One night in Athens, I was pondering around Athens downtown @ the meat market. 
At day time it's full of life. Imaging the sense of smell and sound of the crowd, colour of meats and veggies, now all seems to be an empty hallow street.

I was after the best rembetika in town and I found it! one audience remarked the female vocal in the recording as one of the best rebetiko voice around. 

I met a stingy cyprus guy at the entrance and he wanted to share my table. I said fine. The next thing is he wants to share my bottle of wine and pay half. I agreed too. After a few songs he said he's going to toilet and disappeared eversince! 

Nevertheless music was great! plates of flower were thrown to the musicians to express the joy. And men , danced in a circle, (like in the picture), and their partner had one knee down praising him with one arm up.

before i left the beautiful violinist even threw some flowers back at me :)


Greek Rembetika - Athens

How powerful could raw voices be? And with today's urbanised world we will lose those sound.

This is the women's voice in the mountain range of anti-atlas, during wedding/ceremonies. Pay attention to the high pitch whistling sound, typical for berber women.

i recorded during a village wedding ceremony where the female guests started chanting like this. Any female guests that is :) its not a performance, but a way of celebration.


Berber women - antiatlas

I recorded from desert festival, lots of people were there :)

People from the desert always sit on the ground. So lots of drummers scattered around the carpets, except 4 kuwaiti with smaller hand drums dancing a bit. 

One main vocalist, others just echo back :)


Kuwait desert music

Sikh pilgrims Sarangi

Saudi Arabia Folk Song

Saudia Arabia folk song 2

turkish street violin

can you hear the sound of women's bracelets  :)
recorded in a village overnight. sorry a bit windy!!!!!

Maasai tribal song - women

I was sitting on a bus in Romania ready for a nap. two romanian street musician came on board, i pointed at my recorder and they played for me until they hop off the bus. kisses on the cheeks! music is such a universal language

Romania folk song on a bus

bagpipes? scotish? no, romania. medieval music with drum.

Medieval romania bagpipes

you can hear the church keeper sweeping floor in the background!

early morning village church romania

Over the years i've become friend of a family in the heart of southern morocco in the middle of endless mountains. there are 3 brothers each play a different instruments. 
Being among them after tea and playing music has been my fondiest memories. 
One of the brothers Moustapha one day decided to sing a song for me. With his Banjo,playing traditional berber music. Ive left my cheering in the end of the recording:) 
Really missing this family.

Moustapha's song

Mongolia long song

Kazajhstan improvised  poetry

Pakistani sufi,london

(its a bit  cheating but this year i am restricted by visa, im not allowed to leave(!!) until next year Jun for more traveling. but music is still good :)

Pakistani sufi

Liberia being a post war country and colonized by america, it's not like any other west africa countries ive been to, traditional music and dance were very much lost. A village old man showed me how the elders used to use drum rthyem to annonce to the family the gender of a baby  when a child is born. And then he played me this tune with his wife and neighbour.

Liberia village traditional sound

berber folklore

This is the sound from a village band in Ethiopia.

I was having fun with a band member,curlled up my hands and blowing through it to make bird sounds, and he responded by curling up his hands making a little sweet tune, just for me. So I recorded this.

An interesting example of using hand as an instrument!

Using Hands as Instrument

This is from the heart of Sahara.
I met this Libya tuareg band and followed them for a day and recorded them.
They do a warlord sword dance with this music.
One oud player 2 dancers 5 drummers. All very beautiful people.

-Thanks Yibo


Tuareg sahara blues - libya

I encountered this amazing Ethiopian Traditional Band in Addis Ababa, they were preparing for a night gig but I was the only one who turned up. Across the street there are clubs where DJ plays CD. The trend for the crowd is that more CD playing in clubs are favoured over live traditional music.

The main instrument for this group is a traditional Masenqo (one string instrument , very much identical to the traditional North Africa Berber instrument). 2 female vocalists,1 male vocalist, 1 Masenqo player ,1 drummer. I recorded 5 songs. Musicians are from the surrounding villages and they are quite poor.




Ethiopian Traditional Music  - Female Vocal

I encountered this amazing Ethiopian Traditional Band in Addis Ababa, they were preparing for a night gig but I was the only one who turned up. Across the street there are clubs where DJ plays CD. The trend for the crowd is that more CD playing in clubs are favoured over live traditional music.

The main instrument for this group is a traditional Masenqo (one string instrument , very much identical to the traditional North Africa Berber instrument). 2 female vocalists,1 male vocalist, 1 Masenqo player ,1 drummer. I recorded 5 songs. Musicians are from the surrounding villages and they are quite poor.

Ethiopian Traditional Music  - Male Vocal

water flowing through, clouds passing by, floating like a dream, a timeless female voice, and the sound of Ethiopia Kissar/Krar!

Recorded Addis Ababa

Ethiopia Folk with Krar (ethiopia harp)

Lots of whistling and hand gestures when watching live :) 
Loving it.

6 ladies from the villages young and old, and 1 male accordion player.

Russian folk village singers

when we have nothing, we still have music! because we still have our hearts.

Orphanage kids

It's a rainy night. 1am the street is packed with Turkish youth for a big night out.

An old blind man sits with his grandson on the street, playing saz and singing the only song he knows. Nobody seems to notice him.

No, he is not quite the Aşık Veysel Şatıroğlu, but he has the same blues in his soul. Just listen to his voice! 

Turkish Saz - Blind Man blues

Folk music in the desert town Tazouer, Tunisia. A small festival in december.
Right after I left tunisia unrest broke out.
Instrument used: Bendir frame drum, Zokra

Tazouer folk band - Tunisia

I love traveling and music, so I love discovering music in different parts of the world. I care about the traditional sounds that are disappearing.

I've been to 120 countries but has only just started field recording pretty recently, Im loving it!!

I also love traveling photography and did traveling writing. :)

Let me know your thoughts comments and ideas xx

black_bird

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