Monday, May 5, 2008

Balkan Situations Live Reunion on WFMU

DJ Rob Weisberg was kind enough to have us perform on his show, Transpacific Sound Paradise, last Saturday May 3rd. It was an honor to play at the legendary WFMU down in Jersey City. We sounded surprisingly good, considering we hadn't all played together for an entire year. Check out the archive of that show here:


WFMU's Transpacific Sound Paradise with Rob Weisberg from 5/3/2008

Our performance starts after about 1 hour into the show.

The Balkan Situations will be recording a new album this week in the WESU studio; if are interested in obtaining a copy, please write to thebalkansituations AT gmail DOT com
or to azannino AT gmail DOT com

You have a possibility

A video we made a few weeks ago, featuring the combined talents of the Balkan Situations and Isto (a subway musician whose songwriting, talent, and sense of humor have made something of youtube celebrity) performing a cover of the song "Guitar" by Peter Nalitch.
Filmed in Indian Hill Cemetery, Middletown CT

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Black Bread 4/22/08

Underground rock and experimental noise from the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the Baltics

listen here

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Balkans and Beyond 04/15/08

Underground rock from the Balkans

listen here


playlist coming soon (we're a little busy at the moment!)

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Black Bread 4/8/08

Ukrainian folk, pop, rock, punk, undeground

Listen here

playlist coming soon

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Black Bread 3/25/08

Classic Soviet songs and Russian Rock

Listen here

1. Soviet National Anthem
2. Stalin anounces victory over Germany
4. Товарищ Сталин - Юз Алешковский (Comrade Stalin - Yuz Aleshkovsky)
3. Synyi platochik - the blue handkerchief (WWII song)
4. Katiusha
5. Na bolshom karetnom - Vladimir Vysotsky
6. moi adres sov soiuz (pro bomzhov)
7. Auktsyon
8. idu, kuriu (I walk, I smoke) - Nol'
9. Guinea Pigs Tango - Aleksei Aigi and 4'33"
10. mobilnik - Leningrad
11. grob - Khvost' i Auktsion
12. gde zhe ty bladky? - Leningrad
13. utekai - Mummy Troll
14. Yanka Dyagileva
15. Egor Letov
16. Grazhdanskaya Oborona
17. beziadernaya zona - Kino
18. vladivostok 2000 - Mumy troll
19. pod nebom golubym - akvarium
20. Temnaia noch'
21. Oi, tumany, rastumany (Oh, Mists! Oh, Foggy Dew!) - Piatnitsky Chorus - Folkways Records: Russian Folk Songs
22. prinesi menja reka
23. videli noch' - Kino
24. do svidania, Tanya - Vladimir Vysotsky
25. Birthday comes but once a year - Krokodil Gena

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Balkans and Beyond 03/18/08

Listen here

Theme: no theme. Music from North Africa, Ethiopia, France, and other random places.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Russian Folk Songs: Black Bread with special guest Karen Bovard

03/11/08
Special guest Karen Bovard of Middletown talks about her experience 12 days spent on a folkloric expedition in the village of Morechovo, Russia and plays us some of her field recordings of "screamers," chastushki "limericks," and "he done me wrong" songs.

Listen here

Friday, March 7, 2008

KRS-ONE is my PUSHKIN

Take a closer look at this poster I saw in Russia:


HIP HOP KLUB

We meet Tuesday at 20:15 in the film hall at Bobrinskii palace, we'll listen to music, discuss it and, perhaps, dance

Fill in Show

Hadji Murat will be filling in a show tomorrow Saturday March 8 from 2-3 PM.

Also, the Contest has been decided. Thanks to Sasha in St. Petersburg! The band is called Страхуйдет (strakhuidyot, or "fearwillgo")

some of their songs can heard here (although admittedly after the first one they aren't that great):

Пионеры (Pioneers)
contains the скороговорка (toungetwister): "на дворе трава, на траве дрова" in the yard is grass, on the grass is wood

Стоп! (Stop!)

Помой

Contest: Name That Band!

Little Water recorded this song from the state radio channel in St. Petersburg, Russia. The host of the radio program gave the name of the group, but unfortunately it is too fast for our ears.

If any Russian-speakers out there can understand and identify that name, you will win a prize. Send your answer to hadji AT wesufm.org

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam

The Man who Saved the world. Also known as Turkish Star Wars.
A classic of world cinema.

Turkish pop, rock, electronic, and traditional

brought to you by my old roomate, Özgür

Unfortunately, technical difficulties prevented us recording the show, but here is the playlist:

1. Holocaust - Ceza - Crossing The Bridge Soundtrack
2. Tekirdag Karsilamasi - Burhan Öçal & Trakya All Stars - Kirklareli il Sınırı
3. Yedikule - Yeni Türkü - Her Dem Yeni
4. Kapali Carsi - Gökhan Kırdar - Yağmur
5. Zikr - Various Artists - Turquie: Musique Soufi
6. Nar-ı Seher - Mercan Dede - Nar
7. Tiki Tiki Tak - Modern Folk Üçlüsü - Modern Folk Üçlüsü
8. Seni Özlerim - Berkant - 45'lik
9. Baglamamin Dügümü - Necmiye Ararat Hanım - Women Of Istanbul
10. Hatasiz Kul Olmaz - Orhan Gencebay - Hatasiz kul Olmaz
11. Öyle sarhofl olsam ki - Tanju Okan - Tanju Okan
12. Firuze - Sezen Aksu - Firuze
13. Karşıkı Yayla - Moğollar - Moğollar
14. Gözlerinden Bellidir - Fikret Kızılok - S/T
15. Gülpembe - Barış Manço
16. Istanbul (Live) - Duman - Crossing The Bridge Soundtrack
17. F. D. - Feridun Düzağaç - Orjinal Alt Yazılı
18. Sela - Şanar Yurdatapan - Kirmizi Yesil Sesler ve Sözler
19. Böyle Olur Mu (Live) - Nur Ceylan - Crossing The Bridge Soundtrack
20. Ilahi Dostum Bagina - Ali Ekbar Cicek - Turkish Sufi Music


You can hear and learn about Turkish music in the film Crossing the Bridge, right here:


Wednesday, February 27, 2008

views on Kosovo

from Transitions Online:


Commentators consider the impact of independence, and what happens next.


It wasn’t the first time the leaders of Kosovo declared independence. In 1990, ethnic-Albanian lawmakers called for statehood when Belgrade dissolved the province’s assembly. Ibrahim Rugova, the quiet academic who became president of Kosovo in 1992, defied his Western admirers by calling for independence. And there have been countless other hints of such action since NATO partitioned Kosovo from Serbia in 1999.

The difference on 17 February, when Kosovo’s new prime minister Hashim Thaci carried through with an election promise and presented the statehood proclamation to a rubber-stamp parliament, is that it came with the unfettered support of the United States and many European Union countries.

But reaction has been a mix of jubilation – for ethnic Albanians – and outright anger – demonstrated by the tens of thousands of Serbs who protested this week, some sacking and burning the American Embassy in Belgrade.

Transitions Online normally uses this space for “Our Take,” our weekly editorial on the issues shaping the region. But given the volume of commentary after Kosovo declared independence, we think it important to offer readers a survey of what others are saying. Reading through these commentaries, culled from the BBC Monitoring Service and newspapers, there is evident fear about the spillover effects of Kosovo’s action in other regions where there are ethnic and territorial divides – and not just in the former communist countries. There is also palpable concern that Kosovo – with a battered economy and a reputation for shadiness – will be independent in name only for the foreseeable future, a state scorned by its foes and heavily dependent on its advocates.

Here are excepts of these viewpoints:


BOSNIA | ‘Pandora’s Box Opened’

By Pantelija Matavulj, Bosnian Serb state-owned Glas Srpske, 18 February:

… Emboldened by a group of West European countries and America, the [Kosovo] Assembly declared this southern Serbian province independent, thus marking the end of a long chapter in the disintegration of Yugoslavia. International law, which has so far more or less governed world peace, has been ignored. …

By setting this precedent, the world has laid a new marker stone for future relations globally. The recognition of [Kosovo’s] independence is a precedent in international law and will open a Pandora's Box which will undoubtedly destabilize Europe. Nations scattered across several countries on the Old Continent will demand the right to unite. …

A [Kosovo] syndrome will be born. If Kosovans have been granted the right to independence, there is no reason why other nations with the same right should not be forming a queue to achieve the same goal. …

Unrest in Mitrovica during the outbreak of communal violence in March 2004.


MACEDONIA | ‘Independence and Uncertainty’

By Mitko Biljanoski, Dnevnik, 18 February:

… Kosovo Albanians have been celebrating the historic day of the birth of their independent state. … Yet, everyone, the Kosovo Albanians in particular, should realize that they have independence, but not a state.

Statehood cannot be presented as a gift, nor taken away by force. Statehood is something you build from the foundations up to the chimney. The bypassing of the United Nations, which is the pillar of international order, has contributed to the proclamation of the [independence] declaration. However, this maneuver will create major problems for the Kosovars while trying to establish their state. …

Kosovo …, as well as the EU, which has begun to deploy its mission in Kosovo, will have to bear a huge burden. They will have to jointly build the state, brick by brick, floor by floor. The new state's foundations must be built on respect for all the citizens' rights and on firm guarantees for inviolable borders, that is, the abandonment of the idea of a Greater Albania. A house constructed on these foundations cannot shake, fall, or bother the neighbors. Thus, no one will be threatened or humiliated. Only after Kosovo becomes a stable and functional state can it stand straight in front of the gates of the joint European home.

CZECH REPUBLIC | ‘Racketeers’ Freedom’

By Martin Hekrdla, Pravo website, 19 February:

It is good to repeat the bare fact that the declaration of and support for Kosovo's independence is a violation of international law and a precedent for violent separatists. This holds true. And the Balkans, the EU, and the world, will drink the cup of the consequences thereof to the bottom.

What is even more serious is the fact that the decisive capitals of the Western world have joined their tactics and their Balkan strategies with the steps of a terrorist organization, the UCK [Kosovo Liberation Army]. And that its "cadres" – led by Hashim Thaci, a.k.a. “Snake” – now make up the backbone of Kosovo's illegal statehood. …

Today's situation is not a subterfuge of history, no unintended consequence. Terrorists are easy to re-label freedom fighters (and vice versa, of course). But how to label a state which mafias do not penetrate but actually rule over? …
Kosovo has rich coal reserves, yet can’t produce enough power to meet demand.


FRANCE | ‘Change You Can Believe In’

By Roger Cohen, International Herald Tribune, 20 February:

… In 2005, the [U.N.’s] World Summit adopted the “responsibility to protect,” known by that acronym [R2P]. R2P formalized the notion that when a state proves unable or unwilling to protect its people, and crimes against humanity are perpetrated, the international community has an obligation to intervene — if necessary, and as a last resort, with military force.

Member states declared that, with Security Council approval, they were prepared "to take collective action in a timely and decisive manner" when "national authorities manifestly fail to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity."

An independent Kosovo, recognized by major Western powers, is in effect the first major fruit of the ideas behind R2P. It could not have happened if the rights of human beings were not catching up at last with the rights of states. …

ROMANIA | ‘Kosovo or Washington Diktat’

By Miruna Munteanu, Ziua website, 20 February:

… The recognition of independence of Kosovo Province is a dangerous precedent which raises questions about the sacred inviolability of borders. The first precedent was created in 1999, when Serbia was demonized for having dared to respond to the provocations (that were often taking the form of crime or terrorism) orchestrated by the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army guerrillas. Much was written about the vast media campaign meant to accredit the idea of a "genocide" orchestrated by Belgrade against the Albanian population. Statistics now indicate that it was actually Serbs who were the victims of "ethnic cleansing" in Kosovo.

What are we supposed to learn from this lesson? That a country is not allowed to resort to force when its territorial integrity is threatened from within? Not at all. That philosophy has never been applied in the case of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The USA was not equally concerned about Jerusalem's reprisals against the Arabs on the West Bank and in Gaza. On the contrary, it has always declared its support for Israel's right to self-defence. But the Serbians were denied the same right. This is a clear example of the use of double standards. …

The logic of dismantling the former Yugoslavia does not apply to Kosovo, not even formally, because in that case we were talking about a republic included in a federation from which it could have withdrawn at any time. Kosovo has never been a state entity. It has always been an integral part of Serbia, ever since the time of the old medieval kingdom. We are therefore witnessing a real territorial rape now, a dictate by the great powers, which are redistributing the zones of influence among themselves. And small countries, as usual, have no say in that.

HUNGARY | ‘Pristina on the Promenade’

By Miklos Gabor, Nepszabadsag website, 18 February:

On Sunday [17 February] Kosovo declared its independence. I sympathize with the Serbs in their sorrow over this and I rejoice together with the Kosovo Albanians. …

Independence is a symbolic act. Kosovo's roaring poverty will not cease, and foreign capital will not be flooding into the new republic. The independence of a state dependent on foreign aid is symbolic. The independence will also be limited externally because the world is justly worried that ethnic cleansing will be continued and control over Kosovo will be taken over by drug dealers and car thieves. The international community which drove the Serbs out of the province nine years ago, continues to be responsible for the life and safety of the remaining Serbs, Roma, and other minorities. It is to be seen whether it is capable of this. …

CROATIA | ‘Final Split’

By Marko Barisic, Vjesnik website, 15 February:

[Kosovo’s independence] is a direct result of the failed ethnic cleansing project that then Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic attempted to carry out against Kosovo's Albanians in 1999. As a reminder, it had been in Kosovo in the late 1980s … that Milosevic began to build his charisma as "the Serbian leader" with which, several years later, he would launch the conquest aimed at creating a greater Serbian state encompassing a significant part of Croatia, almost all of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and, of course, Kosovo.

As the attempt failed despite the use of brutal methods including even genocide, it is no wonder that the last act of the collapse of the imperial project is unfolding right now in the very place where everything began: Kosovo. …

Many analysts believe that the new relations will contribute to the area's stabilization and be a step towards lasting peace. History, however, teaches us that plenty of caution is called for when it comes to optimistic scenarios in that region.

UNITED KINGDOM | ‘This Dependent Independence is the Least Worst Solution for Kosovo’

By Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian, 21 February:

… Is this a precedent, as some fear and others hope? Of course it is. Every declaration of independence is a precedent. Russian-backed leaders in South Ossetia and Transnistria are muttering about following the example of the American-backed Kosovans. Basque and Catalan separatists take note, and the Spanish government has reacted against the declaration of independence with startling sharpness – partly because it comes in the middle of a hard-fought election campaign. Kosovo is the top story on the website of Unpo, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, which has 69 members, from Abkhazia to Zanzibar.

"Kosovo is a special case," says Kosovo's declaration of independence, going on to insist … that it is not a precedent. But all the 68 other Unpo members are special cases too. Liberals have universal rules for the treatment of individuals; they have always got in a tangle about groups – both about the position of groups inside a country (witness the debate around multiculturalism) and about which group is entitled to exercise the right of self-determination. They have no consistent answer to the nationalist's question: "Why should I be a minority in your country when you could be a minority in mine?" Kosovo's declaration of dependent independence is the least worst way forward, but don't let us pretend it's not a precedent. Both statements are true: Kosovo is unique, and there will be more Kosovos.
Mitrovica’s Romani quarter burned down in 1999 and has yet to be rebuilt due to resistance from the town’s Albanian majority. Photo by George Willcoxon.


RUSSIA | ‘Kosovo Fails All Tests for Nationhood’

By Michael Pravica, Pravda website, 19 February:

… The U.S. and the EU are creating a very dangerous precedent by illegally creating a "Greater Albania" that will irreversibly damage relations with Russia and encourage some 200 separatist movements the world over. The U.S. has lost the "moral" authority to act as self-appointed "policeman" of the world. Just as the Nazi occupation of the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia was the precursor to World War II, the Western theft of Kosovo may provoke World War III. It's time for Russia to draw a line in the sand.

GERMANY | False EU Promises for the Balkans

By Hans-Jürgen Schlamp, Spiegel Online International, 21 February:

… Belgrade, once capital of the diverse nation of Yugoslavia and now merely head of a shrunken Serbia, is for the moment content to pout about glory lost. Serbia is recalling its ambassadors from all those countries, including Germany on Wednesday [20 February], that recognize Kosovo. Government leaders are also doing little to calm heated emotions among the populace and are refusing to sign agreements negotiated with the European Union. The country had a golden opportunity to jump on the EU-membership fast track, but it showed a willingness to let the chance slip away out of intransigence over the Kosovo issue.

Had Belgrade submitted a list of demands in exchange for flexibility over the Kosovo issue – territorial compensation, financial aid or a timeline for accession – it would have gotten the majority, if not all, of what it asked for.

But now, relations between Serbia and EU have hit rock bottom. It won't stay that way for long, though. The two sides need each other. Without Serbia on board, long-term stability in the Balkans is an impossibility. And without the EU, Serbia has no future.

Black Bread 02/26/08

vocal and instrumental polyphony in the Baltics, the Caucasus, the Balkans, and Togo!

read about polyphony here

listen to the show

Playlist:

1. Saulala - Veronika Povilionienė ir Blezdinga - Parlek Blezdinga
2. Kas tar teka - Veronika Povilionienė ir Blezdinga - Parlek Blezdinga
3. Ka tu, bitela - Trys keturiose - Sutartinės CD 1
4. Liaj, sese, liaj, pana - Trys keturiose - Sutartinės CD 1
5. Skranc Biteale - Ensemble Gadula - Lithuanie
6. Išsivedžiau oželį, tatatėla - Jievaras - Sutartinės CD 1
7. sutartine - Artistes Lituaniens - Voix Des Pays Baltes
8. Intakas - Various Artists - Lituanie - Le Pays Des Chansons
9. Penkiese - Griežikai - Sutartinės CD 1
10. Danses de la Pluie - Village de Sara-Kawa - Collection Radiodiffusion Outre-Mer: Musique Kabrè du Nord-Togo
11. Voix de primptemps - Artistes Latviens- Voix Des Pays Baltes
12. Voix des laboureurs - Artistes Latviens - Voix Des Pays Baltes
13. preparatifs - Artistes Estoniens (Setu) - Voix Des Pays Baltes
14. des parents - Artistes Estoniens (Setu) - Voix Des Pays Baltes
15. presages - Artistes Estoniens (Setu) - Voix Des Pays Baltes
16. Lyrical polyphonic song - Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic - Musical Atlas - UNESCO Collection: Musical Folklore of the Byelorussian Polessye
17. don't awake me - Folk Choir of the "Rassvet" Kolkhoz - Russian Folk Songs and Tunes of Belgorod region
18. Вспомним Братцы-Сталинградцы - Русичи - Не Посрамим Земли Руской
19. Gonja (Weather Song, K'akheti) - Ensemble Mzetamze - Traditional Songs Of Georgian Women - Vol I
20. Basiani (Georgian men's choir)
21. Ali P'asha - Men's Chorus of Hayrire Village - Georgian Folk Music from Turkey
22. Vosa Vorera - Men's Chorus of Hayrire Village - Georgian Folk Music from Turkey
23. Tirini Horerama - Men's Chorus of Hayrire Village - Georgian Folk Music from Turkey
24. Aerg - The Golden Fleece - Songs From Abkhazia & Adzharia
25. Akruashaga - The Golden Fleece - Songs From Abkhazia & Adzharia
26. Shvidkatsa - The Golden Fleece - Songs From Abkhazia & Adzharia
27. Madlobeli Vart - The Golden Fleece - Songs From Abkhazia & Adzharia
28. Alhsmonw kai xairomai (I forget and am glad) - Syllogos pros Diadosin ths Ethnikhs Mousikhs - Songs of Epirus
29. Deropolitisa - Syllogos pros Diadosin ths Ethnikhs Mousikhs - Songs of Epirus
30. Fradza vearde di sicara (Aromanian)
31. Rrofsh sa moshë e kësaj toke - Grupi i Bënçës (Albanian)
32. Ganga: Odkad Seke Nismo Zapjevale - Rahima, Mejra, and Habiba Sultanić - Bosnia Echoes From An Endangered World
33. Dai Se Vase Rachisata/To A Bouquet - Bisserov Sisters And Nadka Karadjova - Bulgarian Polyphony III

******************************************************
Bakhtinian polyphony

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Balkans and Beyond 02/19/08

Rembetika night...we each had a turn at the zeimbekiko...



Listen here

1. Paliosse Tou Sakkaki Mou - Bithikotsis Grigoris - Tsitsanis
2. Taxim-Zeimbekiko - Markos Vamvakaris - Rembetika: Greek Music From The Undergrond
3. Sklirokardi - Markos Vamvakaris - Archive of Rembetika Composers vol. 24
4. zeybek dance (harmandalı)
5. Zeibek Havasi - Tanburi Cemil Bey - Tanburi Cemil Bey
6. Zeimbekano Spaniolo - Stratos Payioumidzis - Rembetika: Greek Music From The Underground
7. Papagika Mandalena Zeimbekiko - Marika Papagika - Rembetika: Greek Music From The Undergrond
8. Mourmoúrika-Zeïmbékiko - Ioannis (Jack) Halikias - Mourmoúrika: Songs of the Greek Underworld 1930-1955
9. Lachanadhes - Kóstas Roúkounas, Samiótis - Mourmoúrika: Songs of the Greek Underworld 1930-1955
10. Chachpína Mavromáta - Stell. Perpiniadhis - Mourmoúrika: Songs of the Greek Underworld 1930-1955
11. Enas Mángas Ston Deké - Maríka Kanaropoúlou, Tourkalítsa - Mourmoúrika: Songs of the Greek Underworld 1930-1955
12. Boharis - Various Artists - Rebetika II
13. Aidhiniko - Dhimítrios Sémsis - Greek-Oriental Rebetica: Songs & Dances In The Asia Minor Style, 1911-1937
14. Zeimbekiko Melemenio - Andonios Dhiamadidhis "Dalgas" - Rembetika: Greek Music From The Undergrond
15. Echo Meraki Echo Dalga - Andonios Dhiamadidhis "Dalgas" - Rembetika: Greek Music From The Underground
16. Ego Mangas Fenomouna (It Showed I Was A Mangas) - Michalis Yenitsaris - Rembetika: Greek Music From The Underground
17. I Baglamadhes - Efstratios Payioumidzis "Stratos" & Stellios Keromytis - Rembetika: Greek Music From The Underground
18. Nichtose Horis Fengari - Kaldaras Apostolos - Rembetika - Songs Of The Greek Underground 1925-1947
19. Taxim Athineiko Ke Zeimbekiko - Yiorgos Batis - Rembetika: Greek Music From The Underground
20. Prin To Harama Monahos - Yannis Papaioannou - Oi Megaloi Synthetes Tis Ellinikis Mousikis
21. Ase Me Ase Me - Yannis Papaioannou - Oi Megaloi Synthetes Tis Ellinikis Mousikis
22. Mi Mou Xanafygeis Pia - Sotiria Bellou - H Sotiria Bellou Tragoudia Tsitsani
23. Τα Λερωμένα Τ'απλυτα - Βασίλης Τσιτσάνης - Οι Μεγάλοι Συνθέτες Της Ελληνικής Μουσικής - Βασίλης Τσιτσάνης
24. Zeimbekiko tis Eudokias - field recording, Thessaloniki 2005
25. Zeimbekiko - Dionysis Savvopoulos & Sotiria Bellou

suggested reading: Petropoulos, Elias. Songs of the Greek Underworld: the Rebetika tradition. London: Saqi, 2000.

further information about rembetika

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Black Bread 02/12/08



Little Water's annual
Bagpipe Blowout
OR
Dudes of Duda
OR
Gajda Guys

Listen here


Playlist

1. Valle e gadhes - Folk Music of Albania
2. Gutsul Kolomyika - Ethnic Folkways Library: Music of the Ukraine
3. Kozachok - Ethnic Folkways Library: Music of the Ukraine
4. Sajaju - Recorded in Hungary 1903-1939 under the supervision of Bela Bartok - Ethnic Folkways Library: Hungarian Folk Songs
5. Vasvari - Recorded in Hungary 1903-1939 under the supervision of Bela Bartok - Ethnic Folkways Library: Hungarian Folk Songs
6. Hora oltaneasca - Romania
7. Hora de Mina - Romania
8. Schioapa - Romania
9. Staro Planinsko - Serbia
10. Graovsko Horo - Bulgaria (Sopluk) - www.dunav.org.il
11. Pomasko Sirto - Bulgaria
12. Starceska Racenica - Bulgaria
13. The Green Room - Stamen Gardiev - field recording from Zlatne Uste Golden Festival, New York City 2007
14. Ferusko - Macedonia - www.dunav.org.il
15. Sadilo mome - Macedonia
16. Arap - Macedonia
17. Koackata - Macedonia
18. Vourgarouda - syrto kalamatiano (Bulgarian girl) - Society for the Dissemination of National Music - Songs of Eastern Macedonia
19. Simera Despo m' paskhalia - "Today is Easter" Paschal dance - Society for the Dissemination of National Music - Songs of Western Macedonia
20. Mavro xelido - xoros (Black Swallow) - Society for the Dissemination of National Music - Songs of Thrace
21. Katou ston trano ton kampo - tragoudi tou therou (down in the broad plain - wheat harvesting song) - Society for the Dissemination of National Music - Songs of Thessaly II
22. Gaida - Music Of The Balkans : Vol. 3-Greece
23. Pidichtos - Crète - Grèce - Chansons Et Danses Populaires
24. Anevaseme mana mou -siganos kai trexatos (Lift me, Mother!) Society for the Dissemination of National Music - Songs of Mytilene and Chios
25. Tik - Pontic Greek
26. Embropis - Haris Kazanzidis - Dora Stratou Collection
27. Macka Yollari - Turkey
28. Rize-Pazar Oyunu Türkülü (Rize-Pazar Folk Dance Song) - Cevdet Topaloğlu, with tulum accompaniment (Laz) - Georgian Folk Music from Turkey
29. Артемий Воробьёв (Artemii Vorobyov, russian bagpipe player)
30. Dzianis, desan - Belarus dance
31.
Hungarian duda (bagpipe) tune - Istvánfi Balázs
32. Hungarian Electric Bagpipe

Monday, February 11, 2008

Another point of view

A response to the article below from a real live Hungarian pal o' mine (with some Romany ancestry, mind you):

yeah, there are problems with integrating the Roma minority in Eastern Europe, and sure, there is a sense of prejudice against them. But i don't think it is any different from the prejudice against blacks in US, Subcontinentals in UK or North Africans in France. And the economical/social status and resources of those countries can not be compared to those of Hungary, Romania or Czech Rep. So i think it is hardly surprising that we in the poor east fail to deal with it. The article claims that they are the least cared for/most oppressed minority in the western world (well if that includes eastern europe). i don't think it is that much worse than the situation of other minorities. It is always extremely difficult to find an ideal solution, ever more so on the fringes of Europe (let alone other continents) and there is no viable advice or example to follow from anywhere else in the world really.

The Hungarian Guard (bunch of neo-Nazi lunatics) is probably as grave a threat as the present-day KKK and definitely incomparably smaller than the BNP. I would much more worry about that subdued but default prejudice in the average person.

Plus the writer tends to suggest that there is a Roma culture that the whole Roma society of a country accepts as their own. Well, i can tell you that 90% of the Gypsies in my area couldn't care less about tradition and culture. They have no desire to learn their own language (the school where my mother teaches has a program for that, free of charge of course), play their own music (not a single Gypsy musician in a 20-mile radius of Zabar) or indeed claim a proud Roma identity that goes beyond not being hungarian (a "peasant" as they refer to hungarians). So, again there are problems, and the country is struggling to come up with a plan to help Romas integrate better into society, but there are no templetes as how to do that.

The article does a great job at taking the moral high-ground of the sophisticated Western West and talking down the efforts of the Ministry of Culture to give a platform to Gypsy artists to represent themselves - what's wrong with trying? The commercial tv-channels, which the writer quotes as good examples do as much harm as good. Sure the Hungarian Idol was won by a gypsy guy a year ago but they also have a top-of-the-ratings reality show broadcasting the life of a truly despicable human being (let's say a male Paris Hilton of Hungary) who happens to be gypsy (and thus the face of the Roma in the eyes of many). That surely hurts the cause of improving the perception of the majority more than what the Gypsy Hungarian Idol did to help.
The fact that the Roma politicians and leaders of ngo-groups are up to level with the hungarians in corruption doesn't help either. (why wouldn't they be though right?) One sad example is the case of the Austrian government's program of paying retributions to victims of the Roma Holocaust that was turned into a complete fiasco by the leaders of Roma NGOs. It led to the program being shut down and the Austrians sueing the NGOs - that money could have been used to maintain so many arts camps for gypsy kids like the one the article laments was shut down due to lack of money.
Of course Hungary is a country where even an NGO that is supposed to help kids with cancer manages to embezzle charity money...

I guess Hungary is just a disfunctional country. So the reason why the article irritates me is that it takes one problem and presents it as if it were unique. Which it is not; not in the micro-cosmos of hungary & eastern europe and not in the larger-scale minority issues of the Western world.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Roma in Hungary - human rights and the arts

from the New York Times:

In Hungary, Roma Get Art Show, Not a Hug

Published: February 6, 2008

BUDAPEST — A show of contemporary Romany art just closed on Sunday here at the National Gallery, Hungary’s grandest museum. The exhibition was the latest nod to Europe’s most despised, and this country’s largest, minority. It came and went uneventfully, which itself was an event, considering the rise this autumn of the Hungarian Guard, a right-wing extremist group, which has made much news dressing up in paramilitary outfits recalling the Nazi era, ranting about “safeguarding national culture and traditions” and marching on a village against what it said was Romany crime there. Nobody is quite sure how extensive the group is or whether it is just good at grabbing headlines.

Nikolett Erls

An unemployed Romany in Budapest with his children. Though Roma make up an estimated 8 to 10 percent of Hungary’s population, Romany unemployment exceeds 80 percent.

Bela Szandelszky/Associated Press

Street signs by the artist Ilona Nemeth challenged bigotry in Budapest. The one at left asked, “Would you accept a Romany as a spouse?”

AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky

Members of the Hungarian Guard, a right-wing extremist group, staging an anti-Romany protest in the city.

But the Roma were perfectly sure what “safeguarding national culture” meant.

Around the same time that the guard held everyone’s attention, a Slovak-Hungarian artist named Ilona Nemeth decided to put up bright yellow signs along a stretch of Kiraly Street in a traditionally Jewish but now ethnically mixed part of the city. In the languages of the local residents she posted questions based on the Bogardus Social Distance Scale, which measures the willingness of people to engage in social contacts: passersby were asked (to ask themselves, in effect) whether they would welcome so-and-so, from a different ethnic group, as a tourist, a colleague, a spouse, a fellow citizen.

Authorities from the district ordered the signs taken down hours after they went up, saying the project had stirred trouble where there hadn’t been any. The Hungarian news media jumped on the brouhaha, as they had jumped on the rise of the guard, and a local rabbi, among other neighborhood leaders, took up the artist’s cause. But as Ms. Nemeth reflected the other day, by then the work had produced “a media monologue and not a public dialogue.”

She added: “The Roma are not part of society here. Most of this society thinks they are not our problem. We’re not trying to understand them.”

Ms. Nemeth’s work resurrected age-old questions about the uses of art in shaping politics and public opinion, in this case concerning the Roma, or Gypsies. (The term isn’t considered pejorative here.) An answer of sorts then came with the show at the National Gallery.

The exhibition turned out to be a mess, but an emblematic one. Over the years various surveys of Romany music and art in Hungary have been organized at the Museum of Ethnography and at the Hungarian Institute for Culture and Art, from which most of the pictures at the National Gallery came. This show followed a multinational Romany pavilion at last summer’s Venice Biennale, shared by savvy conceptualists and folk artists, catering to the all-devouring art market.

The National Gallery exhibition, less high-concept, looked more like a flea market, much of it fairly awful, and heavy on self-taught artists with compelling life stories. The pictures included street portraits with drawings about the Roma killed in World War II and Chagall-like fantasies in candied colors.

Arranged in a long, numbing row, the art was assigned to attic galleries so unlike the large, gorgeous rooms for mainstream paintings downstairs that an outsider couldn’t help wondering if the installation had been intentionally devised as a metaphor (Roma here cast as “Jane Eyre” ’s Bertha Mason in the attic of Hungarian society). One evening not long before the show’s end, when closing time was still 30 minutes away, bored museum guards, anxious to get home, hastened out the two or three remaining visitors, trailing behind to make sure no one doubled back, and switching off lights along the way.

Agnes Daroczi, a Romany sociologist and arts advocate, defended the show as part of a long Romany cultural project. She recalled that when Hungary was under Moscow’s thumb, Roma weren’t even acknowledged as an ethnic group, and many of their small farms were bulldozed to promote collectivization, spoiling centuries-old customs. In that difficult climate a Romany intelligentsia emerged.

“We thought if we could gain a foothold in culture and the arts, then we could move closer to gaining human rights,” she said. The first Romany art show she put together was in the early 1970s. “Culture became an artistic tool in a political fight,” she said.

Industrialization had by then produced jobs for some 85 percent of Romany men, roughly the Hungarian average, and by the late ’70s, Romany culture had also come to be linked with a new liberal opposition to communism.

But with the transition to democracy that began in the late 1980s, and the collapse of state industry it caused, Roma found themselves first to receive pink slips. The figures speak for themselves. Roma make up an estimated 8 to 10 percent of the population. Romany unemployment now tops 80 percent; the national unemployment average is 7.7 percent.

In 2005 the World Bank, the Open Society Institute and other organizations initiated in Hungary and eight other countries a program for what’s being called, in typical Euro-speak, the Decade of Roma Inclusion, to improve Romany education, employment, housing, human rights and health care. Last year the government here adopted a plan to carry out that agenda. But Romany children, as they have for generations, still find themselves often segregated in schools and made to play in separate playgrounds.

“In the permanent fight for emancipation, we’ve shown the beauty and diversity of our culture,” Ms. Daroczi said about the art shows over the years. But clearly they have had little if any practical effect on daily life for Roma in Hungary.

One recent morning I found Jeno Zsigo, president of the Roma Parliament, a nongovernmental Romany rights group, looking deeply forlorn in his office in the city’s part-Romany Eighth District. He was mourning the fate of an arts camp he had run for hundreds of Romany children, whose operation has been suspended because, like the parliament, it has run out of money. He blames official indifference.

“Romany art goes on display as a favor,” he said. “There are a lot of talented Romany artists, but the question is still whether there is going to be any real acceptance and integration.”

Gyorgy Kerenyi, a journalist and radio producer who in 2001 started Radio C, the country’s first Roma-run radio station, put the situation in a wider European perspective: “It’s not violent here, like in the Czech Republic or Romania — the Hungarian Guard seems like a small thing — but most Hungarians are prejudiced. The situation hasn’t really changed much in 20 years. The European Union, which is afraid of Romany migration to Western Europe, shakes the hands of Eastern Europeans who start some initiative or sponsor some show, but it’s all window dressing.”

He recalled Romany excitement when Radio C started, finally giving Roma their own voice in the media. “It was like in a Kusturica film,” he said, laughing. “A cavalcade of people showed up, friends, kids, gangs, tucking their heads in to say hello or just to see how it all worked.”

Radio C caters to Romany listeners. Mr. Kerenyi remarked that, for the general Hungarian public, the popular television program “Megastar,” Hungary’s “American Idol,” has probably made the biggest impact: it has lately catapulted several Romany singers to national stardom.

“These were Roma who proudly said they’re Roma, and the program showed their families at home like other families,” he said.

Which still left open the question of the effect of the National Gallery show. Wim Wenders, the German film director, has said that Europeans like to comfort themselves with “the false belief” that the misery and isolation of the Roma is “actually an act of self-chosen freedom.”

You hear this often in Europe. Roma are casually dismissed as criminals and outsiders. The Romany art show, in a similar vein, let skeptics write off the work as primitive or, worse, charming, while functioning as a sop to the national conscience.

Confronted by that thought, Peter Szuhay, from the Ethnological Museum, who put the exhibition together, fell glumly silent. Over the years he has organized what would seem from their catalogs to be intelligent, sensitive shows documenting Romany life — contrasting how Roma are portrayed by others with how they depict themselves. These exhibitions have multiplied over the years as the plight of Roma, despite his efforts, has worsened.

Mr. Szuhay was in the musty loft of his split-level office in the museum, surrounded by peeling paint, fluorescent lights and stacks of papers. He has spent 28 years accumulating the collection that surrounded him.

“You have authentic personalities among these artists, whether they’re academically trained or self-taught, which is a division we’re trying to overcome,” he said. “I want to show how important the Roma are to Hungarians, to make clear they’re like the rest of us.”

Noble sentiments, and true. But the goal today seems as remote as ever. Meanwhile, Mr. Zsigo’s children are still waiting for their summer camp.

Balkans and Beyond 02/05/08

Čoček, Part I
OR
The History of Čoček, a short course
OR
Čoček through the Ages
OR
Čoček Dance Party

listen here

1. Banka Kyuchek - Ork. Razvei Krachul Plevensko
2. Tepsi Tepsi Findiklar - Luleburgazli Kucuk Hasan ve arkadaslari - Roman Oyun Havasi
3. Kyuchek - Selim - Naj-dobrata zurna vol. III
4. Batino Kolo - Orkestar Ace Novakovica - Najbolji Trubaci Srbije 1
5. Vuckov čoček - Orkestar Bozidara Ajredinovica - Najbolji Trubaci Srbije 1
6. Romski čoček - Duvački orkestar Durmiša Ismailovića - Kad Jeknu Dragačevske Trube (When Dragačevo Trumpets Sound)
7. Volim,volim oci tvoje - Orkestar Bozidara Ajredinovica - Najbolji Trubaci Srbije 1
8. Improvisations - Goran Bregovic
9. Čoček (Bulgarian gypsy) - dunav
11. Ciganski čoček - Esma Redzepova & Ansambl Teodosievski - Romske Pesme
10. Pena - Saban Bajramovic and Mostar Sevdah Reunion - Gipsy Legend
11. Esma čoček - Esma Redzepova - Queen of the Gypsies
12. Apogey - Rumen i Pautalia
13. 6 bez 10 - Orkestar Imperial
14. 2 Deutschmark Kyuchek - Orkestar Imperial
15. Janin čoček - Ferus Mustafov
17. Introduction - (with Orczy Geza) - Besh o Drom - Can't Make Me!
18. Cigansko Oro - (with DJ Mango/Orczy Geza) - Besh o Drom - Can't Make Me!
19. Voi Voi Voi - the Balkan Situations - the Balkan Situations Take Troy (live)

more songs

further information

Monday, February 4, 2008

Two shifts

Hadji Murat will be filling in for Jorge on Pipa de la Paz tomorrow from 5-6 pm. So tune in early to listen to some cumbia, followed by the Free Speech radio news, before experiencing Balkans and Beyond.

By the way, check out Jorge's show every Tuesday, he's cool and knows a heck of a lot more about Colombian music than I do. Actually, he'll be out because he's going to be setting up a gallery opening on Main street which starts at 7 pm, there will be a performance by David Amram, so if you're in the area you might want to check that out (I can't because I'll be in the studio!)

Sunday, February 3, 2008

First Show 01/29/08

both hosts play some of their favorites

listen here (now working!)

Playlist:

1. Прощание славянки (Farewell of Slavjanka) - Vasilii Agapkin
2. unknown Russian rock band (Strakhi Idut?)
3. Ciganica mala - Esma Redzepova - A bre ramce 1979
4. Tsyganka - Vladimir Vysotsky
5. Guitar - Peter Nalitch
6. Bubamara - Emir Kusturica - Black Cat White Cat soundtrack
7. Amikor én még kis srác voltam - Illés
8. Black Eyes - The Tielman Brothers
9. Gankino Horo - Csokolom - Ludo Luda: Fools Fancy
10. Zensko za raka - Macedonian folk dance performed by Zoran Markovski
11. Pusztító - Besh o droM - Macsó Hímzés
12. Jovano, Jovanke - Motion Trio - Pictures from the Street
13. Ajde Jano - Serbian folk tune
14. Csak egy kislány van a világon (Hungarian Drinking Song) / Dianca din Dolj (The Happy Song) - the Balkan Situations - Maybe Middletown
15. Bujar Uka - Valle dasmash
16. Holocaust - Ceza - Crossing the Bridge soundtrack
17. Tatarstan Super Good - СуперАлиса (SuperAlisa)
18. Sallama - Turkish folk tune in psychedelic style
19. Ein neuer Tag - Faust - Ravvivando
20. Toxická - the Plastic People of the Universe - Egon Bondy's Happy Heart's Club Banned
21. Voi Voi Voi - Farmers Market - Speed/Balkan/Boogie

Friday, January 25, 2008

Exiles Return

After an absence of almost 8 months, we are returning to the airwaves! WESU listeners can once again tune in to Black Bread with Little Water and the Balkans and Beyond with Hadji Murat (formerly Move to the Beat with Ali Pasha and Sultan Mahmud).

This season, the shows will both occupy an alternating spot on Tuesday from 6:30-8:00 PM Eastern US Time. In the new format, the (musical) world will be divided into spheres of influence: Little Water will cover northeast Europe and Eurasia (the former Soviet Union) while Hadji Murat will take southeast Europe and Asia Minor (the former Ottoman Empire). Of course, neither of us believe that music should be valued or confined by geographical or cultural boundaries, so these regional definitions will serve more as starting points for further exploration rather than rigid limitations.

The first show will be this upcoming Tuesday, January 29. To get things started, we'll both be on the air picking music out of a mixed bag. Fun!

In the greater Middletown area you can listen at 88.1 FM. Outside CT you can stream live over the web from the WESU website. We will also be maintaining an archive of past shows here.

Thanks for your interest! Please check this site again for announcements about upcoming shows, playlists, guests, live performances etc.