Badma Khanda Ensemble: Mongolian Music from Buryatia (Arc/Elite)

 |   |  1 min read

Badma Khada Ensemble: Romance
Badma Khanda Ensemble: Mongolian Music from Buryatia (Arc/Elite)

The European Arc label is doing God's work in this world by bringing to light music from Eastern Europe right across to the shores of the western Pacific. Already in its ever-expanding catalogue it has well annotated collections from Tuva, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Samarkand and beyond.
And this 21 song collection is very much from that "beyond", the remote south-central region of Siberia with Mongolia to the south (population fewer than 400,000 in an area about half the size of Japan).
Singer Badma Khanda was born in Inner Mongolia where the songs of the Soviet Buryat territory had been preserved and she learned them from her grandparents and parents. By all accounts she is a star in Buryatia but has also sung at Carnegie Hall -- and my guess is she wouldn't have needed microphones.
Her voice is strong and pure, and here with her ensemble which includes local versions of the flute, fiddle, zither and so on, she offers a programme of song (and some instrumentals) which is quite enchanting, and sounds like a less grating and piercing version of traditional Chinese song.
Highly melodic and evocative of a vast landscape uninterrupted by too many towns, but also music of great intimacy when the occasion requires it. Like quirky pop in places too.
Unexpectedly good.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   World Music from Elsewhere articles index

Simon Thacker's Svara-Kanti: Trikala (Slap the Moon)

Simon Thacker's Svara-Kanti: Trikala (Slap the Moon)

Strange how a chance hearing of something can put you on a different path. When I was about 12 I joined the World Record Club which, if you didn't send a form back every month declining their... > Read more

Speed Caravan: Kalashnik Love (Adami)

Speed Caravan: Kalashnik Love (Adami)

The sound of the oud, a Middle Eastern lute, has frequently found favour at Elsewhere, notably with Le Trio Joubran and Anouar Brahem, and albums like Cairo Nights. But as the title of this... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

COLDITZ, PRISONERS OF THE CASTLE by BEN MACINTYRE

COLDITZ, PRISONERS OF THE CASTLE by BEN MACINTYRE

The British inmates of Colditz – the fortress castle in the heart of Germany where the Nazis kept the most valuable prisoners and recidivist POW escapees – were mustachioed,... > Read more

JOHN COLTRANE/JOHNNY HARTMAN: THE MASTER SESSIONS, CONSIDERED (1963): The gifted at their ease

JOHN COLTRANE/JOHNNY HARTMAN: THE MASTER SESSIONS, CONSIDERED (1963): The gifted at their ease

When the famous “lost” album Both Directions At Once by saxophonist John Coltrane was discovered and issued in 2018, what was only mentioned in passing – as it was in Elsewhere's... > Read more