Various - Burundi: Musiques Traditionnelles

Ocora - LP

France, 1968 (1983 pressing)

Field Recordings / Traditional / Experimental

No matter how much I love this record, I can't ignore the colonial ghost hovering over most of these seminal Ocora recordings. I'm definitely not the most qualified to elaborate on the bounds between state-funded ethnomusicologist programs and (post-)colonial policies but they can't be neglected. There's something particularly ominous in these recordings, made a few months after the Burundi revolution that put an end to German and Belgian colonisation, and only a few years before the first Hutu genocide.

The diversity of the music released on this LP is a short, but gorgeous testimony of the region's ancestral musical diversity. It highlights the variety of singing traditions, starting with François Muduga's mind-blowing "Chant Avec 'Inanga'", followed by "Ubuhua" and "Akazéhé" - female-lead greeting and mourning songs. It also includes some instrumental pieces, like the closing "ingoma" drumming piece or that beautiful zither solo... every recording is sonically outstanding. Can't stress enough how amazing this record is, and I'm not even talking about its historical importance. Essential. (VG+/VG very clean record, sleeve shows sign of age)