News

Producer Joe Boyd's New Kickstarter Project

Michael Fremer  |  Aug 23, 2016

Legendary veteran record producer Joe Boyd (The Incredible String Band, Richard Thompson, John Martyn, R.E.M. Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, etc.) recently announced a new Kickstarter Project you should be aware of.

Boyd's now defunct Hannibal record label had long been involved in the ethnic music of Bulgaria, Hungary and Africa. Now with recording engineer Jerry Boys (Buena Vista Social Club, etc.), he's launched the above linked Kickstarter project to record the Saze music of Southern Albania, which the project describes as "...having flourished for over a century in the beautiful cities of Korce, Permet and Berat. The aching blues of the „Kaba“ clarinet and violin, the intricate rhythms of the dances, the polyphonic melodies and the soulful singing deserve a global audience."

Yet the music is not well-known and is under-recorded. To learn more please go to the above hyper-link. Boyd writes "Albania is the New Mali!". You can see and hear why on that link. If it piques your curiosity you can listen to Boyd being interviewed about the project on the BBC or on his own podcast.

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COMMENTS
Daniel Emerson's picture
Submitted by Daniel Emerson on Tue, 2016-08-23 10:16

The musical heritage of this tiny country is pretty amazing. In the 1990s, my mother travelled there and attended the Gjirokaster National Folklore Festival. She made some recordings, using a fairly basic portable setup, but the musicianship and the beauty of the music really shone through.

They have a very fine classical music reputation too, despite various political limitations under Communism, and the financial woes that have hit the country more recently.

carja's picture
Submitted by carja on Tue, 2016-08-23 12:39

Having been married to an Albanian for 38 years I am familiar with the music. For example, you can listen to it with an internet connection over several radio stations such as Radio Tirana. I'll let my wife an all my in-laws know about it.

gorkuz's picture
Submitted by gorkuz on Fri, 2016-08-26 09:56

...Or will assume that the Albanians can stay on tune far better than the Incredibly Strung Out Band used to and look forward to checking this out. Mention of the I-SOB tonal approximators I still remember painfully is a bit of an off-putting start, however. Good thing I'm always interested enough in new musical exposure to risk this! Tx for the heads up.

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