Zambia. The Songs Of Mukanda

"Every society needs some form education to transform children into adults, as well as some means of formally distinguishing the immature from the mature. For the Luvale, this function is performed by Mukanda. Mukanda begins with all-night singing and dancing, accompanied by four drums, in the village centre. Men and women of all ages gather from nearby villages, creating a crowd of several hundred people. The next day, the novices are led into the bush to be circumcised and begin their period of seclusion. The adults clear a space in the bush and construct a large enclosure of branches and leaves where the boys sleep. During their seclusion, the novices live under a variety of restrictions and taboos. They learn the secrets of mukanda from adult guardians (vilombola), who also train the novices in the skills they need for daily life. The novices live in seclusion for about one month, the time it takes their circumcision wounds to heal. When the seclusion period ends, the novices are led to the river, where they undergo a purification ceremony (kulyachisa). The training ends with a final ceremony. The boys officially return from the bush, accompanied by singing and dancing that continues all night." Recorded between 1982 and 1984 and features the musical aspects of the novices' lives during the seclusion period. Excerpts can be heard here. Liner Notes included. 

The Songs Of Mukanda

Spirit Of African Sanctus

Recorded by David Fanshawe between 1969 and 1973. Something I have noticed from other albums he has recorded, is that he seems to be great at recording incredible songs and only showing you short excerpts of them. He does this on nearly every song on this album and on another album I have heard recorded by him (Kenya & Tanzania: Witchcraft & Ritual Music). This CD is still available and part of the royalties go to Survival International, an organisation that campaigns for the rights of indigenous people, so even if you can only donate $5, please make a donation to them here! It will only take you a minute. This is still a great album with amazing songs, but I think it should have been released on a few discs so that the music could be treated with proper respect and be listened to in full. Excerpts can be heard here. Liner Notes Included.

Spirit Of African Sanctus

Papua New Guinea. New Ireland

"New Ireland is a long, narrow island (350km long/10km wide) lying in the Pacific Ocean to the north-east of the island of Papua New Guinea, to which it is administratively attached. Although it's population is only 90,000, the cultural landscape is highly diversified: some forty, mainly Austronesian languages and dialects are spoken, not to mention those imported by the recent immigrants from Papua New Guinea itself. A single word, however, dominates the religious, social and cultural worlds of New Ireland: Malanggan. This refers to the ritual cycles tied to the cult of ancestor worship, funeral ceremonies in the course of which particular chants are heard, and also to polychrome masks sculpted in the round that are famous the world over. Whereas Malanggan sculptures are famous and known to all museums and amateurs of oceanic art, the music of New Ireland is little-known, since available recordings are scarce or inexistant. And yet, as is clear from this CD, the art of music in not behindhand." Recorded in 1974 by Charles Duvelle. Liner Notes included.

New Ireland

Kanak Songs. Feasts And Lullabies.

Voices, chants and hypnotic percussion. Tracks 10 to 14 are influenced by European music but the rest of the songs are traditional. Recorded in New Caledonia between 1984 and 1987. Liner Notes included.

Kanak Songs

The Sounds Of Bamboo. Instrumental Music Of The 'Are'are

"The 'Are'are categorize their music as: 1) 'au, for bamboo instruments, 2) 'o'o, for wooden slit-drums, 3) kiroba, sound play on water, and 4) nuu isuisuba, vocal. For the 'Are'are, song and above all, instrumental music, provide the core of the of the musical performance arts. 'Are'are instrumental music typically depicts such natural sounds and human actions as bird and animal calls, oceans and rivers, rustling trees, crying or snoring children, and people at work. Music can bestow a sense of peace, attract the opposite sex, elicit strength and wealth, arouse passions, or awaken sorrows." Recorded in 1988. Liner notes included. Excerpts can be heard here.

Instrumental Music Of The 'Are'are

A two and a half hour film made by Hugo Zemp of music from the 'Are'are can be bought here, 'Are'are Music/Preview.

Sacred Flute Music From New Guinea. Vol 1 & 2.

"The blowing of these flutes within the appropriate ritual context is to invoke the presence of the spirits with which they are associated, to make the powers associated with these spirits accessible to humans. The flutes are made, owned, played and kept secret by adult men. Women and children are forbidden to see the flutes and are told that the cries of the flutes are the voices of actual spirits." These are probably my two favourite albums that I have. Vol. 1 has four longer pieces. Vol. 2 features 12 shorter pieces on a wider variety of flutes. Excerpts can be heard here, and here. Recorded in 1974. Liner notes included. 

 Vol 1/Vol 2

More of this music can be heard on the equally good Music Of Oceania, Papua New Guinea: The Middle Sepik and The Iatmul Of Papua New Guinea. A film which has a lot of this music can be bought here Namekas: Music In Lake Chambri/Preview, a beautiful film filled shots of village life and the surrounding landscape, in one sequence a man uses a living beetle for an instrument, singing into it's buzzing wings. 

Papua New Guinea. Huli Highlands

"Prophet is different from other collections of world music by virtue of its exacting standards of authenticity and musical quality. 

Musical authenticity: recorded live, in a traditional local environment, generally on a particular occasion and not in a lifeless studio or stage.

Acoustic authenticity: the acoustic environment (fundamental for the quality of sound reproduction) is carefully respected.

Temporal authenticity: as far as possible, the actual duration of the musical performance is taken into account; the listener is in a genuine temporal dimension (hence some long tracks) and not just presented with short extracts." These are rules every recording of traditional music should follow. Recorded in 1974 by ethnomusicologist Charles Duvelle, the founder/director and one of the recordists for the amazing Ocora. This is one of the best albums I have heard. Liner notes included.

"The Huli are the main ethnic group (c. 40,000 people) in the Southern Highlands province of Papua New Guinea. Completely isolated in the heart of the mountains, they have preserved, better than others, their archaic ways of life and their unique traditions." 

Huli Highlands

Budal Lardil. Songs Of Mornington Island

Budal (songs) of the Lardil people of Mornington Island. Recorded at Slim's Creek just outside of Gununa, the main settlement at Mornington Island in 1988.

"Mornington Island is the largest in the Wellesley groups of islands situated in the South-East corner of the Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland. Legend takes the history of the Lardil people who are the traditional land owners at Mornington Island before the last ice age, some 10,000 years ago, when the islands were still part of mainland Australia. The current population numbers close to 1,000. Much of Lardil culture is sacred, the songs on this disc are public to share with people of other cultures. All these songs have been directly received through dreams. They thus have an owner whose rights are passed on through the family line. They have a significant relationship to various other people through totem and Dreaming association and links to particular Story-places both at Mornington Island and further across the Australian continent. The dreaming is a direct link from the story-place on Mornington Island at the present time. The singing of these songs is the spiritual-cultural link between these People and the Land. It brings the Past and the Present together." Another amazing album. Liner notes included.

Budal Lardil

Bunggridj-Bunggridj: Wangga Songs by Alan Maralung. Northern Australia

"This recording presents a set of songs that Alan Maralung refers to as "Bunggridj-bunggridj" after the spirit from which he learned them in a dream. These songs belong to a genre of didjeridu-accompanied songs widely performed in northwest Australia and known most commonly as wangga (though Maralung uses the term, "walaka"). His songs involve a far higher degree of improvisation than is usually found in wangga today; the musical and intellectual skills displayed by Maralung as he manipulates the musical and textual material are probably unique and may well represent the last manifestation of an older tradition of wangga singing. An extensive 44 page-booklet supplements these 1988 recordings made by Allan Marett in Northern Australia." Liner notes included.

Bunggridj-bunggridj

Australia. Aboriginal Music

An amazing album originally released as part of the UNESCO Musical Sources series. The recordings are of varying quality (tracks 6 and 7 sound great) and were recorded between 1959 and 1969 by Australian ethnomusicologist Alice M. Moyle, some are field recordings, others sound like they were made inside a building because there is slight reverberation. As a sample I have uploaded the first track which is made from excerpts of a rain dreaming ceremony. Although the quality of the recording isn't great and it would be amazing to be able to hear the full ceremony, it is still incredible to hear this music. The rest of the recordings are traditional Aboriginal Australian music from the Northern Territory, made up of singer/s with clapsticks with or without didjeridu accompaniment and there are a few purely vocal songs. Liner Notes included.

Australia. Aboriginal Music

Songs From The Northern Territory 1-5

"Each compact disc contains selections from field collections made by the writer during trips to Aboriginal Communities at the 'top end' of the Northern Territory. The recordings are part of a survey of as many different kinds of Arnhem Land music as were accessible at the time to a female recordist."

  Beautiful collection of field recordings made between 1962 and 1963 by Australian ethnomusicologist Alice M. Moyle, which are of reasonable quality considering when and where they were recorded. Mainly traditional music, mostly with singer/s and clapsticks accompanied by didjeridu, which may sound like it would get repetitive over 5 discs, but there are many stylistic variations and the music is hypnotic and trance-inducing. The only non-traditional songs are tracks 4-5 on Disc 3 and tracks 7 and 13 on Disc 5 which are obviously influenced by European missionary music. Liner Notes for each disc included.

Songs From The Northern Territory 1: Aboriginal Music From Western Arnhem Land

Songs From The Northern Territory 1

Songs From The Northern Territory 2: Aboriginal Music From Eastern Arnhem Land

Songs From The Northern Territory 2

Songs From The Northern Territory 3: Aboriginal Music From Yirrkala and Millingimbi North-Eastern Arnhem Land

Songs From The Northern Territory 3

Songs From The Northern Territory 4: Aboriginal Music From North-Eastern Arnhem Land including Groote Eylandt

Songs From The Northern Territory 4

Songs From The Northern Territory 5: Aboriginal Music, Travelling Songs ('Song Lines') From Southern Arnhem Land; Also Songs From Bathurst And Melville Islands

Songs From The Northern Territory 5