Galicia But Not In Spain

I love this remarkable disk, Night In Galicia as compiled by Vladimir Martynov and performed by Ensemble POSTH and Folk Ensemble D. Pokrovsky. I saw them performing an extract on a fine BBC4 documentary made by Orlando Figes on Russian cultural history and was captivated, not just by some fine looking ladies. The adaptation takes lyrics by Velimir Khlebnikov, a turn of the 19th / 20th century writer and are steeped in ancient Slavic folklore. The music takes the world of Stravinsky's Rite Of Spring and Les Noces and takes it a step further back from art music towards the essential folk roots. That's not to say that this is a pure work of folk music without any artifice, the piece is a contrast between modern instruments and the folkloric singing and the whole produces a wonderful theatrical display of life in a remote village in some timeless past. The region of Galicia has been ruled by many different countries and power blocks and is currently in fact not in Russia but is a western province of Ukraine. The late Dimitri Pokrovsky who founded the folk ensemble called these songs a window into the Russian soul. the disk may not be easy to track down but it will repay any effort made. I wish they'd repeat that tv series too.