The Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir / Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares - Ritual (1993)

«In 1951, the father of Bulgarian concert folk music, Philip Koutev, established the Ensemble of the Bulgarian Republic. His goals was to join the rich heritage of his country's solo folk songs with harmonies and arrangements that highlighted their beautiful timbres and irregular rhythms. One year later, the Bulgarian State Radio and Television Female Vocal Choir was founded. Then as now, its members are singers from the rural regions of Bulgaria, each an informal apprentice in the folk songs of her home. The ensemble, now under the direction of conductor Dora Hristova, has refined Koutev's original idea into a fine art. The Choir's imaginatively arranged songs join traditional folk melodies with sophisticated harmonies and compelling rhythms, performed in an exotic six-part vocal style. Repertoire is drawn from arrangements created by Bulgaria's most esteemed composers, among them Mr. Koutev, Krasimir Kyurkchiyski, Nikolai Kaufman and Petar Lyondev.

Ritual is an unusual recording for the Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir. For one thing, two male guest artists make appearances on two of the songs and a measure of instrumentation on half a dozen tunes includes one instrumental (gasp!). It's a wonderful dance tune which only enhances the feel of the recording dealing mostly with tunes meant for St. Lazar's Day and also Christmas carols. This recording (1994) is the first studio album since the group's two Le Mystère anthologies of the late 1980's. The tradition established by Philip Koutev in the 1950's of applying the compositional methods of concert practice to folk material is still the origin of the famous sound of this choir, now directed by Dora Hristova. Another fascinating aside on this recording is the group singing "A Jewish Triptych (Sephardic)" composed and arranged by Nikolai Kaufmann. This is glorious music that anyone literate in world music should know.» (Singers)

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Karandila Orchestra - Na Kupon s Karandila (1999)

A nice album of bulgarian gypsy music, thanx to Kaloyan N. from Bulgaria. Well worth a listen!

«Na Kupon s Karandila is a CD that displays the band's ability to convert simple tunes into hot cocek. Most of the tracks featured are cover versions of Bulgarian pop-folk (chalga; contemporary twist on Bulgraian folklore music). The CD starts off at high pace with “Doko, Doko”. The mood remains elevated with tracks like “Izleze Mesetchina”, a creative cover of Goran Bregovic's “Moonlight”. After “Lechkov Kyucheck”, the pace slows down to more casual and loose sound. The last few tracks pick up the speed again culminating with the popular Bulgarian hit “Maimunka”. Even although most of the tracks are not original, this CD shows how creative Karandila can be with contorting and shaping other music into cocek. For people that haven't heard of the original versions, the CD will still entertain thanks to the brass section of Karandila, conveying a wide range of emotions. The overall compositions grabs your attention right away with clinical drumming and indefinable trumpet improvisations, flowing from jazz to gypsy.» (http://cocek.com/albums.html)

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Ivo Papasov - Balkanology (1991)

Il bulgaro Ivo Papasov, virtuoso del clarinetto, è noto come «il re della wedding music». Nato nel 1952 a Kurdzhali, un villaggio della Tracia vicino al confine con Grecia e Turchia, da famiglia turca di origini rom, Papasov iniziò a suonare il clarinetto all’età di 9 anni e nel 1974 fondò il gruppo Trakiya; successivamente, a Plovdiv, formò il Plovdiv Jazz Folk Ensemble, con cui continuò la sua carriera di musicista itinerante, suonando in centinaia di villaggi e cittadine del suo Paese, diventando il musicista più ricercato per le feste di matrimonio. In patria è chiamato «Aga», maestro, e la sua musica, oltre a tenere banco nei maggiori teatri, è la colonna sonora delle celebrazioni più importanti. In Occidente, la notorietà è giunta nel 1991 con questo Balkanology, prodotto da Joe Boyd, considerato da molti (me compreso) un capolavoro e il manifesto della poetica di Papasov: brani originali e rielaborazioni di temi tradizionali bulgari, macedoni, greci, turchi e rom (per lo più caratterizzati da tempi dispari, tipici della musica balcanica), interpretati da Ivo e la sua orchestra con l’energia di un gruppo rock e l’abilità di fraseggio e la verve improvvisativa di un consumato ensemble jazz.

A towering figure of the contemporary Bulgarian wedding music movement, clarinetist Ivo Papasov earned international success on the strength of his influential jazz-folk style. Born in 1952 of Turkish Rom (Gypsy) ancestry, in 1974 he founded the group Trakiya, quickly emerging as the unrivalled king of wedding music, the most popular Bulgarian style; Papasov’s distinctive sound – an improvisational, energetic aesthetic heavily influenced by diverse sources including traditional folk, film scores and cartoon music – found its most fervent following among younger listeners, the attraction undoubtedly the music’s similarities to the kinetic spirit of Western rock. In Bulgaria’s new democratic society of the 1990s, his music thrived, with long-awaited official recordings seeing the light of day not only at home, but also abroad. The superb and largely instrumental Balkanology draws not only on Bulgarian elements, but also the music of Greece, Turkey and Romania. Listening to this heartfelt music (much of it quite fast), one can hear the parallels between Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and East European forms. Papasov is quite the improviser, and in fact, American jazz has had a significant impact on his loose and very spontaneous modal playing. (AMG review, freely edited)

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