unlikely and somewhat inexplicable and therefore fascinate me — there are elements that are very Russian (what Westerners would deem European) and elements that are very Oriental (specifically Mongolian and Chinese). The Kalmyks (also known as Oirats) play the dombura, the balalaika, and the Mongolian morin khuur.

I like it that the Republic is home to an almost extinct antelope called the Saiga, which are as rare, fleeting, and delicate as the Kalmyks themselves – a lot of those people managed to survive Stalin’s mass deportation to Siberia and were able to return after WWII. The great Oriat epic is called the Djangar and is often still sung. Like Dagestan, Circassia, and Ossetia – can’t get enough of Kalmykia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfmYl8VcReM Russia Today Report on Kalmyka (Kalmyk Music and Dance 19:53-23:36)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwOlp28WRlA Djangar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCXTjR7dkss Jangar Baatr Lidji-Goryaev

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgvuWHlhUA4 — Ulan zalata xalimgud” — Tulpan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TReiwXTWB2o&NR=1 – Lagan Oirat. — Frenetic as Acadian Fiddling Elista is the Capital

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VVe3qcNMIg&NR=1 — Kalmyk dance 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMWMdgdvDFg&NR=1 Tyulpan – the Famous Dance ‘Chicherdyk’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSDlkXi09Ec&feature=related – Vladimir Karuev. – Kalmyk Song about Okna Tsahan Zam famous for the The Jangar Epic — a Traditional Epic of the Oirat People

 

***All of the adjectives ‘beautiful,’ ‘enchanting,’ ‘rich,’ and ‘mysterious’ describe both the land and the music of the Russian fairy tale-like Krasnodar Krai (with Krasnodar being the Capital); this is the heartland of the Cossacks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cossacks).  Krasnodar may be adjacent to Stravropol, but the two strongly contrast. Stravopol is drab, and its farming and irrigation have drained the land of any beauty, and its denizens seem to only be interested in Western-style music. This wine-growing region, whose people are also known as Kubans (the Cossack Region also being known as the Kuban Region) (insert your own Cold War joke here), has produced some of Russia’s most enchanting and beautiful composers (among them Grigory Ponomarenko); opera singers (Anna Netrebko, who now lives in NY and whose beautiful voice actually makes me care about opera); and ballet choreographers (Yuri Grigorovich) — and of course there is the traditional Cossack music and dance. Cannot forget the fucking fantastic balaika player (possibly the world’s best) Alexei Arkhipovskiy, who can actually shred the balalaika (the stringed isntrument Russia is known for) – unfucking believable. Krasnodar is also home of the big naval city Novorossiysk and Sochi – a famous Black Sea resort/tourist trap known for its large domestic film festival – the Cannes of the Black Sea, complete with raves and lousy pop singers. Sochi will also host the XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games in 2014 – and will be the home of the Russian Grand Prix until at least 2020.

http://www.arkhipovskiy.com/ Alexei Arkhipovskiy website

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPi4jXdyN2c Alexei Arkhipovskiy (amazing balalaika performance)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-vO1s3mpek&feature=endscreen&NR=1 Alexei Arkhipovskiy shredding the balalaika, plays behind his head, with one hand, and other tricks (OMG!)
http://www.youtube.com/user/AskAnnaNetrebko Ask Anna Netrebko (New York)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpmMLATv75w Anna Netrebko – Tribute To The Moon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96iaZreNPCY&feature=fvst Anna Netrebko Dvorak.Rusalka.Canción de la Luna.Netrebko.Subt.E.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAC9vJr–Us Anna Netrebko Pie Jesu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvC2xASnedcGrigory Ponomarenko (Elena Nikonorova from Ulyanovsk)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8jIwP9QUhU ‘Вербохлест’ (The Kuban Cossack Choir – Dance ‘Verbohlyost’)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClIm8LAMR1w Kuban Cossacks Chorus – Кубанский казачий хор.avi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzQKVcxPGyY Хор им.Пятницкого и Кубанский Казачий хор ! (Heard this tune somewhere before)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD-4gwf_9wA Kuban Cossack Children’s Choir
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHVi4VCpohI Kuban Cossack Choir Marina Golchenko, slideshow Вітре буйний
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qTBDXPZ9n8 олодычка” (The Kuban Cossack Choir – dance “Molodychka”)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REOZv5KukXo Kuban Cossack Choir

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aShWrwWxB4c Ballet Spartacus Frigia Choreographer Yuri Grigorovich

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGaZk7H7vL0 Anna Netrebko – E Strano from La Traviata

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grhflPHcN_g Yuri Grigovich – Bolshoi Ballet Yuri Grigorovich Ivan The Terrible Vladimir Vasiliev Lyudmila Semenyaka Boris Akimov
(Russians Pronunce ‘Opera’ as ‘Oprah’)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tltje8l2VNI Anna Netrebko ‘Addio del Passato’ La Traviata

Aidamir Mugu chernie glaza remix http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyVDb6FZ5E4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPi4jXdyN2c Alexei Arkhipovski.Amazing Balalaika Performance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-vO1s3mpek&feature=endscreen&NR=1 Русская балалайка. Russian balalaika. Алексей Архиповский
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRTtefzlmRU Alexey Arkhipovskiy Balalaika Yand Organ, Video

Rostov Oblast (Capital: Rostov-on-Don) has a grab bag of all different types of music – some of it great, most of it good (at least OK), several of it (‘it’?) is bad, and some downright ugly. On the great side, Rostov is known for being the Russian musical center of both Cossack and Armenian music. Poet Valentin Parnakh, aka the Russian Father of Jazz, is known for being the first person to bring jazz to Russia in the early 20s (where he introduced it in Moscow).  Rostov has decent folk, classical, choral, pop, rap/hip-hop, and opera. Some of the music here has a proclivity for outer space themes. Some of the bad stuff has made it to American shores –- Rock band Zveri’s song ‘Kvartira’ (entirely sung in Russian, made it into the Grand Theft Auto IV video game; and sultru pop school girl Oksana Pochepa was featured in a Maxim photo shoot). As for the ugly – two words – ‘Typewriter Pussy.’ Rostov native Anton Chekhov (from Taganrog), physician-turned-famous-short-story-writer-and-playwright (you know Chekhov, he was the far-distant ancestor of the Navigator on board The Enterprise), is Rostov’s last hope.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY6ltI1n5Lo Anton Chekhov

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwTlnqabo2s Ballet Anyuta Based on Chekhov

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay1L7EfSf9c Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNI9upHSO44 Sergey Rodionov – Typewriter Pussy (1991)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQYz_4FIFHQ&NR=1 Sergey Rodionov from Yerevan Concert Armenia (1986)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jcgv5VbCjs Rostov Symphony Orchestra,Сonductor Mileykovsky.S.Prokofiev.Symphony №5.16.04.11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkIw1HcQ0NE Irina Allegrova ‘Ugonschitsa’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REKKKjIX0m4&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL44A6B7B8C7535100 Irina Allegrova – Mladshiy Leytenant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8GGD2whcxA Oksana Pochepa – Utro Bez Tebya

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VRtKCSWiFU Oksana Pochepa – Kislotniy DJ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF2ByMivrzQ Viktoria Yastrebova
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny4_PPERh-k AstasiaBartok: Romanian Folk Dance. Duet «COMPRENDO». — Olga KAMORNIK a Guitar — Anastasia ORLOVA a Mandoline
(putting the oral in choral)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kfzld_GS5U Russian Choral Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2saS5SeSaE Rosotov Armenian Choral Sings Jewish Songs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvYrDfHdbTQ Rostov Armenian Choral Violin Solo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSX-iEOLFCU Giuseppe Verdi – Messa da Requiem – VII. Libera me. Libera me (II) – Victoria Yastrebova
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErLqqttzUlU Eva Rivas – Apricot Stone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_2uFCW_z1c Don Cossack Choir (1930s)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-WPXVPcPio Children’s Choir Conducted by A.Kantsberg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0jg8_1JeJk&feature=related Oksana Pochepa – Morning without You
http://www.youtube.com/user/kasta?blend=1&ob=4 Каста “Большой концерт за 15 минут”
http://www.youtube.com/user/kasta?blend=1&ob=4 Каста “Это прет” (новый клип, HD, Official)
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22+Rostov+Philharmonic+Orchestra.%22&oq=%22+Rostov+Philharmonic+Orchestra.%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=16288l17605l0l17996l3l3l0l0l0l0l383l548l2.3-1l3l0 Rostov Symphony

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZGGwKJQbbc Kasta – Rostov Rap with Photos of Rostov-on-Don
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HZlZxrHYI0 Zveri ‘Kvartira’ (Grand Theft Auto IV)

 

 

Posted by terrabeat at 1:28 pm

To Russia With Love: North Caucasian Federal District (aka The Caucases)

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Mar 032012

North Caucasian Federal District

North Caucasian Federal District


The map and key are listed in Russian alphabetical order. # Flag Federal subject Capital/administrative center 1 ***Republic of Dagestan (Capital: Makhachkala) 2 Republic of Ingushetia (Capital: Magas) 3 Kabardino-Balkar Republic (Capital: Nalchik) 4 ***Karachay–Cherkess Republic (Capital: Cherkessk) 5 ***Republic of North Ossetia–Alania (Capital: Vladikavkaz) 6 Stavropol Krai (Capital: Stavropol) 7 ***Chechen Republic (Capital: Grozny) 8


***Dagestan (Capital: Makhachkala) seems like a made-up country straight out of a 1930s adventure film or serial, or a Tin-Tin comic. It has some of the Caucasus Region’s widest expanses of wilderness canyons, mountains, valleys, crevasses, and gorgeous gorges, that look like they belong in a Western.  One of the things that characterizes Russia in the minds of a lot of us is that it can have thousands of miles populated by the same few ethnic groups; but this tiny Republic is remarkable for its many little ethnicities, cultures, and languages, all located in the Caucasus Mountains and at the lower edge of the Caspian Sea, and which can be found nowhere else in the world. People called ‘Avars,’ ‘Dargins,’ and ‘Lezgins’ are the majority ethnic groups not of Tolkien’s Middle Earth, but of Russia’s Dagestan. Less cutely, and like other Caucasus regions, Dagestan experiences ethnic tension, strife, and occasional outbreaks of violence.

Links below provide get-to-know descriptions/photos of some of these folks (including dress). Musically, many groups (such as the Avars) have their own folk style of singing.  The Lezgins are the most musically famous for their rapid-fire style of dance.  Several of Dagestan’s elusive ethnic groups in the wild rural areas and even to this day have not had their native music recorded (while the capital Makhachkala lusts after pop modernity).

Have come across several pop stars that mix modern pop with the traditional music and dance effectively, and as a result could have the best pop music in Russia. More classically, Konstantin Saradzhev was a famous conductor and violinist from Derbent, Dagestan – but I cannot find any recordings of him online (was he one of the ones from the wilds lacking in recording technology?), but you can purchase a biography of his online. Just as you have always thought, that intense classical music is indeed a form that virtually all of Russia has always shared in common.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTcz9HG32VY People of Dagestan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1deFVudZhsc Lezginka State Dance Company from Dagestan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adIKPNGEcvE Ансамбль “Лезгинка ” – Дагестан ( Lezginka and various Dagestan Music & Dance)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMQNm8d2fRE Kumyk Traditional Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH4dho3UzNw Turkic Nogai Folk Song

http://www.amazon.com/Ay-Lazzat-Pleasure-Music-Dagestan/dp/B00000370F/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1330658325&sr=1-1 Ay Lazzat: Oh Pleasure – Music of Dagestan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bi2BLeOQKc Laura Alieva-Avarec (Avar Song)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6K6FwbiLzQ Laura Alieva “The Beauty of Dagestan” – Izmennik (mixes pop with traditional music and dance)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ASIxqPIQoA Kavkaz Music – Dagestani song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXFY8_rAqoc Marina Mustafaeva – Mavlid ( Nasheed ) (muslim pop mixing traditional)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlZazO4SFo0 Marina Mustafaeva – My Dagestan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehtztxHqQTM Dagestan pop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiHTgykO8Fs Telman Ibragimov (pop)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=987dKyqDFdU Gotfrid Hasanov- Piano Concerto No.1 (I)

Ingushetia (Capital: Magas) Ah! Ingushetia: simple, pastoral, rural, rustic — and the poorest and most violent of all the North Caucasian Republics. It is true that the violence of neighboring Chechnya has always overshadowed the conflicts of its sister Republic; but that is only because Chechnya has managed to garner all the media attention. In fact, the violence in Chechnya has toned down in the last decade while it has risen in what is called ‘the hidden Chechnya’ (i.e., Ingushetia. As with its politics, so with its music: simple and violent — especially how they attack an accordion. In gush is the largest ethnic group of the region.

Magas is its capital city – or so-called, but with only 500 pop (and only founded in 1995!) – it seems that logically it should have been the larger city of Nazran. In Muslim Ingushetia one would seem to have the Russian Appalachia, given that it is a rural, mountainous area notable for bloodshed and the corruption of its local political scene. In Ingushetia, with its ancient Nakh people, can be found musical instruments that have come down all the way from antiquity to the modern day, such as the zurna, which creates a sound we associate with ancient Greece and the Middle East: a kind of high-pitched, annoying, wavering, buzzing sound, reminiscent of insects; the dekhch-pandr (similar to the Russian balalaika, which is that sort of triangular banjo you see in Dr. Zhivago); the kekhat pondur, a type of accordion played mostly by girls; a three-stringed violin; and of course drums and the tambourine.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yuWCdVxTZo Nakh People and North Caucasus – 2 of 2 (Ingushetia)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxKsVXUFSwA – Ingush Music: Mawlid by Zainab Makayev
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb61TmFqxm4 – Ingush Guitar Music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAm9Wy5cTbM – Ingush Music (here you can see how the drums and accordions make it violent-sounding)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaJ6nYT2KYU Ingush Folk Dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIo35_oFiEk Ingush Pop Song (listen for a Turkish sound)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hwnh9zdRys Ingushetia, Land of Vainakh People

Kabardino-Balkaria (Capital: Nalchik) This is where in the Northern Caucasus you want to go if you’re a tourist, so that you needn’t concern yourself with any of the horrors that took place there not that long ago. Despite being a Muslim area in the Caucasus, Kabardino-Balkaria, part of the ancient kingdom of Alania, is peaceful. Feel free to ski the highest peak in Eurasia (that would be Mt. Elbrus), mountain climb, or bask in mineral springs, free of the worry of violent insurgence or resurgence. However, there is in this Republic a perhaps even greater threat: Kabardino-Balkarian Russian pop. That’s not just any Russian pop; it’s a particularly awful, sacchariney, maple-syrupy po(o)p . . . (oh, if diarrhea could only sing) – and, unlike Dagestani products, it does not incorporate any native ethnic music. It makes the Backdoor Boys from the 90s look straight. (Ex.: Bilan represented Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with ‘Never Let You Go,’ finishing no less than second; and he actually [can you believe it?] won the contest in 2008, with the song ‘Believe.’) Karbardino-Balkaria also has an Appalachian quality to it, but in the case of K-B, Appi’s softer side, with outdoor activities and natural springs. Nalchick is balneological and mountain climatotherapy, sanatorium resorts, and mineral waters. (A-a-a-h-D-e-e-p-B-r-e-a-t-h!!) The Kabarday and the Balkars serve as the main ethnic groups. Please clear your head of generic ‘freedom’ pop with the classical strains of native son Yuri Temirkanov.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPWFJccgjDs Karachay Balkaria Songs and Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15OVImGNuvo Karachay – Balkariya Folk Music
Katya Lel – Doletay http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-yWw_kdWQ0&feature=BFa&list=PLDB16D0553538B21F&index=1

Katya Lel – До свидания, милый
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTCnQstmY7U&feature=BFa&list=PLDB16D0553538B21F&index=4

Dima Bilan – Believe (English Version) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjGNdotSgDY&feature=autoplay&list=PL4D16994B3DA202C6&index=5&playnext=2
Dima Bilan – Believe (Russian Version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBRu0WTDTIY&feature=BFa&list=PL4D16994B3DA202C6&index=16
Dilan Bilan; Never Let You Go – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnnP5NHQ3xA&feature=fvwrel
Sati Kazanova – Семь восьмых http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2RCZGInMs0&feature=autoplay&list=PL30637D280DD55B5A&index=10&playnext=3

Sati Kazanova Льдинка (Достояние республики – 2011) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHBj4gT1geM&feature=autoplay&list=PL30637D280DD55B5A&index=13&playnext=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdsbigCR0U0 Yuri Temirkanov

***In somewhat similar vein the perhaps even-more-superlative Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia (Capital: Cherkessk) is becoming (along with Kabardino-Balkaria) THE tourist region of the Caucasus, with majestic mountains, beautiful waterfalls, and grand valleys, but without the war. In fact, I have a little hard time not confusing the two Republics. This one was once home to the world’s largest telescope (so maybe that helps). K-C is comprised of the Circassians (Cherkess), Karachay, and Abazin ethnic groups. Circassian folk music is a big find – it is hard for the mind to process the wonderful unfamiliarity of the Circassian (and other Caucasian) folk dance theater groups; the traditional Circassian music seems wilder than that of areas whose dance is just a wee bit faster and rawer (that of Adygeya, say, with its machine-gun polka and horse-clop dancing). And no wonder wrestling is very popular here (as it is in most Caucasus Republics) – it is better and healthier than actual violence. This part of the Caucusus seems worlds away from the serious clashes in nearby Chechnya and Ingushetia; that’s in spite of the fact that in Stalin’s blood ran that of the native Karachays and almost every other ethnic Caucasian group. After studying their native music and dance, it is hard for me to understand why the Caucasus (with Iran not too far away) is considered European rather than EurAsian.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPDj4-sTPP8&feature=plcp&context=C30f3ea8UDOEgsToPDskLcVslLpDzgO_GLRpc0NBZH Karachay-Cherkessia – Russia Today (Shepard Dancing segment begins at 6:34)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW9WdfmhwFw Karachay Songs: Mingitav
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8DZnZ-FD8c Algish - Karachay Music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTMXH9KHOZ4 Circassian folk music ‘Leperise’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCh_Hh3YKuI Circassian folk music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1EvorXViuE Zefaqu – Merkuri dance ensemble

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1orbB79eZZ4 Mountaineers Dance – Merkuri dance ensemble

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRvKvI43W1w Abazin Folk Music

***Ossetia is divided in two — one part being the breakaway Republic of South Ossetia, in Georgia; and the other, the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, in Russia (the very picturesque Vladikavkaz being its Capital). Alania used to be the medieval kingdom of Ossetia. Ossetians were always a small ethnic group in that part of EurAsia; always in danger of being gobbled up by the bigger, more dominant ethnic groups surrounding, or of being conquered by such-like as the Mongolians. In the forming of the Russian empire, the Russians were willing to work with the Ossetians, which is why the Ossetians agreed to their rule – but it was (if I may mix proverbs) a deal with a devil in sheep’s clothing. Because in Soviet times Stalin reportedly arranged to divide the Ossetians and, through ethnic un-cleansing, render them less unified – uniting (OK, breeding), by redrawing the political boundaries, the Ossetians in the South with Georgians; and the Ossetians in the North with Russians. But the Ossetians got back at him (or maybe he was just getting back at them), because there was always a rumor that Stalin was the result of a fling his mother had had with an Ossetian.


The cultural re-engineering appears to have partially worked out really well, in terms of the music: this region produces some of Russia’s best classical musicians. But there is still a pull for native Ossetian music, as well: heavy on the rapid-fire accordion polka (similar to Circassian/Cherkess music).

All Ossetians have ever really wanted (and still want) is to be left alone, but that is just not in the cards for them. Too small to pose a threat, they are yet too large to be ignored. A recent example of the ‘winds of violence’ that have historically swept through Ossetia was the Beslan School Hostage Crisis of 2004, in which Ingush and Chechen Islamic militants took the North Ossetian-Alanian School hostage (that was 1,100 people, including 777 children; of whom at least 334 – including 186 children — were left for dead). No wonder tourists are reluctant to come to Ossetia to visit some of Russia’s most famous natural mineral and freshwater spas, and the more than 3,000 historical monuments located within the Republic.

But, to get the flavor, we can go online:

Pictures at an Exhibition – Valery Gergiev – Mussorgsky (Ravel) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7Uz3qGsu5Q
Valery Gergiev dirige a la Orquesta rusa del Teatro Mariinsky http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_p3vu4t-sw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsv3ytfqcRs — Zlata Chochieva Schumann Symphonic Etudes, Op13
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my75RJLv7I8 Zlata Chochieva, Sasha Grynyuk, Kateryna Titova & Sergiu Tuhuțiu – Habanera from “Carmen”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnI9HYXU-U8&feature=BFa&list=PLD1052B6AF781A5FD&index=5 Prokofiev: Romeo und Julia 1/5 – Tugan Sokhiev
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryiWMfniDeU&feature=BFa&list=PLD1052B6AF781A5FD&index=2 Tugan Sokhiev Interview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnjVOPtmIQY&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLD6B5FE91D817E844 North Ossetian Dance Ensemble

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10zqAf6NwTs Ossetian Dance From Georgian Movie “Fatima” (composed by Boris Gaelov – from North Ossetia-Alania)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97-VruWVUO8 Ossetian Dance – Iron Kaft

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhGS2E9Sk54 Ossetian Traditional Folk Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sEjrXgaP_M Ossetian Folk Song – Honga

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7vHBEdUwfc&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLD6B5FE91D817E844 Ossetian dance with knifes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UdoTva0cJc&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLA349AA240DD3DE6B Ossetian Claymation Epic

Stavropol is a Far-West Russian territory (Krai), just outside the Caucasus, known for its agriculture (almost every square inch in an arial view in GoogleEarth appears devoted to farming), irrigated canals — and tumbling. Tumbling is that sport where young Eastern teenagers do stupendous backflips in the Summer Olympics. The musicians from here farm—it’s bread-basket, Cossack territory. The music seems to be Western-influenced. Its most famous resident was a former WWII-era poetess, Anna Timiryova, often imprisoned for her beliefs. Stavropol is another place that is known for its mineral waters – the town Mineralnye Vody literally means Mineral Water. Yessentuki, the Russian Perrier, is bottled in Satvropol Krai – one can buy it in the Russian store on S Bardstown Road (but before you make a trip out there, I’ll tell you it tastes, not like our delicious, award-winning Louisville tap, but [exact opposite of that] like carbonated Chicago tap).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hY72VuRu-8 Stavropol tumbling (track is a Western song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksHpyFliz8I Stavropol AllStarz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HCrgPuXpkI The Admiral – Anna’s Letter (movie scene with German subs) (film in which Stavropol poetess Anna Timiryova was a character)

Mostly Muslim Chechnya and its capital Grozny are not nearly violent as they used to be — Grozny is a rebuilt capital (far cry from the images of ruins almost twenty years ago); relatively stable now — but if one were to judge the Republic based on its music alone, one might assume the Republic had a fractured identity: in part old fashioned, in part eager to embrace modernity; part Russian, part Muslim/Middle Eastern – some all of the above, some none of the above.

The Republic has never been able to get what it has been searching for for centuries: independence – and that is why its wars broke out. The USSR let other countries go after its collapse, but not Chechnya for some reason. So independence is that tantalizing, unattainable hope that will never come true for them; and even though it appears to be independent under its current head-of-state, the very young Ramzan Kadyrov (only in his mid-thirties) – it is still only an illusion. Even post-USSR, Chechnya is part of Mother Russia, whether it likes it or not.

Chechnya’s is a very definable folk sound. (see below, on Imran Usmanov and the haunting Imama Alimsultanov). Even if politically it is not the case, Chechnya in its music is its own nation. In their art they are also most known for their striking medieval towers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chanta.jpg

The last two links listed below are two CDs I strongly recommend — the first is gripping songs about war from Chechnya, and the second are 1909 recordings from the Caucasus and Central Asia – these unique, haunting cries of males singers can be found on no other track and absolutely do not sound European. Also, the all-female vocal group Aznach Ensemble is a treasure, so listen –


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t29HA87S0_g Nakh People and North Caucasus 1-2 (Chechnya)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHA_KQmtNyk льяс Аюбов – Нена хаза йо1. Ilyas Ayubov – Chechen song Even the architecture is not quite Russian and not quite Muslim/Middle Eastern.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiwo3CgpVPM Sa Daymohkh – Ensemble Aznach

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfWenT_pEI4 Aznach Ensemble

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt-kbVkmGa8 Tamara Dadasheva sings about Chechen hero Cahar Dudayev

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn1qHmJQ8jY “Tamara Dadasheva”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTLTIjZlSCI “Tamara Dadasheva”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM4OuMpxwqA National Anthem of Chechnya – Aznach Ensemble

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8mqP60uy6M Daimoh kan Biezam – Aminat Akhmadova

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVTZww2zLYA Ilyas Ayubov – Nashid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCUf5_796V0 Aza Bataeva – Vezara
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpoDNbqE_Ok Aza Bataeva – Chechen haz eshar noxchi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRd4HN9AoZ8 – Eliza Betirova
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXdNwpIB_VwtXvQ Makka Sagaipova
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHxf3PAHRJY&feature=related Makka Sagaipova – Daymohk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiG75u_PIIg makka sagaipova habibi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTbOOHO0MlI Maryam Tashaeva (Chechyn Leader is in the audience)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzMQ_5N6eqo Imran Usmanov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUKrA5zGUUo Imam Alimsultanov – Allahu Akbar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS2zVsSNKp0 Imam Alimsultanov (zemlya otcov)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ulT3YfAVy8 chechen Walid Dagaev Ca Nana.avi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzoQfFJoRiE Ali Dimayev- Chechnya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrEW-RlYgmM Khas-Mago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhmn8pFMBzA Хаза йо1 – Sultan Islamov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V59c821yho Timur Mutsurae (haunting; cool guitar)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBRD4UCD50E Ramzan Paskayev
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVsluw74cv0 Лиза Умарова – Вставай Россия
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0-o8EJiKpk ЛИЗА УМАРОВА СЛЕПОЙ ГАРМОНИСТ Liza Umarova (Want to see what Chechnya is like today — then watch this video)

http://www.amazon.com/Songs-Defiance-Music-Chechnya-Caucasus/dp/B000P7V4IK/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1330163770&sr=1-1 Songs of Defiance: Music of Chechnya and the North Caucasus Amazon Playlist

http://www.venerablemusic.com/catalog/TitleDetails.asp?TitleID=8158 Before The Revolution – A 1909 Recording Expedition In The Caucasus & Central Asia By The Gramophone Company

After looking at pop from Dagestan and Chechnya, it is easy to see its appeal – pop is a modern expression of folk music in popular form. However, when it is stripped of all its uniqueness for the sake of mass market appeal – (ahem, EurooVision and Russia’s Got Idol) – then it’s pretty much lost its zing.

 

Posted by terrabeat at 1:22 pm Tagged with:

To Russia With Love: Toward Russia With Love (Intro)

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Feb 272012

russia

A little while back I invited you along for a musical travelogue with me along the exotic, exciting Silk Road of legend, which stretches across the majority of the broad and mystic continent of Eurasia. http://www.louisvillemusic.org/terrabeat/2011/10/22/midnight-at-the-oasis/. In the meantime I have been traversing the route so that I could return and function as your conductor for your journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway (so all aboard; passports not needed) – please call me Alexander the Insignificant. It’s taken me a while to get there and back, as I wanted to check out every instrument and ethnic group along the way – and, boy, is it a vast expanse!  Covering eighty three Federal Subjects of the modernday Russian State – downsized from its USSR days, but still the largest nation in the world –
–bordering Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (both via Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Khazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It also borders Japan and the US via the sea.
Can you imagine a country that stretches from Poland to Alaska and contains so many ethnic groups, ranging from various Turkic peoples (primarily the Muslim Tatars) and tribes, to native peoples that seem similar to our Native Americans? It’s difficult even to imagine, so diverse is it – that’s the thing. Everything you thought about Russia will be dispelled once you get to know it better (or at least that’s been my experience). It will no longer be this vast, empty spot on the map one knows virtually nothing about, but a region with rich, tragic history filled with brilliant minds, cultures, and of course music.

So the first thing is to try to get an idea just how big and varied a place it is we are trying to visit and get a handle on – how Asiatically jumbled; how Orientally complex.
One thing that does seem clear is that where Europe ends and Asia meet is very unclear, and the borders traditionally given seem arbitrary – perhaps designed to make Europe seem larger than it is – but in any event the border is not really the Urals. Somehow or other, given all that most of us have never really known about Russia, I myself have come away with the impression that Caucasus Muslims are similar to people in the Middle East. But it is more complicated than that – there are parts of ‘European’ Russia that seem very Asian, such as the almost completely Bhuddist Kalmykia Republic; and urban pockets of Asian Russia in both Siberia (where there are wild tigers roaming around) and the Far East that seem very European.
Then, over and above the original ethnic cultures, there are hybrid ethnic cultures comprised of some mixture of originals (such as where the Euro Finns and the Asian Tatars in the Northwest of Russia intermingled and became their own culture). Despite the fact that a Federal District may be an Oblast or Republic, ethnic groups have been moving around all over Russia and intermixing all over Russia for a very long time now. The advent of the train has really propelled that.
In fact, because of this, it is very tempting to call Russians ‘white Asians’ (Caucasians perhaps). And the native peoples of Russia have a lot in common with our own, American native peoples (note the overlap in both cultures of Shamans/medicine men, and their vision quests, dress, and instruments, not only among the far-Northern Inuit, but also among the tribes that live in the continental US and non-arctic Canada).
There are tribes that use teepees and tribes that live in yurts similar to those of the Mongols. There is a Native ‘Russian’ drum that does not seem too far off from a Uzbek drum, once one looks at them side by side. The Buryats and Tuvans look very Oriental, sharing things in common with the Mongolians and Chinese; but they also have a lot in common with people from the further west, ‘European’ West. The native peoples of this almost unimaginable transnational entity, that is yet counted a culture in itself, include Slavic Europeans, near-Scandinavians, near-Flemish, near-Baltics, Mongolians, and quasi-‘Indians’ not far from Alaska (oh, yes, and ‘Russians’). Russia is almost like a tossed salad as among Europe, Asia, and — though we may not really think of it, there being a bit of ocean there that doesn’t really mean that much in the end — the Americas.
Buried within the history of this gargantuan land mass, called for convenience ‘Russia,’ is the legacy of the Mongolian Khans: a legacy far more institutional than tangible at any time; and far more lasting than most of the tangibles civilization brings. From nowhere, those nomadic, barbaric upstarts, spurned by the civilized Chinese further to the south of them (until those contemptuous Chinese, too, fell before the Mongols’ conquering wind), ‘swept’ (is the usual word) in essentially all directions throughout Europe and Asia on horseback (until it got too hot for them too far south, and their weapons didn’t work right in the heat, so they had to stop conquering) – and bringing with them almost nothing apart from such things as a devastating new form of warfare; but re-establishing and stabilizing, a free trade zone, the Silk Road – since the Silk Road had already existed for a thousand years); an alphabet (based on Uighur characters); free public education; the rule of law; the abolition of feudal enslavement; religious tolerance; a pony express mail system; an international monetary system; diplomatic immunity, and of course, unified Eastern and Western Russia – things one just would not have expected from the Mongol hordes have always been thought by everybody to be. (And they did all those thing in essentially just a single chieftain’s lifetime !). Moscow also rose during this time – the Russians were the tax collectors for the Mongols, which meant that the Mongols, did not have to visit the lands they owned, and kicked out the Mongols after militarizing under Ivan III.
(But in fact, they were only bloodthirsty savages to cities refusing to capitulate. Which, unfortunately, were most cities. But those who did capitulate were left with their own autonomy; the protection of the invincible new Force; and all the reforms and advances the Mongols, out of nowhere, managed to dream up and invent.)
So, from them, there does exist a ‘Russian-ness’ – a national character, traditions, and, if you will, a spirit. From them, Cossacks on horseback; from them, plain living, tending to asceticism and a bent toward the ‘spiritual’ (not until Genghis’ grandson, Kublai, took over were there any Xanadu Pleasure Palaces – they indulged in no luxury items beyond portable MidEastern rugs and Chinese silks); from them, the collectivist ideals and iron discipline more lately seen in the Soviet Union’s Party politics.
Hence our Travelogue, as envisioned, traveling the famed Silk Road –
(The source for this take on the Khan Conquerors comes from a work entitled Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, by Jack Weatherford, out from Three Rivers Press in paperback in 2004. It is an interpretation, and an understanding, that, according to Weatherford, has been ‘missing’ from our understanding of world history – and therefore of Russia – since Genghis and his Mongols never really built anything to speak of or wrote their own history. Weatherford and his colleagues were years traveling around Siberia and all the farther-flung parts of the Mongolian Empire, gathering up stray bits of accounts written by people in various places they passed through, so they could piece together what the Mongolian Empire was really all about. So it is really not our fault that we have tended to have such a nebulous view of Russia to this point – until lately, even historians have.)
Louisville has at least three Russian musicians living here: gypsy guitarist Misha Feigin (who was once big in the Soviet Union and tours Europe and Russia still (catch him with Appalatin and Dream Job at Uncle Slayton’s ); Alim Naestev, a world-renowned jazz guitarist, who bases himself in Louisville but does not perform here; and the supremely talented classical guitarist Olga Kondylykova, who teaches children at her home. I had the privilege of seeing Olga’s handmade music composition books and teaching manuals, in one of which she matches each song with the mood of a Marc Chagall painting.
Another Louisville connection with Russia is that we are sister cities with Perm in the Perm Krai – on the surface of it, it appears that we have nothing in common with Perm (there are other Cities that might be a better fit such as Voronezh known for its horse racing), until one realizes that Perm looks like Louisville from an aerial view and is also, like Louisville, a business center right below a river (the Kama substituting for the Ohio).
This piece is only titled ‘Toward Russia (With Love),’ because – given the immense scope of our undertaking (in which I heartily hope you will accompany me) it will take some space to take you all the places I want us to go. All I can really hope to do here is give you this introduction – and just a bit of description about what our itinerary (to be covered online, at my LMN website — http://www.louisvillemusic.org/terrabeat/ ) will be:

The post is divided into eight different sections (corresponding to the eight different Districts of Russia): the North Caucasian Federal District, Southern Federal District, Central Federal District, Volga Federal District, Northwestern Federal District, Urals Federal District, Siberian Federal District, and Far Eastern Federal District covering eighty three different Federal Subjects.

Herewith a preview of each:
1/ The Northern Caucasian Federal District has Circassian, Ossetian, and Karchay rapid, machine-gun accordion playing and dancing that is similar to that of an AK-47; and haunting Chechnyan balads that deal with violence. Like all parts of ‘democratic’ Russia, though, the Caucasus are not immune to the souless, individual free pop that is overtaking the country like the Mongol hordes. Extremely rare ethnic music, not known to most of the West, comes out of the Western-like wilds of Dagestan; like Texas, it is like a whole ‘nother country.

2/ The Southern Federal District (also known partly as the Kuban region — Checkov’s stomping grounds is Rostov) is sandwiched between the Caspian and the Black seas and is Circassian, Cossack, and Kalmyk country. More of the machine-gun polka, but also Cossack dancing and singing. Kalmykia (which has Russia’s largest Bhuddist population) is a place where the people look very Oriental and pagodas are a common site. Kalmyk music incorporates strains of the Far East and the Euro-West with its own unique culture. There is also some nice Russian classical and opera to come out of this region (as well as crappy bland Euro-pop).

3/ When the average person thinks of Russia, they are most likely thinking of the Central Federal District, which hosts the City of Moscow and has more iron ore than any place on earth. Manufacturing and industry are very prevalent here, and this region boasts some of the best native Russian folk music, especially on the balalaika and the garmon.
Music from the City of Moscow illustrates the continuing history of musicians trying to be free and be themselves, while at the same time incorporating native Russian folk music along with those of other ethnic cultures in Russia. You would think their struggles in this vein would be over now, but the music from the West, which was once their liberator in the late 60s, is now their now new dictator. The native Russian music of Kursk sounds rawer and more explosive, influenced by the Russian bagpipe, than usual and is home to the great composer Grigory Sviridov – as is once was to Pushkin (Moscow), Tolstoy (Tula), and Bakhtin (Oroyol).

4/ In the lush Volga Federal District region (based around the Volga river), Finns, Tatars, Russian-Orthodox, Pagans, and Muslims live side by side in relative harmony. As we move closer to the Urals of Asia, we come across the childhood homes of Nureyev (Bashkortostan) and Tchaikovsky (Udmurt). The single tusk-like quray flute (played downward) and the oriental scale of Tatar music are both distinctive to the Region.

5/ In the Northwestern Federal District, indigenous (Nenets) and Russian (and Finn) folk music, storytelling, and art warm the heart on an Arctic winter night. Studying the music of St. Petersburg throughout the eras reminds one that it has always has had well-produced (dare I say ‘hip’?) music of whatever time-period or genre. (The European version of the American saying should be ‘What is playing in St. Petersburg.’) Excluding the Bolshoi (in Moscow), St. Petersburg is home to some of the best ballet in the world (Mariinsky Theater). ( Lest I forget, Novogrod was home to Rachmaninoff.)

6/ The mountainous Urals Federal District is home to many mining camps (of all stripes). Russia’s gas & oil center, and Russia’s fourth largest city (Yekaterinburg). The chief highlight here is the traditional gothic, haunting native music of the reindeer herders of Khantia-Mansia (whose native peoples share a language in common with Finns and Hungarians) – all of which makes the Northern Ural Western Foothills seem like an Arctic Appalachia.

7/ The Siberian Federal District, covering the Siberian wilds of Asia and Russia’s third-largest city (Novosibirsk), has the ‘Droids you’ve been looking for.’ This is the musical jackpot of the entire country! with music (usually throat singing and primitive acoustic) from Tuva, Altai, Khakassia, Buryatia, and Krasnoyarsk, incorporating Turkic, Mongol, and Chinese elements. There is also more native music. Novosibirsk is home to famous Russian film composer Eduard Artemyev and folk songbird Pelageya. There is a throat-singing rendition of ‘House of the Rising Sun,’ ‘Come Together,’ and Metallica’s ‘Nothing Else Matters’ on traditional instruments will make you shit your pants. The Tuvan music has attracted Western attention, but the music from the nearby regions is also fucking unbelievable. Russia has never quite fully engulfed Siberia; based on its music – it has not even touched it.  Anything West of the Urals (european bias/snobbery & fears) was considered no-man’s land (therefore Asia) and was made for exile, imprisonment, and nuclear testing.  The shackles of Siberia have been taken off (for at least 20 years) — come visit!

8/ The Far Eastern Federal District not only has music that one would think would be more likely found in Western Russia, such as its Gypsy Music from Khabarovsk; and its Jewish music from the Jewish Oblast, but also Chinese, Korean, and Japanese-influenced music as well. The Chukchi peoples of the Arctic have a closed-mouth singing style that they can do while simultaneously playing the Jew’s harp. The only known Chukchi rock band, Gubernator, is a find. Sakha’s native Yakut people mix their own music with bad Oriental pop . As the music gets toward the Pacific Coast; it gets more Russian (and European? – then again perhaps not). And – once here — we have come full circle. Yul Brynner is a native of Primorsky Krai. The Far Eastern District had seen some great tragedy in Magadan (which was the worst of all of Stalin’s gulag camps). The descendents of the Survivors became the residents and put up a now famous statue called ‘the Mask of Sorrow’ which paid tribute to all the prisoners.
(There might be ‘Russian’ music that one might expect to see in my post that I will not cover, however – namely, Georgia and the Ukraine –because those are now independent nations in their own right.)

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that rivers, songbirds, and other aspects of nature in has profoundly influenced music throughout millennia (have written about this before): http://www.louisvillemusic.org/terrabeat/2010/03/17/a-river-runs-through-it-yours-truly%E2%80%99s-mapping-of-rodrigo-y-gabrielas-1111-their-influences/. In Russia, it is no different with the sounds of birds, frogs, wind, (and of course horses) greatly influencing the musical stylings of Tuva and Altai and of course Classical music. Russia has so many immense rivers and some of the longest rivers in the world including the Volga, Don, Kama, Oka, the Northern Dvina, the Dniepr, the Western Dvina, the Ob, Irtysh, Yenisey, Angara, Lena, Amur, Yana, Indigirka, and the Kolmya. Possibly rivers have also influenced the musical stylings of stringed instruments such as the balalaika. Trains are also a recent advent, but have strongly influenced music in the last couple of hundred years. The Trans-Siberian Railway (longest Railway in the world) connects Moscow to the Pacific Ocean (Vladivostok) – so much joy, suffering pain, and grief in Russian railway history (gulag prisoners, exiles, travel & tourism, etc.). Choo! Choo!

Finally — it is hard not for me now to see Russian Classical Music as the definitive classical music because Russian classical is based on their folk music, which is itself very similar to classical music. And of course Classical music hails from all over Russia, even the parts considered to be ‘Asian.’ It could be claimed that classical from the ‘other Europe’ (apart from the Russian Europe) seems soft or tame compared to Russian classical. Even when Russian classical is fragile, like Tchaikovsky’s, it is still solid. Russian classical, generally, seems to me perfect to the ear for some reason.

Meet you at the station!

 

Posted by terrabeat at 7:45 pm Tagged with: , , ,

Fusion Transformation Explosion

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Jan 232012

Life, as we all are living it, in an era of ever-increasing internationalism, makes (alike in music as in food) for fusion!

Of course fusion is the life’s blood, the exciting, (world-)beating, throbbing heart of all that is truly new, wherever in the world, in contemporary Worldbeat.

A natural, living fusion can (and most often does) come about as a culture as a whole changes and amalgamates: over time; even over generations. And of course all music – all newness in music – has historically resulted from ‘fusion’ of just this sort: from learning, assimilating, borrowing, reworking, often across cultures (and most often across time).

In the contemporary musical scene in the US fusion of all kinds is becoming common — and I do not necessarily mean worldbeat: e.g., fusing Dylan with hiphop and North Dakota Cowboy music (as done by Sandman the Rapping Cowboy, from Dunn Center, ND). Genres are being redefined (and thus invented) on a wide scale.

But often these are native-born musicians playing world music of all types (so really much less of a ‘living’ cultural fusion, since the strands being fused are not from the musicians’ own culture, either native or adopted).

Some immigrant musicians mixing and hybridizing with native-born American musicians have appeared of late in some big American cities like Boston, New York, San Francisco, and LA. (Among these one must count the Hindu-Bluegrass fusion band in Charlotte, NC, who are LA transplants.) But these, too, are less examples of ‘living’ fusions because, while they might represent a collision of immigrant musicians with American art and artists, they do not represent any collision of cultures per se. The music they produce might be interesting, but, to the degree the cultural strains they are blending are not a prominent part of the mainstream, the resultant music will never become recognizably ‘ours.’ (No legs, in other words.)

So we would seem, ideally, to want to be on the lookout for something in the world of musical fusion specimens that is ‘living’ and ‘has legs.’ As for habitat – where to look for it — we don’t get a lot of latitude in our choice of that, either, if it is to be living and to have legs. To put things bluntly, in this country at this time, the fusing cultural element needs to be Latin. Very simply, that is where the new wave of migrating people have come/are coming from. That is our next stop along the line of cultural assimilation in the US.

Of course this assimilation process is proceeding apace. The typical scenario is that in the larger cities one gets proliferations of ethnic neighborhoods, which serve as spawning grounds of the culturally New – for the emergence of (for example) salsa bands and the like, which then stream into the culture gradually, sometimes via younger or even second-generation people already largely assimilated. So while such fusion process is ultimately quite successful, still, owing largely to the fact that it is more gradual (less jarring, less jolting), it is perhaps also less challenging; and because less sudden, perhaps, as well, less edgy; less surprising; less dramatic. Less fraught with possibilities. (I mean, less exciting, OK?) So even if such fusion process is successful and surefire, certainly it is more dilute. (Too many legs, in other words.) So not such a rare bird.

Let us recap: this mythic rare bird of ‘living’ musical fusion, a Phoenix rising from its ashes, we appear to be stalking is: not one that happens too slowly to be much fun; not one where the musicians aren’t real representatives of the traditions being fused; not one which cannot take root and grow because one or more of the fusing traditions isn’t finding a place among the culture’s mass currents; and not one that shows up in the cultural mainstream so dilute as to have all its edge off.

Therefore: where this ‘rara avis’ might be located is where a group of musicians, as representatives of two cultures that are fusing ‘in real life,’ set themselves consciously to forge a musical fusion within a very short period of time, thereby speeding up a cultural and artistic process that would otherwise occur much more slowly (and invisibly, and dilutely), over a period of years or even decades.

But, wait, I can tell you one may have been sighted in Louisville (and, despite the fire imagery, no, it’s not a cardinal).

Louisville fusion band Appalatin bears all the markings of our mythic fusion ‘rare bird’: of its seven members, three are Latin; three are American; and one is ethnically HispanicAmerican. Its vision is to meld two very strong, heritage musical traditions, Appalachian and Latin – both of which are culturally ‘ours’ – i.e., that are types of music we can strongly and immediately relate to – one the traditionally, the other the emergently American.

But with a twist that is unique, on both sides: because the traditional music of the Appalachian Region is something distinctive within American music, and until now untouched by Latin influence (as much other mainstream American music no longer is); and because Appalatin’s form of Latin music is one that is itself unique because it incorporates more familiar ‘Latin’ style with Andean tradition. Plus – and here’s a critical component – there is an R&R ‘substrate’ that, though Appalatin’s name doesn’t imply it, runs through all of Appalatin’s music that is in no small part where it gets its ‘legs’ – its audience-immediacy and appeal.

Being thus something in the way of a ‘living’ musical experiment, Appalatin has already undergone transformation that has taken it through sharply defined (but, even to the members) in-their-details somewhat unpredictable and veering phases. And I think even more striking, new directions, are almost certain to emerge from all the uncharted artistic potential. What is clear at this point is that, in their new terra incognita, the Latin sounds Appalachian, and the Appalachian sounds Latin.

At a prior stage the band had signal success at putting together a loyal audience-following, including a set of regular get-up-and-dancers (who also are Cosa Seria salsa regulars at nearby Saints Skybar) exulting in the really rockin-out Latin numbers that were developed in that timeframe. But just within recent weeks the next stage of Appalatin’s dynamite metamorphosis has ignited and truly exploded. At their Thursday nights venue at Zazoo’s in St. Matthews the group has started taking their music back toward the Appalachian side of its inspiration with what I think it is safe to say is a an amount of both brilliance and bang.

New songs lately introduced into their repertoire which way turn up the Appi include ‘Man of Constant Sorrow’ (a Kentucky traditional) and ‘The L&N Don’t Stop Here Any More’; plus they are doing an amalgam of ‘Blue Moon of Kentucky’ with ‘My Old Kentucky Home.’ ‘Cocaine, Tell It to Me’ (you know, ‘Drink the corn liquor let the cocaine be, Cocaine’s gonna kill my honey dead” — an old bluegrass favorite) has also come out for a spin. Their song that is likely most seriously in the hearts of their most dedicated fans, ‘Shady Grove’ (and something it is difficult to envision one’s ever getting tired of), has been positioned as their signature piece. (But since their most recent format has been, first set, Latin/danceable; second set, Appa/fusion innovation, I would guess that their Latin dance-fans are not to worry – those great Latin numbers surely aren’t going anywhere.)

The band has never sounded tighter. At last Thursday’s performance (January 19th) at Zazoo’s they were absolutely on fire. First off: Vozos’ mandolin (although it was only for one number) — it sounded great. Then, while I would have said that deLeon’s harmonica – historically always one of the group’s most Appalachian-sounding elements — was already so good it just about couldn’t get any better – lo and behold, it HAS gotten better. The only word I can really think of to describe deLeon’s playing last week is, “F-en Fantastic!”

Ovations are also owing to the group’s two newest members, Mason Roberts (bass) and Alex H.M. Molina (Latin drums). They both sound at this point like they’ve been with the group for years: fully and seamlessly integrated into the Appalatin sound. Mason’s evolution on bass has really added a solid Appalachian core to the music – the innovation introduced by Moya (actually something the group he was playing with back in Ecuador used!), of applying a fiddle-bow to the bass, is inspired, and the result, awesome, and very Appalachian.

And none of this detracts in any way from the group’s pre-existing strengths that it has built its reputation on to this point: Kentuckian Sizemore’s slamming, irresistible drumming; the gotta-get-up-and-dance, rock-out factor spearheaded by twin guitarists and (truly melodious) vocalists O.-Solano and Vozos; with always the experience of knowing one is in the presence of world-class art, when swept away by Moya’s array of Peruvian pipes – surely some of the world’s most magical and exotic of instruments.

(And I really don’t want to move on without mentioning how much there is to love about Marlon O.-Solano’s gentle sense of humor, up there in front of a mic; and, on the Appalachian side, Vozos’ display, when he emcees for the group, of what can only be described as aggressive star-quality. These two guys really know how to throw a party.)

And this is only the beginning. Their standing Thursday night gig at Zazoo’s is intended (hopefully) to play host to a host of Appalachian (and other) singers and musicians from the Region to play/sing/even dance with them – a series of events which promise for an artistically innovative and divergent experience every single week – all part of this seminal, burgeoningly fruitful, dynamic process of Appi/Latin fusion that is going on right here, right now in Louisville (but for a limited time only).

Here’s my wish-list, anyway: Appalatin to play with Appalachian music notable Nathan Salsburg (at least we’re workin’ on it: his music, to me, would be a natural fit; I mean, I’m thinkin’, Beautiful: so come on, Nathan – get up here!); female vocalist Katie Rene’ with her group, Yours Truly (Thurs March 22nd); from Burton, Ohio, Appalachian-like vocalist Rebekah Jean (Thurs March 22nd); (their mentor) John Gage and Friends from Home Front radio show; Relic Bluegrass Band/the Bibelhauser Brothers (has played with Appalatin before); the Guernsey Brothers; The Whiskey Bent Valley Boys, Alabama Brown, Alonzo Pennington from Princeton KY whose father was Eddie Pennington and had the same guitar teacher as Merle Travis. Players of fiddle, banjo, hammer dulcimer, flat guitar (local aerial acrobats – Krypta Night & SoulFire Bay – Thursday Feb 2nd) – the possibilities are endless. And, on the Latin side, to add to Peruvian flautist Penelope Quesada, a local Bolivan charango player whose name is escaping me, and San Juanito de Ecuador’s appearance so far, there will also be local Hatian musician & beatbox artist Caleb Louis on Thursday April 5th. For something completely different the Sudanese Rebaba Project will be playing with Appalatin on Thursday Feb. 23rd.

Should be, every week at Zazoo’s, Thursdays with Appalatin will be just that different – who knows what will emerge at each? and as time goes on? (Marlon jokes that they will be there at Zazoos for the next 20 years and their kids will come and see them.) Don’t miss this. Because what’s going on here at this moment, with Appalatin, is unique not only IN Louisville – but TO Louisville.

Posted by terrabeat at 9:05 pm Tagged with: ,
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