V/A – The Secret Museum Of Mankind Vol.4: Central Asia. Ethnic Music Classics 1925 - 1948

Description

Outernational Records is pleased to announce the fourth volume of this legendary series, now available on vinyl. This series of archival 78 transfers was originally released in 1995 on CD only. This volume from Central Asia has to be one of the most revelatory volumes yet presented. Concentrating on a singular geographic region, this volume unearths some of the rarest recorded artifacts of music from the Central Asian countries of Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Caucasus region, Tadjikistan, Azerbaijan and others. Of all the recent excavation projects inspired by our voracious musical culture, none is more fascinating than Pat Conte’s Secret Museum series for Yazoo. Until now, a Western listener’s familiarity with ethnic music from the distant past has depended on unsexy field recordings of relatively recent vintage, produced in a spirit of near-scientific inquiry by anthropologically-minded musicologists. When the commercial record business really began to expand in the late ’20s however, just about every national style of music was sought out and captured for a growing marketplace. This was true “world music,” dressed in its Sunday best perhaps as performed by ambitious locals, but still more vital than the academic, folklorist approach that followed. Just as Harry Smith compiled early commercial blues and country records for his monumentally influential Anthology Of American Folk Music, so Conte has gathered even rarer 78s from all over the globe. Thanks to excellent remastering, we can hear vividly how an ensemble sounded in India or Japan more than a half-century ago or a klezmer orchestra right before the Nazis destroyed that bit of local culture. It’s like owning your own time machine. Gorgeous gatefold Stoughton tip-on sleeves with newly-discovered vintage color photos not available on the original CD issue. This is a limited edition one-time pressing of 1,000 copies.