And now for something completely different: Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares on KEXP

These voices are not of this world! Words fail to describe the beauty of this.



Cheers, @delmonaco !

 

That's pretty cool Freedom Rider, thanks for posting. And there's a Beatle connection: George Harrison played some of this choir on his Rockline (radio show) appearance circa 1988.

 

Im sure there must be another Beatles connections. Didn't the Beatles sing Bulgarian as first band ever? And didn't they learn a whole nation somewhere in South-East Europe to speak a new language called Bulgarian? And are there no Bulgarians living in Liverpool because of George hiring some Bulgarian workers once for constructing his house? And didn't the Beatles had the idea to call one of their albums differently, to be precisely 'Bulgarian Mystery Tour' but the had to change that name because of Le Mystere Des Bulgares who found both names too simular?

My God..... some Beatles fans....

 

These ladies are quite something. Hard to find the right words, actually.

 

Friend of mine is in the Bulgarian choir in London. Just her singing alone is pretty powerful, but the whole choir is mesmerising.

Sandy Denny loved Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares - you can hear it on the version of 'The Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood' on Sandy

 

I saw them perform at a church a couple blocks from my apartment about a decade ago. "Mesmerizing" is a good word to describe their performance. There were a lot of Bulgarians there too, oddly enough.

 

Bulgarian choral music has been rediscovered by the West several times. A collection was very popular in Laurel Canyon at its peak, and their harmonies were a significant influence on Crosby, Still and Nash. My wife and I have seen them live several times, most memorably at a Bulgarian church in Chicago, St. John of Riglia. We got front pew, dead center, and the choir was arranged in a semicircle not more than 15 feet from us. We were both moved to tears at several points.

 

I believe, you can hear him trying to play one of their songs on the "Fly On The Wall" disc of "Let IT Be..Naked"!

 

I'd say the only person in the 'rock/pop world' that come CLOSE to this is
Elizabeth Fraser!

 

Here's the video of the full performance

 

Watching this now.....
GOOSEBUMPS all over my arms and legs!

 

I would be very interested to know more about (a) what was that particular collection they were listening to in Laurel Canyon, and (b) what was the first time this music was promoted to, and heard by, the West?

I first heard about this music from the Nonesuch compilation in 1987, in college radio, but I remember that there were a few older folks I encountered at the time who were already hip to it, although no one that I knew personally had any actual recordings of them prior to the Nonesuch album, which I encountered when I was kicking around in college in the mid '80s, but was hanging out with an older, hipper, very worldly crowd of folks that were older than myself. But I remember a small handful of those older folks already "knew about it" and knew what it was, they had heard it before somewhere, while the rest of us were getting our minds blown by the Nonesuch comp.

 

This was my introduction to it, too.
But, if I'm remebering correctly, the English label, 4AD put out a version of it, with a more 'hip' cover that the Nonesuch version.

 

Lisa Gerrard gets closer, but the real thing beats both Fraser and Gerrard, as I'm sure they would be willing to agree. Of course, Trio Bulgarka (who sang with Kate Bush) popularised the same style.

 

This album is a classic: Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares (album) - Wikipedia

 

OK, back at my apartment, and typing on a proper keyboard.

It was Nash who wrote in his autobiography Wild Tales about the Bulgarian influence on CSN harmonies. The record he and the rest of the Laurel Canyon crowd was into was the 1955 Music of Bulgaria, which he was actually introduced to by Paul Simon in 1966. Nash said he gave away more that 300 copies of this album to friends.

This is my favorite piece of Bulgarian singing, and usually makes me spontaneously start weeping:



Forum Member Robin L is the real Bulgarian music expert.

 

Yes, when I went looking for the album back then, the copy I found (Tower Records, if I remember correctly) was the 4AD edition. I just looked at it and it's an MPO pressing.

 

It might be less compelling if you understood Bulgarian, though. I recall reading translations of some of the songs off the two Mystere albums and several of them touched on such transcendent subjects as milking cows and doing the chores.

 

...doesn't matter..... so freakin' beautiful!

 

I've avoided reading those and just let the music move me.

 

Sadly, I think he has been gone from the Forum for some time.

 

That's a shame. Well, if you want to explore the music, search Bulgaria and his handle and you'll find a lot of great information about western groups using Bulgarian harmonies like Kitka and the Pennywhistlers



One warning - you will learn the meaning of the term "Balkanization" if you dive into discussions of this music. I have a few videos of Bulgarian music up on YouTube, and not a week goes by when I don't see someone stirring crap up in the comments section about who did what to whom five hundred years ago. It's depressing.

 

...and cute boys.