Under A Dim Crescent Moon – Vol.1
go to: Vol. 2
ROGC: “Under a Dim Crescent Moon” – part 1
live-mixed webcast of field recordings: January 15th, 2006
this is # 1 of a 2-show series (part 2 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, originally done on one of my live web-radio presentations, 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. I followed this up the following week with another 2 hours of material.
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 the PRC’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
**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)
running time: 2 hours
Lawrence said,
March 23, 2008 at 3:32 am
If you want a China mirror for the files, let me know.
Cheers,
Lawrence / Computer Solutions.
ben prestage said,
October 30, 2008 at 8:23 pm
I can’t open or download the music here…. I would love to hear it! Please let me know if there is any other way of hearing these field recording. Thanks!
Ben Prestage
Iain Marlow said,
April 15, 2009 at 8:03 pm
I first came across these years ago. I’ve been recommending them all over the place. They’ve really touched me, and I’ve literally been listening to it for years, weirding out my less cosmopolitan roommates, and reliving all my memories of Xinjiang and listening to folk music in Beijing. Thanks so much for this, post-facto.
Regards, IM
murat said,
March 3, 2010 at 3:00 am
Rehmet, Thanks, Merci,Xiexie…
Great work!!! I coldn’t help being filled with emotions listening to those recordings.
regards
realbridge said,
March 20, 2011 at 4:22 pm
Amazing! Truly inspirational work! Thank you for all your efforts to produce and share this.
RosieHS said,
June 1, 2011 at 9:09 am
I totally enjoyed your show. Thank you so much!
RosieHS
The Colony, Texas
USA
fred Dubee said,
May 20, 2013 at 6:07 pm
Wonderful !
many thanks
fred