Monday, May 12, 2025

Song(s) of the Day # 4,089 Saz'iso

 


'For the best part of the last century,  Albania was isolated in a brutal communist dictatorship. When Communism fell in 1990  people started to discover the country's unique iso-polyphonic style of folk mysuc, saze. One of these people happened to be legendary producer Joe Boyd who in 2016 assembled Saz'iso a saze sypergroup of virtuoso musicians and singers. Recorded in three days at the Marybi Film Academy in Turana, their albim, At Least Wave Your Handkerchief at me, is a work that is haunting, ancient, otherorldly and yet so human.

Going beyond kanguage, the music captures a universal understanding of joy and sorrow, love and loss, heroism and tragedy with an extraordinary mix of drones, polyphonic harmonies, and traditional instruments, such as the fuell brezi - an Albanian shepherd's flute. Masterfully produced and recorded, this is a beautiful preservation and celebration of Albanian folk music.'

Melanie Xulu Idler

No comments:

Post a Comment