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part 2

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ROGC: "Under a Dim Crescent Moon" - part 2
live-mixed webcast of field recordings: January 22nd, 2006

this is # 2 of a 2-show series (part 1 is located HERE)

For most of 2003, I lived in the northwestern-most region of China...
officially known as:Xinjiang : Uyghur Autonomous Region
and sometimes referred to by some as China's "other, lesser known Tibet" for situational parallels.
I'd recieved a generous grant to document the folk music (as opposed to the classical muqam music) of the Turkic muslim cultures traditionally native to the region... focusing mainly on the largest group: the Uyghurs, but also including examples of Kazakh and Kyrgyz songs.


For this show, I live-mixed many of those field recordings, which while mostly consist of music, also include ambiences, pop & traditional music on cassettes & cd's I picked up...and recordings of shortwave radio.
The field recorded music you hear was, with only a few exceptions, strictly performed by common folk (farmers, carpenters, (incl. mystics and beggars)) demonstrating something that's very much a cultural part of everyday life. With east China's ever accellerating blitzkrieg development of it's west though, these cultural traditions are going up in smoke fast.


The recordings were done with head-worn binaural microphones - in yurts, homes, under grape trellises, in mud brick courtyards, orchards and in the streets of oasis towns in areas surrounding the expansive Taklamakan desert.

Several of these recordings - in purer, more carefully curated form - will be released later this year on the fantastic Sublime Frequencies label. (!!!)
**photos of these recordings and more can be found HERE. / ** more info on Uyghur music can be found HERE.

-Fausto Caceres (s of s&S)

 

source / playlist:

  /   = tracks grouped by colored rows were played simultaneously..

TIME

TITLE / SOURCE

 PERFORMER / SUBJECT

LOCATION/ INSTRUMENT / INFO
0:00:00

Kashgar bazaar light ambience

  

Kashgar bazaar - quiet-ish part
 

DJ - Intro 1

 blah blah blah

 
0:00:53

Tones, s&S station ID

 s&S

 
0:01:38

SSIR shortwave remote unit intro

 s&S

 
0:02:10

Marajhan

 Uyghur VCD Uyghur sunai & naghra music from a video disc featuring scenes of Kashgar

DJ - Intro 2

 blah blah blah

0:05:28

Hotan Senemi

UbulYasin Osman, UbulKasim Mettursun, Tursun Tohti Kurban ,Iminjan Kurban Niyaz

song featuring tambur and 2 dutars and singing - recorded in a family courtyard in Lop
0:09:49
 throaty voice ambience voice of a man who would speak to a gathered crowd as his kid did summer saults and various acrobatics at the bazaar
0:10:45

muqam practice

fellows who let me sit in a practice room to listen.

recorded while exploring the Xinjiang Arts compound (where i would eventually live for a while) in Ürümqi. - recorded in a practice room. instruments: ghejek, ravap & chang
0:14:33

squeaky toy mouth thing

 myself being shown how to play the squeaky thing by the vendor

People's Square in Ürümqi. guess the crowd that gathered was impressed, as you can hear.
0:15:00
 short recording of a piece i don't know the name of.... Merkit Dolan group they played this while we took a break from formal recording...the other folks were dancing, just having a great time under the trees, and i couldn't help myself, i just had to hit record.
0:17:13
 horse cart pass, etc ambience on a street in Yarkand
0:17:50
 keycard sound of my room door in Beijing   Beijing
0:18:05
 Uyghur music recorded from shortwave   shortwave radio
merchants, carts, metal smiths pounding, cars, donkeys ambiences sounds recorded in the streets and markets of Kashgar & Yarkand
0:20:51
 previewing cassettes for sale at the bazaar ambience people selling mounds of ballpoint pen labeled bootleg cassettes are everywhere - you can preview them on ear spearing treble assault Chinese boomboxes
0:22:39
 Uyghur news report vs. Chinese commercial   all so common were the Uyghur language stations with Chinese language bleeding in from nearby frequencies. local Kashgar radio.
0:23:02
 donkey, general quiet street sound ambiences recorded in Lop & Yarkand
0:23:22
 dolan (need to determine name) distant farmer musicians from Jang Glas recorded in Karghlik in Ablikim's family courtyard
0:25:06
 dolan (need to determine name) kicks in farmer musicians from Jang Glas recorded in Karghlik in Ablikim's family courtyard
0:27:45
 uncertain title (?) Kyrgyz folk song Ebray, Hayat, Helil komuz (stringed instrument) , timur komuz (jawharp) & choor (ocarina-like flute) - outside of Artux (area with a significant Kyrgyz population)
0:30:37
 uncertain title (?) Kyrgyz folk song Maman komuz & singing - recorded in a grassy lot behind government apartments outside of Artux
Gulnur makes a "joke" "bir gil chai" G & FC short bit of dialogue from a different recording
0:34:09
 Koxak style song (uncertain title) Abdulrihim Tursun ravap and singing - recorded in his garden outside og Kashgar
0:36:34
 Tragh Yua group in Hotan led by Tursun Jan 9 musicians all crammed into a yurt with myself and Imam in Hotan
0:41:25
 bazaar - kids selling things "eutch koi!! onn koi!!" (3 yuan! 10 yuan!)
 ambience more sounds from a bazaar
0:41:53
 bazaar sounds - describing what I'm passing at the bazaar - "plate of goatheads", cassette vendors ambience Kashgar bazaar
0:44:02
 Kashgar Daughter (Kaxgar Kizi) - track 4 VCD From a very popular local Uyghur pop VCD at the time
0:46:25
 short excerpt from Tayme Dastan (story) Ximilihan Mehmetimin recorded under grape trellises outside of Kashgar. He and his story telling companion were from Aktu - however, it's closed to foreigners, so I had to invite them to where i was in Kashgar to record a 90 minute uninterrupted datsan (story) & more.
0:47:00
 title unknown (?) Karkax trio transitional excerpt from part of a song recorded by the following trio in Karkax
0:48:04
 title unknown (?) Ubul Hesan, Ehmed Tohti Kerim, Jabarahon tambur, dap, sapaya and singing - recorded in the courtyard of a home in Karkax.
0:51:25
 Kazakh song (no title given) Tuniyaz Hiyt Kazakh folk song sung by one of the Uyghur fellows from Jang Glas (see above at 0:25:06). violin and singing
0:53:19
 unknown title Aksu Ensemble entire ensemble recorded in a parking lot in Aksu
0:55:04
 Islamic prayers   via shortwave radio
animal market - birds - crowd ambience recored in the Lop livestock market
unknown title with a sapaya beggar lady recorded in the streets of Artux - before we took her to a quieter place for the following recording:
0:56:48
 unknown title (written in Uyghur Arabic in my notebook - which i can't read unfortunately) Tujanhan Kasim (beggar lady) the woman was so incredible. her voice and sapaya rattling cut clean through all the dust, vehicles and exhaust on the Artux street she was begging on. We invited her to our local helper Dilnur's house nearby, offered more money than she's likely make in weeks, fed her and recorded a few long songs. She said she'd just come from her village, Paize Awat earlier that day.
0:59:14
 Dap and chanting 9 amazing elderly dap playing farmers 9 elderly men in a semi circle, playing very large daps (donkey skin hand drums), and chanting - ritualistic music - We were prevented by my government minder from performing the actual ritual however - recorded in a courtyard in Karkax (different sestion here than in part 1)
1:04:20
 Gundapai Dawud Ravap "prisoner's song" playing virtuosic ravap in his home in Ürümqi 
1:07:43
 Zorghan Turzin Jan, Ablit, Arken Jan dutar, tambur, dap - recorded in a yurt in Hotan
1:10:40
 chimes from Jesse to Imam FC & Imam former California roommate, Jesse had given me a number of small things to give to folks as gifts - gave these chimes to Imam for his family's small farm when we parted ways in Ürümqi.
1:11:10
 meshrep song while everyone was partying Abdulxukur Karim, Dilmirat 2 farmers in their mid 70's under grape trellises in a courtyard. after "recording" for a while (another track in plays in part 1), they kept playing and everyone started dancing - i pressed record again to capture a bit of this beautifully simple peaceful village party environment. The village was a few hours outside of the Aksu area.
1:14:40
 recording of a Chinese nationalist opera, as performed in Uyghur   old reel to reel recording, as playing on a reel to reel through it's internal speaker. this player was part of a very small display of old photographs and texts from the Ürümqi opera house's history.
1:17:24
 Tagh Koxak Rosei Tomir Rosei has a unique singing style as you can hear - his high, feathery voice took me a bit by surprise at first. His friends egged him on initially, teasing him saying that he was no longer the man he used to be...that he couldn't make his voice as high as he before. ravap & singing. recorded in Keria
1:21:24
 boombox outside of yurt; belching. boombox, FC, Gulnur, NurMuhammet boombox outside of yurt, Gulnur argues with a kid to turn it off so we can record while Nur Muhammet and I are in the yurt....having a beer.
1:22:30
 Mother (tierme) Nur Muhammet Hudaybergen Kazakh folk song with explanation by Gulnur. dombra and singing. recorded in a yurt outside of Ürümqi.
1:27:41
 Dolan meshrep at a park 3 dolan guys simply wandering through a small park in Yarkand, we came across this gathering which apparently happens every week. these guys play and locals just start dancing dolan style together - mostly men. i'll post a short video clip shortly.
1:32:14
 Qira Helik Nahxiliri (?) Salih Ghuji, Ehmed Musa, Nurdon Bawudun ghejek, dutar, dap. sitting in a family courtyard in Qira.
learning Uyghur sounds and words with a children's book. FC & Imam learning how to pronounce sounds & words in the Uyghur language.
1:34:00
 uncertain of title (?) Metniyaz Wushur, Ablizhan Abdemet, Seyidehmed Turamet recorded in Xuhpu - remote moountain village a few hours from Karghlik. everyone from the village came out to watch me record - recorded in a mud courtyard.
1:38:28
 uncertain of title (?) "Annan" Tujanhan Kasim (beggar lady) same sapaya playing beggar lady from (0:56:48) - different song. "Annan": singing to her dead mother.
1:42:20
 unknown title Awat dolan old low-quality boombox recording on an old cassette slipped to me 'on the sly'of Awat dolan. I did serious cleanup to extract this much audio from that tape. I love this recording - one of 8, 10 minute songs on the tape. the quality, the sheer rock-n-roll-ness of it- the mystery of it's vintage....
  mystic ranting   recorded at the Yarkand bazaar
1:52:42
 shortwave radio sounds   shortwave radio - Uyghur Islamic radio & reports- overpowered by Chinese broadcasts again
1:53:52
   Wang Luo Bin perhaps not so subtle for those in the know. Wang Luo Bin is referred to whenever you ask anyone about Uyghur music in east China. Uyghurs however, universally hold him in deep contempt as being the Chinese guy who Chineseified their music and became nationally famous for Uyghur songs...song appropriately accompanied by:
heavy duty construction sounds demolition, jackhammers and misc construction field recordings crazy, construction was happening 24/7 in Ürümqi...
1:56:55
 Ürümqi airport announcement in Chinese, English & Uyghur  
1:57:50 DJ sign-off "thanks Imam, Gulnur, Ablikim and of course Miradel"  
Rasjiluk Abdurehim Heyit - VCD From VCD i picked up at the shop near my place in Ürümqi 
C*
 ..ooOOoo....ooOOoo..ooOOoo..ooOOoo.. ..ooOOoo....ooOOoo..ooOOoo..ooOOoo.. ..ooOOoo....ooOOoo..ooOOoo..ooOOoo..