A very strange and very beautiful recording that those Latvian pagan songs in Latgalian language, one of the first Indo-European languages (still spoken in the area), sober and rigorous polyphonies similar to Bulgarian songs, with the recurring use of a drone. A solo of Kokles, a zither close to the Finnish Kantele, reveals a very simple tune looped with a slowly increasing intensity of ornamentation. Some titles where one can hear low and muffled brass sounds, small bells tinklings, also remind of the pastoral roots of this very old music.
Music of Solar Rites
Ensemble Rasa
AUVIDIS Inédit - W260062
• Jana daudzinajums
(praise song to Janis).mp3