In the beginning of May, we would like to take you to the (re)discovery of some titles of our label repertoire.

Our catalog currently include 11 albums produced by us, and represents a rich diversity of musical cultures crossing West Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans and many other corners of the world.

For this first selection, we have chosen 3 titles from the albums Aduna, Doverie and The Encounter of Vocal Heritage:

Tumuranke

Title of the album Aduna, from Malick Pathé Sow and Bao Sissoko, released in 2012.

Tumburanke (the exile) evokes the situation of people who leave their country to save their family from hunger and misery, risking their lives to succeed or to die in the process.  The lucky ones are able to build a new life in another country.  “Multiculturalism is a source of richness, because we are all immigrants in this world.”

Hora de Lala

Läksin Minä

This is one of the totally surprising titles of Voxtra, which brings together musicians and singing traditions from Albania, Sardinia, Finland, Madagascar and Belgium!

While the first verse of Läksin minä comes from folk poetry, the rest was written by Elias Lönrott, the author of the Kalevala, the heroic Finnish national epic that was an important source of inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien. On a summer’s evening a man wanders through nature in search of peace and repose. In the valley he encounters a maiden sitting beside the water in floods of tears. ‘Remember my tears’ (Kujto lotët), thus begins the Albanian song about a pair of lovers whose affair has gone sour. The man sings of his heartbreak.

Bonne écoute!