KTK38: CHANTS DES MAQUIS DU VIET-NAM

Ladies & gentlemen, this is your captain speaking...

This week we're ending up our little trip around South East Asia. Nothing surprising today as we'll follow some previous posts from a few months ago about Vietnamese popular music during war time.

The big difference is that this time it's not a record produced by Vietnamese people, it's an outsider's view that mixes music, historical document and environemental atmosphere from deep inside the jungle: CHANTS DES MAQUIS DU VIET-NAM (Le Chant Du Monde LDX-S-4316 from 1968). Recorded in the Jungle by Madeleine Riffaud (who is also credited for the photos and texts) is an interesting Lp on quite a few levels. at 18' Madeleine Riffaud became a young heroin of the world war 2 French resistance, she is a poetry writer and a war time journalist (she covered the war in Algeria and in Vietnam). She is still active and she recently produced some documentaries about those subjets.

This recording is not only a great militant of peace and freedom document but also an interesting point on the music of this era. It mixes gongs an other percussions, men and women vocal ensembles, traditional songs and also atmosphere recordings (kids playing, birds, radio...). The sound is a little windy but it's a great listening!

TRACKLIST:
01 AVANCE DANS LA JUNGLE
02 MARCHE DE LA LIBERATION
03 LE PAL EN BAMBOU
 04 L ARMEE AU CHIGNON
05 LA FILLE DU VIETNAM
06 CONFIDENCES D UN JEUNE SOLDAT
07 GONGS DES HAUTS PLATEAUX
08 LE PRINTEMPS EST REVENU SUR LE FRONT
09 AIR DE XYLOPHONE DES HAUTS PLATEAUX
10 LE PRINTEMPS DANS LES ZONES DE GUERILLA
11 L ARC DE Y-0N
12 LE MOUCHOIR
13 LES OISEAUX, ronde d enfants /  BOMBARDEMENTS AMERICAINS
14 INDICATIF ANNONCE DE RADIO-LIBERATION
15 MUSIQUE TRADITIONNELLE
16 LES CONVOYEURS DE RIZ DE L ARMEE
17 NOUS COUSONS DES VETEMENTS CHAUDS POUR VOUS
18 LOUONS LA VICTOIRE DE L AP BAC
19 HYMNE DU FRONT NATIONAL DE LIBERATION

Madeleine Riffaud in Vietnam

KTK37: BALI-JAVA (musique folklorique du monde)

Ladies & Gentlemen, This week, we continue our short trip around South-East Asian music and, as last week, we'll enjoy some traditional buddhist percussions.

Today, we have a recording from the prolific ethno musicologist Deben Bhattacharya who produced more than 100 recordings from all around the world (plus numerous books and movies) about various musical traditions. This time he was in Indonesia for the "Musique folklorique du monde" series with: BALI-JAVA (Musidisc 30 CV 1110 from the 60's).

Indonesia is one of the countries in the world that have the most amazing amount of highly interesting musical cultures. This is due to it's particular topography made of thousands of islands and also of the mix of various religious cultures and a large amount of different ethnies. It's not surprising that all the greatests traditional music labels released a huge amount of documents on Indonesian music over the years!

This week's recording focuces on the Gamelan percussion orchestras from Bali and Java (though no infomations are given on the cover to tell us more about witch ones are from Bali or Java and the particularity of each track).
One sure thing is that Lp is perfect to follow last week's music we heard from Northern thailand! Enjoy...

TRACKLIST:

01 KANDAGAN

02 ARDJUNO WISAHA

03 DJAJA ASMARA

04 TARI PENDET

KTK36: THAILANDE (musique classique du nord)

Ladies & gentlemen, we hope you enjoyed our stay in New Zealand. This week, we're starting a little tour of South East Asian music. We'll mostly focus on traditionnal and classical music from various places this time but we'll have longer and more specific visits later this year with some popular music...

Today, to celebrate the Sonkran festivities (Thai lunar new year) we'll enjoy some classical music with THAILANDE, MUSIQUE CLASSIQUE DU NORD (Playa Sound PS 33522, recorded in 1973, published in 1982). This great LP is the 17th record of a collection focussing on traditional Asian music, "Musique de l'Asie traditionnelle".

The recording we have today had been done by Hubert de Fraysseix, though I could not find much informations on his works I noticed he also did some recordings In Portugal and India. This time he was in Northern Thailand to record classical music and he knew what he was doing! We got some different wind and percussion instruments, bold and deep classical buddhist music orchestrations from the north: PI CHANAI, PHI PHAT and PHI NAI... It's trully gorgeous!

TRACKLIST:

01 PI CHANAI

02 PHI PHAT & PHI NAI SOLO

03 PHI PHAT & PHI NAI SOLO

04 POPULAR ORCHESTRA

 

Happy Sonkran celebrations to the Thai people!

Thanks for flying with KTK

KTK35: POSTCARD FROM THE CIRCUS !

Ladies & gentlemens, it's been a while since we got our last postcard. I'm pretty sure it was worth waiting as this time it will work as a time tarvelling machine for most people, taking you back to your childhood... 

Today is party time with the GREAT CIRCUS ORCHESTRA, "LA GRANDE PARADE DU CIRQUE" (Disques Vogue, SLVLX 432 late 60's recording). I was pretty happy when I first played this record I recently found at a freezing flea market. 

It sounds really authentic and you can feel the atmosphere. There is a great orchestra directed by Jack Jay covering some circus classics and playing some creations all that surrounded by the live atmosphere, applauses, happy screams, and some noises from the show. If you add to that, some great vintage photos inside the gatefold cover and a foreword by Achile Zavatta (a french leader of a famous circus familly) it makes a pretty interesting document and a pleasant listening... 

Grab some popcorns or make some pancakes for everybody and enjoy!

TRACKLIST:

KTK34: POI AND HAND GAMES

women performing Poi dance

Ladies & Gentlemen,

This is your captain speaking: This is the last day of our trip in New Zealand. You sure remember the welcoming we got a few weeks back with the Haka dances. This time we'll go for something different.

hand games

This week, we'll have a great party before leaving with 2 local bands performing for us the traditional POI AND GAMES (Vicking records VE63 from the mid 60's).

These are the songs that goes with the traditional ancient Maori sports and games, they where performed for our pleasure by the Hukaere Maori Cub on side 1 and the Hokowhitu-Atu Concert Party on side 2 so it's kind of a split ep.

stick games

We started with a virile atmosphere and we'll end up with sweetness as both bands perform some relaxing music: women vocal ensemble accompanied by some mellow percussions...

TRACKLIST:

SIDE 1:

performed by the Hukaere Maori Cub

01 TI RAKAU (stick game)

02 DOUBLE SHORT POI

SIDE 2:

performed by the Hokowhitu-Atu Concert Party

03 HOEA NGA WAKA (poi)

04 HAND GAME

All our crew hope you enjoyed the stay,

get ready for another trip soon,

far out, far east or somewhere else...

KTK33: MAORI SONGS (st Joseph girls choir)

St Joseph's Choir in the 80's

Ladies & gentlemen,
It seems like the Hikuroa sisters got the success they deserve all week long! During this easter week-end some of you have probably been hunting for chocolate eggs or, like your captain, spent their time digging some vinyls... or maybe visited the local church.

St Joseph's Choir in the 70's

Well that's what we're going to do today with MAORI SONGS, St Joseph's Maori Girls Choir (Viking VE146 from the mid 60's). This ep is pretty scratchy but it's sure worth listening and it's always good to salute the great job that Viking records where doing at this time to promote the Maori culture. St Joseph's Maori Girls Choir are like an institution in New Zealand since 1867 and they even happened to get some big success! Several recordings of their performences have been published during the years and today we got some of them. Let's just enjoy this handfull of sweet Action and Poi songs from the vocal traditions of the Maori people!

TRACKLIST:

01 CANOE SONG: TOIA MAI TE WAKA NEI

02 SONG OF WELCOME: NEI RA AHAU

03 ACTION SONG: PA MAI

04 POI SONGS:

- HOKI HOKI TONU MAI

- KIA KAHA E HINE

- KO HATO HOHEPA

- HARE, HARE, RA E HINE

St Joseph's Choir