Mundofonías 2022 #44: Hacia Siberia y el oriente lejano / To Siberia and the Far East.
We travel to the most remote northern east of Asia, listening to the music of the diverse cultures that live there, thanks to the compilation
«Folk and Great Tunes from Siberia and Far East«:
Lydia Chechulina –
Uutai –
Vedan Kolod –
Sretenie Ensemble –
KrAsota & RAmantik –
Polyn’ –
Ulger –
New Asia.
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Folk and great tunes from Siberia and Far East
"Once you have Siberia in your system, you can never get rid of it. I spent my childhood roaming the taiga and I miss it," says Russian folk music expert and musician Daryana Antipova. Her aim is to make the lively Siberian folk music better known beyond all clichés. And that works best with a sampler that presents what she considers to be the most important players in the folk scene.
Siberian folk music today is not about the "seemingly authentic" Soviet folk ensembles or professional choirs known in this country. To understand this, one has to look far back in history: In the USSR, the state saw itself as the "educator" of the country's indigenous peoples. Moscow provided guidelines that fitted the official state doctrine. This policy had nothing whatsoever to do with the cultural tradition of the indigenous peoples. In the past twenty years, however, more and more independent projects in folk music have emerged from the ruins of the "official Soviet tradition".
In the regions of Siberia and the Far East, people still talk about the expulsion they experienced in the 1950s. At that time, Moscow pressured many Russian and indigenous inhabitants of the region to move to larger settlements with state-built housing. People were explicitly encouraged to "modernise" their lifestyle. They did try to link their traditions to the same myths and legends that had been passed down through many generations, but these efforts were not always successful. Another problem: traditional folklore is disappearing as fast in the 21st century as it did in Soviet times, "thanks" to ubiquitous globalisation that is levelling cultural differences, complains Daryana Antipova.
The musicians from Russia's Far East are unknown even to good connoisseurs of the Siberian scene. "I called Elena Tyurina, the project manager of Ethnicart, and asked her for help. So the compilation features representatives from Kamchatka, Chukotka and the Magadan region, with Olga Lastochkina, Oleg Napevgi, Yosif Zhukov, Gubernator and Lydia Chechulina. Musicians from the Omsk region and the Novosibirsk region, Krasnoyarsk and the Tyva Republic are represented by groups and musicians such as Vedan Kolod, Dmitry Paramonov, Oktai, Sretenie, KrAsota.
"The musical diversity of Siberian ethnic culture and indigenous peoples is huge. But if you can breathe in fresh frosty air together with the musicians while listening to their melodies, I am very grateful for that," writes Daryana Antipova.
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Новая Азия (New Asia) - Топшуур (Topshur)
Alexey Khovalyg - Teve-Khaya
Listen to:
Uutai - Singing Sky,
Yat Kha - Shartylaam,
Bolot Bairyshev - Укок (Ukok)
Photo Credits:
(1) Daryana Antipova (Vedan Kolod),
(2) Uutai,
(3) Dobrynya Satin (New Asia),
(4) 'Folk and great tunes from Siberia and Far East',
(5) Bolot Bairyshev, (6) Ulger, (7) Alexey Khovalyg,
(8) Dmitry Paramonov,
(9) Albert Kuvezin (Yat Kha),
(10) Ayarkhaan
(unknown/website).