Skip to main content

Albania and the Balkans - Sound Waves to Please the Soul


The countries represented in this playlist have a fraught history of ever-changing political boundaries and warring factions, not unlike most regions of the world. What has remained as a constant is the beauty and strength of their musical expressions. See more below >>>


Al compás del mundo #184, 6-12-25 – Albania and the Balkans


01 Kocani Orkestar - Papigo (Macedonia)

02 Vellezerit Aliu - Keq Kur Tkam (Albania)











03 King Ferus Mustafov - Staro Cunovo Oro Velesko Oro (Macedonia)

04 Shaqir Cervadiku - Albumi Im (Albania)

05 Eli Fara - Cupeze Beqare (Albania)

06 Angele Dimovski Kavalsko - Oro (Macedonia)

07 Fatime Sokoli - Ka lidh besen Shqiptaria (Albania)

08 Dunja Knebl - Klincec Moj Zalosten (Croatia)

09 Bekhit Fahim - Gusta mi magla padnala (Kosovo)

10 Ivana and Isadora Cantrach - Жали Заре (Macedonia)

11 King Ferus Mustafov - Turska Igra (Macedonia)

12 Ethno Group Trag - Врбице, врбо зелена (Serbia)

13 Belo Platno - Udade se Zivka Sirinicka (Kosovo)

14 Kosturchanki - Sobrale mi se nabrale (Macedonia)

15 Карађорђе - Седам сати удара (Serbia)

16 Grupa Iskon - Goranine cafanine (Serbia)

>>> So, I’m not so sure what to say about the make-up of this week’s program other than it meets with my whole-hearted approval. I’m no specialist in the music of this sizable region in eastern Europe, but I know what I like, and the steadfast, heartbreaking, heroic, playful, joyous and sorrow-filled sounds of Balkan music fill my cup to running over. I want to go join a folkdance troupe when I listen to King Ferus Mustafov; Ethno Goup Trag reminds me of the famed female choirs of Bulgaria and other nearby regions; as a country that for decades remained purposely isolated from the rest of the world (and perhaps because of this), Albania has retained its musical traditions better than most. I regret not having a better understanding of where this music has come from and I wish I understood the lyrics and the historic-cultural contexts. 

Reminds me of a time back in the late 1970’s when I was asked to DJ a multicultural event on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. One of the DEI choices I played was by an Iranian singer that, to me, had the voice of a nightingale, over a haunting musical score. Shortly in, I was rushed by a group of Iranian male students demanding I stop the music because “She is a whore of the Shah.” Little did I know I was promoting anti-revolutionary rhetoric by way of popular music I couldn’t possibly have understood – other than as soundwaves, soundwaves that soothed or teased and most definitely pleased the soul.  But music has that power, of course. If I’ve dismissed or insulted anyone with the inclusion of one song or another in this program, I plead ignorance. But it’s great music, no? - JH


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Guitarras del mundo

  Choosing music and writing about “the guitar” opens many doors. I could have gone off in any number of directions and with a singular narrow focus - but I didn’t. Instead, I threw a whole bunch of varied tunes against a wall to see which ones stuck. Sometimes there’s a continuity and other times none: just two aesthetically pleasing pieces that worked well in tandem and, hopefully, were preceded and followed with similar morsels. Usually, that is how these programs come together. I receive a divinely inspired revelation for a certain theme, region, or style of music and build it from there. Baden Powell, Brazilian beatnik poet and guitar master, seemed to me an obvious choice to begin the program. From there (as you can well see) we stick around Latin America a bit; segue into Spain, notorious as a guitar hotbed; head South to North Africa for the venerable Bombino (yes, again!) and more of that desert blues ilk; logically morph into a short blues set and settle at the bottom sid...
Post a Comment
Read more

Electric Chicago blues

  Al compás del mundo Run List   #172, 3-20-25 - electric Chicago blues   01 James Cotton - Love Me or Leave Me 02 Sonny Boy Williamson - Wake Up Baby 03 Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers - Wild About You, Baby 04 Howlin Wolf - You'll Be Mine 05 John Lee Hooker – Louise 06 Junior Wells - Snatch It Back and Hold It 07 Koko Taylor - Wang Dang Doodle 08 Little Walter - I Don't Play 09 Jimmy Rogers - Walking by Myself 10 J.B. Lenoir - Don't Dog Your Woman 11 Otis Rush - Keep on Loving Me Baby 12 Muddy Waters - I Can't Be Satisfied 13 Sunnyland Slim - Shake It 14 Walter Horton - It's Alright 15 Buddy Guy - When My Left Eye Jumps 16 Magic Sam - She Belongs to Me 17 Johnny Young - Cross-Cut Saw 18 Eddie Boyd - Third Degree 19 Willie Dixon and Friends - I Cry for You   Got to feature the blues from time to time on Al compás del mundo as there seems to be a shortage of such on Mexican radio. Although RadioactivaTX.org, the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

India y Nepal y Tibet

W here a human voice is heard in today’s program it’s often starkly different from what most Westerners might find pleasing and melodic.  But I must remind my listeners that the West probably did not invent the concept of vocalizing as accompaniment to plucked/blown/percussed musical instruments. Why do we sing in the style that we do? I imagine there are knowledgeable tomes wrestling with that idea. I ’ve read that vocals were meant to imitate the sounds made by instruments...or vice versa? The chicken or the egg? I’m not here to answer that question, in spite of the college course I had taken of “Music Cultures of the World” decades ago. What I offer is the opportunity to pay attention to and digest musical expressions performed by people steeped in the traditional ways of their culture.  T here is a geographic component to lumping together India, Nepal and Tibet as the Himalayas served to isolate and circumscribe the peoples of those northern regions. But here’s where I fud...
Post a Comment
Read more