Ragnar Johnson, Jessica Mayer
Spirit Cry Flutes And Bamboo Jews Harps From Papua New Guinea (2LP)
Double LP version, Gatefold sleeve, 8pp booklet. The third part of Ideologic Organ Music’s trilogy of field recordings of sacred flute music from Papua New Guinea, recorded by Ragnar Johnson and Jessica Mayer in the 1970s. A book titled »A Papua New Guinea Journey« consisting of Ragnar Johnson’s account of the circumstances behind the recordings will be published simultaneously with this music release.
»The recording of a male initiation ceremony with sacred flutes, bullroarers and ‘crying baby’ leaves was only possible after fifteen months residence during anthropological research. From the same Ommura villages in the Eastern Highlands there are bamboo jews harps, yam fertility flutes and singing. Nama (‘bird’) sacred flutes were recorded in a Gahuku Gama village in the town of Goroka. There are Mo-mo bamboo resonating tubes and singing from the Finisterre Range of Madang. From the Ramu Coast region of Madang there are: Waudang flutes, garamut slit gongs and singing from Manam Island, Maner flutes from Awar village and Siam and Guna flutes and garamuts from Nubia Sissimungum Village. These previously unreleased recordings were made in 1976 and 1979.«
–Ragnar Johnson, London 2021
