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BEFORE THE REVOLUTION: A 1909 RECORDING
EXPEDITION IN THE CAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA BY THE GRAMOPHONE COMPANY
VARIOUS ARTISTS TSCD921
Compilation and text
by Will Prentice
In 1909, the Gramophone Company of London sent one of their recording
engineers on an epic 5,000 mile journey across the southern regions of
the Tsarist Russian Empire. From the Caucasus mountains to the deserts
of Central Asia, Franz Hampe recorded the various cultures and ethnic
groups he encountered.
What resulted was an incredibly intimate view of pre-Soviet life, in the
form of almost 1,200 music recordings. Now, for the first time in over
90 years, a representative sample from the expedition can be heard. The
23 tracks include Caucasian male choirs, classical maqam singers from
Bukhara and the Ferghana Valley, and a nomadic singer from the Kazakh
Steppes, among others.
From Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Chechnya and other culture groups in
the northern Caucasus, as well as Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan and Xinjiang in Central Asia, they were recorded at a point
when few of these names appeared on any map. Digitally remastered and
with extensive liner notes, this CD offers a rare link to a virtually
unknown time, before the Soviet era changed the lives and music practices
of the region for ever.
Remastered from rare 78 rpm discs to give outstanding sound - from nearly
a century ago.
