★Sublime Frequencies
The Photographs of Charles Duvelle: Disques Ocora
Disques Ocora, a French label dedicated to capturing and publishing the sounds of folkloric culture from around the world, is held in the highest possible regard in the realms of professional and amateur ethnomusicology. Instigated in 1958 by Pierre Schaeffer, the founder of musique concrète, Disques Ocora's sterling reputation is largely built on composer and musicologist Charles Duvelle's pioneering field recordings, as well as his now-iconic photographs and graphic design. Charles Duvelle's w…
Bershukor: A Retrospective of Hits by a Malaysian Pop Yeh Yeh Le
The legendary Adnan Othman has long been a driving force in the Malaysian rock scene. As early as the 1960s his groundbreaking songs in the style known as "pop yeh yeh" (rock and roll sung in Malay) were attracting fans across Malaysia and Singapore. He has since gained many fans around the globe due to a renewed interest in rock music from Southeast Asia. Othman made his first recordings in Singapore in the early 1960s, when he was invited to record with highly popular backing band The Rhythm B…
Ishq Ke Maare: Sufi Songs from Sindh and Punjab, Pakistan
A searing assemblage of Islamic Sufi spiritual music from the hinterlands of Sindh and Punjab, this compilation marks Sublime Frequencies' debut release of field recordings from Pakistan. Recorded and compiled by Arshia Fatima Haq, founder of Discostan - a collective of artists from an imagined federation of states from Beirut to Bangkok via Bombay - this is a rare, unfiltered collection of devotional music ranging from hypnotic solo instrumentals and vocal lamentations to euphoric ensemble qaww…
Where the Mountains Meet the Sky: Folk Music of Ladakh
Music from Ladakh recorded during the making of the film The Song Collector (2014) by director Erik Koto, with additional material recorded by Bill Kite in 1992. "Situated high in the Western Himalaya, Ladakh is one of the great cultural crossroads of Asia. For centuries, it sat at the hub of ancient trade routes that connected the Silk Road to India, Tibet, and Kashmir. Each year, once the winter snows had melted from the high passes surrounding Ladakh, its markets would buzz with merchants fro…
Music of the Bahnar People from the Central Highlands of Vietnam
Sublime Frequencies present a collection of music from the Bahnar people who live in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. The Bahnar are famous for their rich musical culture and this is perhaps the first-ever release to introduce the full range of Bahnar musical instruments and styles, including gong ensemble, bamboo zither, bamboo xylophone, bamboo fiddle with mouth resonator, and folk songs. Melodic and hypnotic, this music was selected from recordings made in the Kon Tum province from 2006 to 2…
Kwangkay: Funerary Music of the Dayak Benuaq of Borneo
Numbering less than 1000 people, the Dayak Benuaq from the Eastern Kalimantan region of Indonesian Borneo still practice many of their traditional ceremonial customs. This album of field recordings presents the music associated with the kwangkay, the secondary mortuary ritual celebrated by the Dayak Benuaq, recorded live on location by Vincenzo Della Ratta. According to the Benuaq belief system, upon death the soul of the human being is transformed into the liau, associated with the physical bod…
Burkina Faso: Volume 3
Sublime Frequencies presents the third volume in a three volume set of contemporary field recordings by Hisham Mayet recorded in Burkina Faso during three expeditions from 2013-2015. Volume 3 includes regional instruments such as the Donso ngoni (hunters harp). The Donso hunters are a mystical animist sect living in western Burkina, Faso whose music is a source of protection and strength for the hunt. The Dioula are represented by one of Bobo-Dioulasso's premiere ensembles, Fassobolomba, who fus…
Burkina Faso: Volume 2
Sublime Frequencies presents the second of three volumes of contemporary field recordings recorded by Hisham Mayet in Burkina Faso during three expeditions from 2013-2015. Volume 2 spotlights Mossi, Bissa, Bwaba, Fulani, and Samo music. One side one, riveting string instruments such as the Mossi and Bissa koundé accompany gnarled, primal vocal epics extolling the virtues of kings and the common man. On side two, the otherworldly sounds of the thianhou (reed zither) and the lolongo (bow-shaped mo…
Burkina Faso: Volume 1
Sublime Frequencies presents the third volume in a three volume set of contemporary field recordings by Hisham Mayet recorded in Burkina Faso during three expeditions from 2013-2015. Volume 3 includes regional instruments such as the Donso ngoni (hunters harp). The Donso hunters are a mystical animist sect living in western Burkina, Faso whose music is a source of protection and strength for the hunt. The Dioula are represented by one of Bobo-Dioulasso's premiere ensembles, Fassobolomba, who fus…
Music of Xinjiang: Kazakh and Uyghur Music of Central Asia
Limited-edition LP with full-size insert of text and photographs by compiler Laurent Jeanneau. Xinjiang (Eastern Turkestan) is China's biggest province. The musical landscape here is one of the world's richest. The Uyghur and the Kazakh are the two main ethnicities represented on these recordings made by Laurent Jeanneau and Shi Tanding in June of 2009. The Kazakh (nomadic) and Uyghur (agricultural) have multiple linguistic ties. Much of this music shares many influences from the Arab world, Tur…
Outlier: Recordings from Madagascar
Limited-edition LP with full-size insert of text and photographs by compiler Charles Brooks. This collection is an impeccable and crystalline assortment of beautiful music from the deep southwestern provinces of Menabe and Tulear in Madagascar, recorded and assembled by Charles Brooks. Brooks has made many friends in these lesser-travelled regions since the 1990s. Outlier: Recordings from Madagascar represents a compilation of his encounters from 2011-2012. "Madagascar is an island that wo…
Radio Vietnam
Radio is an audio compass; the radio antennae, a divining rod. Positioned anywhere, it opens an exclusive window directly into the location in which it sits. Signals received on the medium wave (AM) and FM bands reveal programming intended for a local population by governmental, independent, pirate, or corporate media broadcasters. Anything from low-powered ethnic minority transmissions, high-powered westernized pop stations, and omnipresent state-run radio can be found on these bands. Sh…
Music of Tanzania
Music of Tanzania is a spectacular collection of field recordings gathered by Laurent Jeanneau between December 1999 and March 2000. This debut volume of Sublime Frequencies' exploration of indigenous Tanzanian music compiles sacred and profane songs and dances of the Hadza, Datoga, and Makonde people. Highlights include stoned ecstatic dancing in a Hadza encampment; a drunken celebration of preteen sexual initiation from a Makonde fishing village; baboon imitations performed on the malimba…
A Distant Invitation: Street & Ceremonial Recordings from Burma
A hallucinogenic splatter-drift audio meltdown through the streets and back alleys of Southeast Asia recorded and assembled by Seattle-based multi-sword-wielding artist Jesse Paul Miller (Factums/Secret Records/Liver & Bacon/Big Tribal Balls). This limited edition LP includes street and folk music, situational ambience, radio excerpts, and psychedelic atmospheres from Burma, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. "We heard them from a distance, bells in the back alleys of Su…
Folk Music of the Sahel Vol. 1: Niger
Folk Music of the Sahel: Niger consists of field recordings collected in the Republic of Niger during the course of six expeditions undertaken by Hisham Mayet between 2004 and 2014. This first volume in Sublime Frequencies' new Folk Music of the Sahel series comprises a subjective but spectacular overview of Hausa, Zarma, Fulani, Songhai and Tuareg music culled from Mayet's rich archives. On this lavish double album, Mayet methodically reveals the dazzling range and power of Nigerian music, f…
The Travelling Archive - Folk Music from Bengal
The Travelling Archive is a journey through the folk music of Bengal. It is run by Calcutta-based Bengali singer, writer and researcher, Moushumi Bhowmik, and sound recordist and sound designer, Sukanta Majumdar. They have been making field recordings of songs and stories across Bangladesh and eastern India, even the Bengali diaspora in East London, since 2003; documenting and disseminating their research through archives, presentation-performances, art works, and their own independent reco…
The Crying Princess - 78rpm Records From Burma
Sublime Frequencies enchant with a collection of super rare Burmese popular music dating between 1909 and 1960. Entirely gathered from dusty, almost forgotten 78s discovered by Robert Millis and Alan Bishop on their various trips to the region (now known as Myanmar), 'The Crying Princess' is like a magical portal into a another world, at least from our contemporary western perspective, and further builds on the wealth of obscure music rescued from the country on 'Princess Nicotine', 'Guitars Fro…
Rajasthan Street Music
"Swathed in hundreds of miles of snaking hinterland, the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan is a giant canvas for the imagination of the wanderers it gives home to. Through the stark reaches of the vast Thar Desert, Rajasthan shares borders as well as bloodlines with the Pakistani provinces of Sindh and Punjab to the west and the Indian state of Gujarat to the south. The state's rough history and harsh environment is heavily reflected in the Rajasthani people and Marwari tribal culture; cent…
Field Recordings from Mali (Bush Taxi Mali)
Bush Taxi Mali: Field Recordings from Mali is an aural tour through the heart of Mali. These field recordings were made by Tucker Martine in 1998 while traveling throughout the West African country. This blend of bluesy ngonis, clamoring street sounds, the stunning voice of Jalimusa Amanita Diabaté (of the famous Diabaté family), passing radios, Fulani flutes, runaway sound systems, and chants from the Dogon country creates a unique portrait of Mali's rich musical heritage. Eventually Martine fo…
Guitars From Agadez Vol. 7
In October 2012, the Tamashek community lost one of its most luminous voices when Koudede's life was cut short by a car crash during his trip home to Niger from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Koudede was a leading light among the myriad musical groups that have recently proliferated in Niger and Mali to voice the Tuareg struggle against exploitation and to exalt their proud but waning nomadic heritage. His outstanding reputation and corpus of songs garnered the respect of his contemporaries, and his…