Label: Musicaphon – BM 30 SL 2704
Series: Music of Oceania – BM 30 SL 2704
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: Germany
Released:
Genre: Non-Music, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Aboriginal, Field Recording
Mind-blowing inclusion to the highly-revered, much-sought after yet NEVER seen ethnographic series Music Of Oceania published sometime in the 80's by Musicaphon. Whilst a range of field-recordings / musical anthropology labels (Ocora, Tangent ++) have conducted studies from the likes of Africa, Indonesia and South Asia in great depth - Polynesia / Oceania has been somewhat of a blip on the map, leaving the six-part 'Music Of Oceania' series to become a holy-grail for deranged collectors of this sorta music. Gulp! But as you can can imagine from a part of the world where traditional cultures remain very much intact and still in ways remains slightlyyyy sheltered from the corrosive ways of the Western world - the sound captured herein is stop-you-in-ur-stance, overwhelmingly INCREDIBLE. A revelatory window on a world where music forms the very background to society, throughly intertwined within each of the regular rites associated with daily-life and entirely inseparable from the traditions / people who've harboured it for millennia. This 5th inclusion to the series focuses on the Papaun speaking Abelam people residing in the North-Eastern section of Papau New Guinea, whose culture depends heavily on the cultivation of Yam. As such there's entire side of varying pieces reserved for before, during and after Yam harvest, in addition to songs dedicated to funeral rites, the building of a new home and appeasing ancestral spirits. Stylistically, each recording consists of variations of group chantings and a hypnotic primordial drumming (assuming to mimic the pounding of yam), in addition to a few rare pieces that involve high-pitched bamboo flutes that seem to replicate the sound of birds. If you already know this stuff then I'm preaching to the choir, if not.. it's infinitely interesting to anyone with a curious ear, and a samplers DREAM.. replete with EXTENSIVE musicology notes and amazing B&W photography of their fascinating culture. Belongs more in a museum! (Vinyl & Sleeve NM // Ex-library copy with tag on the reverse // ask for pics if unsure or get in contact).
Tracklist:
Music For Building And Consecrating The Ceremonial House
A1a Drum Calls For The Slit Drums
A1b Drum Signal
A2 Maku, Men's Song
A3 Nggwal Mindsha, Antiphony To The Ancestral Spirits
A4a Mindsha, Nocturnal Song I
A4b Mindsha, Nocturnal Song II
A5 Introductory Song To A Speech
A6a Bire, Concluding Song I
A6b Bire, Concluding Song II
A7 Ocarinas And Bamboo Flutes
Songs For Yam Festivals And Transitional Rites
B1 Limbi, Antiphony For Initiation
B2 Kanggu, Men's Song For Initiation Rite
B3 Wanyen, Dance Song Preceding The Yam Festival
B4a Banggra, Men's Song For Yam Festival I
B4b Banggra, Men's Song For Yam Festival II
B5 Dshambukware, Men's Song For The Ancestral Spirit
B6 Masha Kantu, Men's Song At A Death Ritual
B7a Gambakware, Songs At A Wake I
B7b Gambakware, Songs At A Wake II
