Devos, Eidel & Les Voix Bulgares De L'Ensemble Radio Sofia – Balkan

There was a time, in the late 1980's, when there was a real hype around Bulgarian female choirs in France. That was due to Swiss businessman and musicologist Marcel Cellier's decade-long obsession with promoting this specific Bulgarian folk tradition. A gorgeous-looking compilation released on Phonogram eventually made it trendy in 1989. It would do very well with that specific demographic of teachers and cultural workers.

That same year, Philippe Eidel, very aware of what was cool and what wasn't (he was in charge of the sound design for hip new TV channel Canal+), wrote a soundtrack for Enki Bilal's directing debut with his musical collaborator, Arnaud Devos. As the film was set in some URSS-like dystopia, they quite naturally started working with Radio Sofia's female choir.

Published under the name "Balkan", this soundtrack for Bunker Palace Hotel is a pure product of its time, and a very consistent achievement from two very capable musicians, producers and arrangers. It blends effortlessly (sometimes very French-sounding) electronic sounds of 1989 with distinctive sounding and presumably hard to tame Bulgarian choirs.

I can't think of any similar experience in France, and can only compare it with Geinoh Yamashirogumi's groundbreaking Ecophony/Akira series or Kenji Kawai's OST for Ghost In The Shell. Bunker Palace Hotel's soundtrack is less epic in nature than the aforementioned Japanese works, but shares with them this eerie fantasy of a primitive animistic earth folk sound. It also shares with those Japanese LPs a path that alternates between martial rhythm-driven tunes and contemplative moments, culminating with the radiant final song, Bela Sam Bela Unate, the only genuinely traditional Bulgarian song. Warmest recommendation. (VG+/VG+)

Tracklist

1. Cri Mi Zvezdi
2. Klara
3. Zabranena Pesen
4. Gospodi Pomiluj
5. Dora
6. Balkan Hotel
7. Klara
8. Holm
9. Bela Sam Bela Unate