VA – Songs of the Earth, Astonishing and Rare Voices [1998]

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VA – Songs of the Earth, Astonishing and Rare Voices [1998]

This collection feels like opening a window onto the world and letting the voices of entire cultures drift into the room. Songs of the Earth was released in 1998 by Auvidis in partnership with UNESCO, and the set carries that unmistakable UNESCO spirit, respect for tradition, careful documentation, and a belief that human expression is worth preserving in its rawest form. Every track comes from a different corner of the globe, yet the album plays with a quiet unity, as if all these voices are answering one another across distance and time.

What strikes me first is the intimacy. These are not studio‑shaped performances. They are field recordings, ritual fragments, work songs, chants, and melodies that have lived far longer than any commercial genre. The Khyal excerpt opens the disc with a sense of weight and lineage, a reminder that some musical forms carry centuries inside a single breath. From there the album moves through Balinese Tjak, Ainu upopo, Inuit throat games, Islamic zikr, and Siberian laments. Each piece feels like a glimpse into a living tradition rather than a curated showcase.

The sequencing is gentle and deliberate. A children’s horse song sits beside a ritual chant. A round dance follows a mountain ballad. A grinding‑millet song closes the disc with a rhythm shaped by daily life rather than performance. The effect is grounding. You begin to hear the shared human impulse behind all of it: to mark time, to honour ancestors, to celebrate, to mourn, to teach, to remember.

What makes the set so powerful is the way it refuses to smooth anything out. The textures remain untouched. You hear breath, room tone, wind, the shuffle of bodies. These details give the recordings their life. They remind you that music is not always crafted for an audience. Sometimes it is simply part of the world, as natural as weather.

Songs of the Earth becomes a quiet, astonishing journey. It invites the listener to slow down, to hear voices that rarely travel beyond their own communities, and to recognise the beauty in forms that exist far outside the commercial frame. It is a rare document, and a deeply human one. (B)

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Track list

01 INDIA: Mohin ud din Dagar & Amin ud din Dagar - Khyal [extract] 5:10

02 BALI: singers of Peliatan - Tjak [extract] 2:06

03 JAPAN: unidentified artists - Upopo 2:10

04 MONGOLIA: Sundui - The 4-Year-Old Light Tan Horse 1:50

05 UZBEKISTAN: Nazira Bāïjanova - Yār-Yār [extract] 2:20

06 SYRIA: Rifa'iyya Brotherhood of Aleppo - Islamic Ritual Zikr [extract] 3:28

07 SYRIA: Evelyne Daoud - Takhshefto (Like the Merchants) 4:50

08 UKRAINE: Rosa Jouk, Lioudmilla Tchijouk & Maria Dorodko - The Red Mountain Ash 2:13

09 BYELORUSSIA: Tatiana Orlenin & Nadeshda Shogol - Round (spring dance) 2:08

10 BULGARIA: Ianka Rupkina & Stoian Vielichkov - Slow Melody 3:57

11 SWITZERLAND: Ernst Pfändler - Zäuerli (Sung in the Inn) 2:20

12 CANADA: Elijah Pudloo Mageeta, Qaunak Martha Meekeega, Napache Samaejuk Pootoogook & Napache Etidloie Toonoo - Three Katajjait From Baffin Land 2:04

13 SOLOMON ISLANDS: choir of eight Baegu women - Roiroa (women's song) 2:37

14 MALAWI: girls from the Ntcheu district & Ngoni singer - Byeni: Kamwana kamwini (Somebody's Little Child) / Kaya wiyo (Who Cares) 4:13

15 SUDAN: Gumuz musicians - Nagara (Music of the Blue Nile Province) 2:33

16 Central African Republic: Aka pygmy singers - Dikoboda sombe (hut song) 3:56

17 Central African Republic: Mvrele ensemble - Ulepa 4:24

18 Central African Republic: five Banda-Linda elders - Ye zame andero (war chant) 2:51

19 BENIN: two young Somba girls - Song for Grinding Millet [extract] 2:59

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Music weaves itself into the fabric of our emotions, dances through the corridors of memory, and whispers to the soul of who we are. Sharing these stories deepens the connection, turning the experience into something timeless and profound.

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