OUT NOW! Molam: Thai Country Groove from Isan Vol. 2 - Vinyl 2 LP

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES COMMUNIQUÈ

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES PO BOX 17971 SEATTLE WA 98127 USA

http://www.sublimefrequencies.com

Molam: Thai Country Groove from Isan Vol. 2 

2 LP

SF033 LP

 

Order from Forced Exposure: http://beta.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/SF.033LP.html

Molam is a multi-faceted folk country music native to Laos and the collection of rural Northeastern Thai provinces called Isan. Molam is an umbrella term used for numerous Lam styles. It literally translates into "expert singer" or "expert song." Featured here on volume two of this series are Lam Phun, Lam Thuy, Lam Plern, Lam Dern, and Lam Sing styles of Molam recordings from the 1970s and 1980s. All of these forms are built from a tradition that is centuries-old. A few examples of Molam/Luk Thung (Thailand's national country music) hybrids are also featured here. In the late 1960s, at the onset of Molam's modern genesis, electric guitars and organs were introduced alongside the extant folk sounds of the khaen (bamboo mouth-organ) and Phin (Thai lute). Hybrid styles were formed with an electrified sound that jived with tradition while creating something entirely new. Much of the music relies on stock formulas, designed primarily to showcase the stylings of various singers from the region. But, as this brilliant collection demonstrates, the rules tend to bend a bit as more adventurous groups experiment with the genre and the production. Sound effects, flamboyant vamping, odd vocal styles, and trick intros and finales based on popular rock themes show up now and then, among other playful and dynamic shifts, making for some exceptional listening. So join us now in our perpetual and confounding love affair with Thai Isan Molam. Enjoy this rarely-heard music, culled from vintage cassette and vinyl recordings, rescued from the silent places in which they've rested for the past decades. Compiled by Mark Gergis and Alan Bishop. Beautiful 2LP limited edition vinyl release in a full-color heavy-duty gatefold jacket of the long out-of-print CD from 2007.

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES is a collective of explorers dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short wave transmissions, international folk and pop music, sound anomalies, and other forms of human and natural expression not documented sufficiently through all channels of academic research, the modern recording industry, media, or corporate foundations. SUBLIME FREQUENCIES is focused on an aesthetic of extra-geography and soulful experience inspired by music and culture, world travel, research, and the pioneering recording labels of the past including OCORA, SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS, ETHNIC FOLKWAYS, LYRICHORD, NONESUCH EXPLORER, MUSICAPHONE, BARONREITER, UNESCO, PLAYASOUND, MUSICAL ATLAS, CHANT DU MONDE, B.A.M., TANGENT, and TOPIC.

OUT NOW! Brokenhearted Dragonflies: Insect Electronica from Southeast Asia LP

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES COMMUNIQUÈ

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES PO BOX 17971 SEATTLE WA 98127 USA

http://www.sublimefrequencies.com

OUT NOW! 

Order from Forced Exposure:
http://beta.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/SF.013LP.html

Brokenhearted Dragonflies:  

Insect Electronica from Southeast Asia LP

TUCKER MARTINE

 SF013 LP

 

There is a legend in Burma stating that swarms of male dragonflies gather to join in choruses of high-pitched tones to court their mates. The ones that don't succeed in mating eventually scream so loud that their chests explode and they drop dead to the ground. These recordings are a tribute to this legend. Droning cicadas, dragonflies, and other insects display their charm as masters of the high frequency airwaves, recorded live and unprocessed by Tucker Martine in the lush settings of Laos, Thailand, and Burma. Enter the supernatural world where entomology and electronica converge in a tropical hallucination of alien sound. Anyone who has ever wondered if these strange symphonies could be recorded or preserved as precisely as they sound in the field need look no further. Martine has done it and you will be transported to the exact experience one would encounter in these mysterious lowlands. Limited edition LP pressing of the long out-of-print CD from 2004, comes with a beautiful tip-on jacket, including an insert with photos and liner notes by Hakim Bey and Alan Bishop.

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES is a collective of explorers dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short wave transmissions, international folk and pop music, sound anomalies, and other forms of human and natural expression not documented sufficiently through all channels of academic research, the modern recording industry, media, or corporate foundations. SUBLIME FREQUENCIES is focused on an aesthetic of extra-geography and soulful experience inspired by music and culture, world travel, research, and the pioneering recording labels of the past including OCORA, SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS, ETHNIC FOLKWAYS, LYRICHORD, NONESUCH EXPLORER, MUSICAPHONE, BARONREITER, UNESCO, PLAYASOUND, MUSICAL ATLAS, CHANT DU MONDE, B.A.M., TANGENT, and TOPIC.

NOW OUT! NEW RELEASE: Ethnic Minority Music of Southern China CD SF081

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES COMMUNIQUÈ

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES PO BOX 17971 SEATTLE WA 98127 USA

http://www.sublimefrequencies.com

Ethnic Minority Music of Southern China CD 

SF081

 

The 5th Sublime Frequencies volume in Laurent Jeanneau’s amazing documentation of vanishing indigenous music of the rural Asian frontiers, this CD focuses on ethnic minority groups of Southern China. Presented here are 17 tracks of supremely infectious vocals and folkloric instrumentals played on a wide variety of local traditional instruments. The centerpiece of this collection is the 13 minute Do Djui Atsei (track 5), an absolutely epic male and female group choral vocal piece which is improvised as a song of intimate personal emotions that brings tears to the performers as they are singing together. Jeanneau has spent many years traversing the hills and valleys of Southeast Asia and China, and he has captured a dizzying array of folk music, much of which has never been documented before. He is perhaps the most committed and accomplished procurer of rare and threatened music from the region and seems more focused than ever as he states in his liner notes for this release: “In China, by the end of the 1950s, 400 ethnic groups registered to be counted in the census. There might be 300 remaining groups nowadays. I was facing an incredible amount of potential musicians. Now after 6 years spent in Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces, I have recorded 55 CDs of raw stuff. This Sublime Frequencies product is a compilation from those CDs, displaying the diversity I was able to find between 2006 and 2012, and I’m not finished....” This disc comes with a 16-page booklet of detailed notes and photographs of the musicians by Laurent Jeanneau.

Order via Forced Exposure: http://beta.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/SF.081CD.html

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES is a collective of explorers dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short wave transmissions, international folk and pop music, sound anomalies, and other forms of human and natural expression not documented sufficiently through all channels of academic research, the modern recording industry, media, or corporate foundations. SUBLIME FREQUENCIES is focused on an aesthetic of extra-geography and soulful experience inspired by music and culture, world travel, research, and the pioneering recording labels of the past including OCORA, SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS, ETHNIC FOLKWAYS, LYRICHORD, NONESUCH EXPLORER, MUSICAPHONE, BARONREITER, UNESCO, PLAYASOUND, MUSICAL ATLAS, CHANT DU MONDE, B.A.M., TANGENT, and TOPIC.

OUT NOW: I REMEMBER SYRIA Digital Reissue Charity Release SF009DI

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES COMMUNIQUÈ

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES PO BOX 17971 SEATTLE WA 98127 USA

http://www.sublimefrequencies.com

I REMEMBER SYRIA Digital Reissue Charity Release SF009DI

 

Available Now...

Now is the time to purchase "I Remember Syria" for download. All proceeds will be donated to the Syrian Red Crescent, so please buy a copy or two, and tell people. Find it here at Boomkat (linked below) or on iTunes, Amazon, and anywhere else you purchase digital media. This edition comes with an expanded downloadable booklet.

The most important thing about this reissue is that all proceeds from the sale of this release will be donated to a charity that assists Syrians in need. And they are in need.

Syria doesn’t sound like it did on “I Remember Syria” anymore, and it doesn’t look like the photographs in the expanded booklet. As you may already know, Syria is suffering in the midst of unthinkable turmoil, attack and destruction. As a wide-scale humanitarian disaster continues to unfold, Syrians both within the country and in refugee camps beyond its borders are in need of immediate assistance.

“I Remember Syria” was assembled as a love letter to the country I grew to know as one of most civilized places on Earth. It contains recordings made and collected during my first travels to Syria between 1997 and 2000. Across the span of 14 years, I would travel there as frequently as possible. When initially released on Sublime Frequencies as a double-CD in 2004, the aim was to showcase and humanize a land and its people that had been politically and culturally exiled by the west for decades. Hopefully, these recordings can serve again as a testament to the beauty and unity of Syria, and the grace, hospitality and integrity of its people.

– Mark Gergis – March, 2013

“I Remember Syria” (SF009DI)
Sublime Frequencies is proud to present this digital reissue of I Remember Syria: an assemblage of field recordings, interviews, radio broadcasts and music, from one of the least-known quarters of the Arab world. Before the west associated Syria with its current crisis, it had politically and culturally isolated the country for decades – leaving little known of its contemporary peoples, or its rich heritage of art, music and culture.

Originally released as a 2-CD set in 2004, this one of a kind audio document was recorded and surgically assembled by Mark Gergis from recordings he made in Syria between 1997 and 2000. The results offer a multi-faceted glimpse into the country, as it was at the cusp of the 21st century.

Disc one features sounds from the ancient capital city of Damascus – including vivid street soundscapes, interviews, spontaneous live music, sounds captured inside the world-renowned Ummayad Mosque, and fragments of radio and television broadcasts, as well as exploring the mystery of a legendary underground city called “Kazib”.

Disc two takes us out to “Greater Syria”, capturing live musicians, political opinions of the day, radio excerpts and sketches, songs from cassette releases found around the country, and other audio anomalies. The closing track showcases the haunting sounds of wood against wood produced by the Norias – the giant irrigation waterwheels that have churned in the Orontes River, in the city of Hama, for centuries.

All proceeds from the sale of this release will be donated to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (IFRC) to support urgent humanitarian aid work during the ongoing crisis in Syria.

Purchase via Boomkat:
http://boomkat.com/downloads/704653-mark-gergis-i-remember-syria

Purchase via Emusic:
http://www.emusic.com/music-news/review/album/mark-gergis-i-remember-syria/

Purchase via Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/I-Remember-Syria/dp/B00CDALUMC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1366659148&sr=8-2&keywords=i+remember+syria

Red Crescent Home page:
http://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-do/where-we-work/middle-east-and-north-africa/syrian-arab-red-crescent/

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES is a collective of explorers dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short wave transmissions, international folk and pop music, sound anomalies, and other forms of human and natural expression not documented sufficiently through all channels of academic research, the modern recording industry, media, or corporate foundations. SUBLIME FREQUENCIES is focused on an aesthetic of extra-geography and soulful experience inspired by music and culture, world travel, research, and the pioneering recording labels of the past including OCORA, SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS, ETHNIC FOLKWAYS, LYRICHORD, NONESUCH EXPLORER, MUSICAPHONE, BARONREITER, UNESCO, PLAYASOUND, MUSICAL ATLAS, CHANT DU MONDE, B.A.M., TANGENT, and TOPIC.

NEW RELEASE: The Pierced Heart and the Machete DVD SF080

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES COMMUNIQUÈ

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES PO BOX 17971 SEATTLE WA 98127 USA

http://www.sublimefrequencies.com

The Pierced Heart and the Machete 

DVD SF080

The Pierced Heart & The Machete is a vivid, unflinching exploration of two annual Vodou pilgrimages in Haiti. The first is for Èzili Danto, goddess of love, art and passion; worshipers from all over the world descend on the southwestern town of Ville-Bonheur to bathe in the sacred waterfall where Dantò resides. The second pilgrimage is for Dantòs' husband Ogoun, god of war, iron and healing. It takes place at the end of July in the northern town of Plaine du Nord, where practitioners bathe in a mud pool and make flamboyant sacrifices.
This beautifully shot film offers disorienting yet illuminating glimpses of the contradictory and complementary aspects of these two lwa, the electrifying rites that honor them, and the intense music that accompanies these ecstatic and bloody ceremonies. As in her previous film for Sublime Frequencies, Staring Into the Sun, Olivia Wyatt’s vision is always sharp, unerring and unobtrusive.

70 minutes/Color; digipack; all-region DVD; NTSC format. Limited one-time edition of 1000 copies.

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES is a collective of explorers dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short wave transmissions, international folk and pop music, sound anomalies, and other forms of human and natural expression not documented sufficiently through all channels of academic research, the modern recording industry, media, or corporate foundations. SUBLIME FREQUENCIES is focused on an aesthetic of extra-geography and soulful experience inspired by music and culture, world travel, research, and the pioneering recording labels of the past including OCORA, SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS, ETHNIC FOLKWAYS, LYRICHORD, NONESUCH EXPLORER, MUSICAPHONE, BARONREITER, UNESCO, PLAYASOUND, MUSICAL ATLAS, CHANT DU MONDE, B.A.M., TANGENT, and TOPIC. 

HISHAM MAYET FILM SCREENING SPRING TOUR

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES COMMUNIQUÈ

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES PO BOX 17971 SEATTLE WA 98127 USA

http://www.sublimefrequencies.com

Sublime Frequencies film tour with Hisham Mayet

Hisham Mayet is a founding member of the Sublime Frequencies Collective. His work with the label has been prolific and inspired. His many discoveries include introducing the legendary guitar bands from the Sahara; Group Doueh, Group Inerane, and Group Bombino. His many films for the label have been redefining the nature of ethnographic film and they continue to provoke, amaze and inspire.

Vodoun Gods on the Slave Coast
A Film By Hisham Mayet
Sublime Frequencies
50 minutes/2012

Hisham Mayet's exploration of West African possession ceremonies continues in Benin. Benin is the cradle and birthplace of Voodoo.  Formally known as the Slave Coast as, most of the slave industry was exported from its shores.    Voodoo worship is integral to the every day lives of the people of Benin.  This film, shot in 2010 during the country's rich Vodoun celebrations, is an impressionistic lens on the myriad ceremonies that this rich and diverse culture has to offer.   Showcasing intimate observations of a variety of Voodoo ceremonies: The cult of Sakpata (god of Pestilence and healing),   Egoun dramas shrouded in magisterial costumes and the Secret Police of the Zangbeto night watchmen, among other highlights.  This will be the premiere screening of this visual feast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ywahsfokAE

The Divine River: Ceremonial Pageantry In The Sahel
A Film By Hisham Mayet
47 minutes/2012

Sublime Frequencies announces a new film by Hisham Mayet: The Divine River: Ceremonial Pageantry in the Sahel. Condensed from 40 hours of footage shot between 2007 and 2012, The Divine River is an exhilarating, hallucinatory, harrowing record of music, ritual, life and landscape along the Niger River—which the Tuareg call Egerew n-Igerewen, or "River of Rivers"— as it winds through Mali and the Republic of Niger.

Traversing 300 miles of this transitional zone between the Sahara and the Savanna, The Divine River is not a linear record of a journey so much as a phantasmagoria of visual associations that create their own emotional topography and chronology, always accompanied by music that blurs the lines between sacred and secular, past and present.

Highlights include intimate views of ecstatic dance in the painted houses of the island-dwelling Wogo; the seductive courtship rites and trance vocals of young Wodaabe men; a mesmeric Tuareg and Zarma duet for guitar and molo; Hausa griots enchanting with comsaa strings; Zarma spirit possession ceremonies; and heart-stopping footage of the Dogon mask ritual atop the Bandiagara Escarpment in the village of Endele.

True to Sublime Frequencies' "aesthetic of extra-geography and soulful experience," The Divine River refuses hasty contextualizations and rote interpretations that, far from "explaining" cultural displays, deaden viewers to the presence of mystery. Avoiding the temptation to reduce ritual to a simple matter of ends and means, its silence respects the chasm that separates concepts like "possession" from their lived reality. Rejecting the distractions of an imaginary understanding in favor of simple attention and humility, it traces the portal to deeper knowledge counseled in a centuries-old Sufi prayer: "O Lord, increase my bewilderment."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWj3xnl87PQ

TOURDATES AND VENUES

Deep Hearts, screening Monday, March 11

Staring into the Sun, screening Monday, March 11

Folk Music of the Sahara: Among the Tuareg of Libya, screening Monday, March 18

March on three consecutive Mondays, Mar 4, 11 & 18

BAM Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM cinématek presents Saharan Frequencies, a 
seven-film exploration of the sounds of North Africa 


In-person appearances by acclaimed ethnographer Robert 
Gardner, Sublime Frequencies co-founder Hisham Mayet with
Olivia Wyatt, and music critic Byron Coley.

Link here to official BAM event site

BAM Blog link:
http://bam150years.blogspot.com/2013/03/saharan-frequencies.html#more

Thursday March 7th:
Sarasota Springs NY
Spring Street Gallery
110 Spring Street
Saratoga Springs, New York

http://www.springstreetgallerysaratoga.org/hisham-mayet

Friday March 8th:
Brattleboro VT
Luminz Studio
74 Cotton Mill Hill, #346, 3rd Floor
Brattleboro, Vermont 05301
(802) 258-7378

http://luminzstudio.com/

Saturday March 9th
Willimantic, CT
Willimantic Records
744 Main Street
Willimantic, CT 06226 USA
* with ROBERT JAZ DJing from the Sublime Frequencies' vault

http://willimanticrecords.blogspot.com/

Sunday March 10:
Providence RI
Fête
103 Dike Street
Providence, RI 02909
* with ROBERT JAZ DJing from the Sublime Frequencies' vault

Fete event link

Tuesday March 12:
Baltimore MD
Floristree Space
405 W Franklin St 6th Floor  

Wednesday March 13th:
Richmond VA
Gallery 5
200 W. Marshall St.
Richmond, VA 23220
(804) 644-0005

http://gallery5arts.org

Thursday March 14th:
Asheville NC
The Apothecary
39 S. Market St. #B, Asheville NC 28801
(919) 793-5441/(919) 609-3944

Email	ashevilleapothecary@gmail.com

Friday March 15th:
Washington D.C.
Local 16
1602 U Street NW Washington, DC 20009
Email jim@tropicaliadc.com

http://localsixteen.com/

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES is a collective of explorers dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short wave transmissions, international folk and pop music, sound anomalies, and other forms of human and natural expression not documented sufficiently through all channels of academic research, the modern recording industry, media, or corporate foundations. SUBLIME FREQUENCIES is focused on an aesthetic of extra-geography and soulful experience inspired by music and culture, world travel, research, and the pioneering recording labels of the past including OCORA, SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS, ETHNIC FOLKWAYS, LYRICHORD, NONESUCH EXPLORER, MUSICAPHONE, BARONREITER, UNESCO, PLAYASOUND, MUSICAL ATLAS, CHANT DU MONDE, B.A.M., TANGENT, and TOPIC. SUBLIME FREQUENCIES PO BOX 17971 SEATTLE WA 98127 USA