Congo | Cérémonie du Bobé (Ocora 560010)

This recording, made in 1990, captures the sound of the Bobé ceremony conducted by several pygmy groups in northern Congo. Since I don't have the booklet, I have to rely on what little information the Internet provides: apparently the Bobé refers to a spirit (or spirits?) of the forest, and the ceremony may or may not have something to do with securing good luck for hunters. Interestingly most of the other records of pygmy polyphony in my collection feature just one ethnic group, whereas here the choir includes members of three: Bagombé, Babemgélé, and Mikaya.

I never found time to read Arom's classic text on African polyphony, which is something I'm very unhappy about. Possibly I would've gotten more out of this record; but as things stand I can only write an account much like those given by early European explorers. What we have here is essentially a long - almost 60 minutes - polyphonic piece for soloists, choir, percussion, and perhaps the occasional actor. Perhaps the most startling aspect of the music is how it seems to start and stop unpredictably. Sometimes a single drum solo launches a tutti section, sometimes a single voice. Other times such solos do not lead anywhere. Tutti sections can be long or short, but invariably unpredictable as to when they're going to suddenly start falling apart. The rhythm is roughly the same throughout the entire piece, but the way it is articulated varies a great deal, and there are some tempo fluctuations as well. The percussion is endlessly varied, with several kinds of drums, different hand clapping techniques, sometimes mixed, sometimes doubled. At one point during track 3 I thought water drums were employed, or perhaps some kind of rustling sound produced using a great amount of dry leaves.

The vocal parts are extremely varied. I've heard pygmy polyphony before, but never on such scale, and never with such an impressive array of techniques: there's singing and yodeling, which I expected, but there is also whistling (including a few parts where there's just whistling) and several types of what seem to me imitations of animal and bird cries. Early in track 4 there appears to be a major change in vocals, with older female voices (I think) producing a beautiful choral section, while the percussion becomes particularly prominent and high-pitched; very intense.

This wealth of detail doesn't really open up at first, though. I had some trouble following the piece for roughly the first 20 minutes or so; things became much easier after that, and at the end I couldn't get enough of the music. Most changes are subtle, delicately woven into the texture, and require a bit of attention from the listener. One final remark to remember this record better, the first and last tracks are ambience - rain, crickets, people talking - I thought I could hear the editing in track 1; in the last track there seems to be something else going on - a hunt, perhaps? I wish I had the booklet or at least knew what is going on.

Tchad | Arabe Dékakiré :: Arabe Salamat :: Barma :: Kanembou (Prophet 19)

This seems to be a partial reissue of Charles Duvelle’s recordings from the 1960s, some of which were released as a 3 LP set by Ocora/Radio France ("Anthologie de la musique du Tchad"), which I also have in my collection. I don't have the booklet, but from what I understand the music here is that of several Islamized ethnic groups. The most memorable track for me was the first one, Aba Guirmi. Since I don't have the booklet to the CD, I have to rely on the liner notes from the aforementioned LP set, where a somewhat similar piece is described simply as a Kanembu "music of praise" (praise of what? or of whom?). It's a piece performed on a couple of brass instruments and a few drums; it's incredibly infectious and catchy. I'm almost tempted to use the word "groovy" here. It sounds like an obscure yet fully developed offshoot of big band jazz, or like an exceptional post rock piece which leans towards pop music in its strong beat and a certain minimalistic approach. The music speeds up as it goes along, propelled by a variety of ostinato patterns emerging here and there in the brass. The LP notes mention that one of the brass instruments may include some "speaking" melodic lines, in the sense that actual words and/or meanings are encoded into the sequences of pitches.

The other standout track for me was Bardé, an intense polyphonic piece for woodwind ensemble performed by an orchestra from the Salamat region of Chad. Sections of pure polyphony contrast with heterophonic ones. The instruments’ timbres include such a generous amount of noise, I couldn’t help thinking of Saharan winds (and feel ashamed). It's very exciting music, and, for a composer such as myself, very inspiring.

The other tracks included three very different pieces from Baguirmi (Barma) repertoire, one of which sounded very similar to some Tuareg music I've heard, a song/conversation/artistic performance by Issa Chauffeur (Arabe Dékakiré; included cowry shell ornaments' noises, breathing, and telling jokes to the listeners), and another energetic piece with wind ensemble in call and response pattern with vocals, accompanied by fast drumming (apparently also by the Salamat ensemble).

Declaration of Intent

I have over 2000 world music records, but I have only listened to very few of them, having amassed the entire collection very quickly. I started this blog hoping it would help me remember the records. The way I want it to work is, I've made a list of the records I haven't heard yet and I'm breaking it down into into batches of 17 records each (the collection is broken down into 17 regions) and listen to the records in sequence, writing down my impressions and whatever information I find which may be useful.

After a while, since I'm going to use labels, I hope this blog will help me expand my knowledge, navigate my collection with much more ease, and, with luck, I will be able to remember a great deal more about the music.