Customer Reviews

Rough Guide: The Music of Eastern Europe

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This collection was one of the first Rough Guides I wasn't thoroughly impressed by, for various reasons.

Although the tracks were acceptably varied to include different musical dimensions of Eastern Europe, there was a vast amount of terrain left uncovered by this CD. The disc also suffered from a surfeit of brass bands, consequently neglecting many other styles. The problem here is not so much the compilation itself, but the sheer depth and diversity of Eastern European music, the polyglot progeny of a major cultural collision: Turkish, Semitic, Slavic and Hellenic with a dash of Asiatic Magyar thrown in for good measure.
Being of Yugoslavian origin, I am very familiar with Eastern European music and particularly that of Hungary and the Balkans, and can attest to the fact that the tracks barely offer a fleeting glimpse into the immense beauty and variety of this region's musical heritage. Notable omissions include the Hungarian folk ensemble Muzsikas, and indeed any examples of Hungarian/Transylvanian dances or csardas, along with the absence of tambura ensembles from Croatia or Vojvodina (tambura music is among the most exuberant and melodically exquisite of the region, and remains largely unknown in the West), and also the omission of polkas, of which many superb examples can be found in the Czech and Slovenian repertoire. Russian instrumental works, particularly balalaika pieces, were absent, as were the melancholic Islam-flavoured vocals of Bosnia.

The point is, if you enjoyed this CD, great, but this is barely the beginning of the Eastern musical saga, and I urge you to dig deeper and wider in order to really get a feel for the music. Discs I recommend to get you started are The Bartok Album, by Muzsikas; The Incredible Music of the Gypsies, a compilation by Manteca; and Songs and Dances from Croatia, a compilation from Dinaton.

Any CD on which Marta Sebestyen sings first shows exceptional good taste but when she sings in Bulgarian, well that is *really* extraordinairy. She sings "Devoiko Mome" like a native. This CD is jam-packed with the best music that the Balkans have to offer played by the brightest and most talented musicians and singers in the region. The diverse regional styles & variety of instruments played on this CD attests to the fact that "Rough Guide" producers know what they are doing.

This CD has everything: the brass band music of Kocani Orkestar (Macedonia), the cimbalom playing of Kalman Balogh (Hungary)(although it is a Romanian piece he is playing), the beautiful and mysterious voices of a Bulgarian Women's Choir, a Daichovo Oro played by a folk orchestra, Bulgarian wedding music by the master, Ivo Papasov, and last, but not least, my favorite, "The Mountain Pacular" played by Zsaratnok & the ever-talented Nikola Parov. The clarinet improvisations on this track are incredible. Track # 8 amazes me, because although a Polish band, the violin playing is definitely in the Hungarian style, which leads me to believe there was a lot of sharing of music across the borders. This CD is a gem beyond description - dont' pass it up! Erika Borsos (erikab93)

A few months ago I started looking for Roma (Gypsy) music. There were many different collections that I considered buying, such as "Rough Guide:Music of the Gypsies" and Putumayo's "Gypsy Caravan." However, I fell in love with this CD from listening to soundclips online.

The CD opens with the phenomenal track "Devoiko Mome" by Hungarian songstress Marta Sebestyen (the artist who performed such haunting melodies in "The English Patient"). The wooden flute is raw and soulful, the strings have a rough, mourning quality, and combined with Marta's voice this is easily the best track on the album. The rhythm is lilting and soothing even though the tone shifts between melancholy and joyous.

Also featured are the excellent Roma musicians Tarif de Haidouks, and the now-famous "Mystère des voix bulgares" with their unearthly acapella arrangements of traditional folksongs. I am not familiar with the rest of the artists although all of the songs are performed beautifully.

This is an excellent introduction to Eastern European and Roma music for a great price...cheaper than Putumayo's sampler and IMHO with better music to match.

This 1998 selection of music from Eastern Europe, made by the Rough Guide firm and the World Music Network, is a good example of why the World music scene contains as much dross as rich indigenous material. The 15 songs here are taken mainly from the southern eastern Europe (Hungary and the Balkans).

Bulgaria, at the time the most successful and easily marketed Eastern Europe country, is represented by several tracks. Unfortunately, instead of choosing real folk recordings, the compilers as usual took several songs from the "Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares" craze of the late '80s and early '90s. This is not real Bulgarian folk music, but rather Communist-era arrangements that neuter anything strange or different in the village originals. This was music for old pensioners who just sat at home and listened to the state-managed radio all day, and few in Bulgaria actually enjoyed it. There's even gimmickry World music crossover here, with one Bulgarian song being sung by Hungarian chanteuse Marta Sebestyen.

There also are several tracks of "Gypsy" music, though ever since the song-collecting expeditions of Bela Bartok a century ago it's become clear that this isn't authentic folk material, but schmatzy aristocratic tunes filtered down to the poorest levels of society.

Half of the album, however, is quite good. From Romania we get a Taraf de Haidouks track, recorded long before their rise to popularity and support from celebrities like Johnny Depp. It's gives a good picture of Roma village music in the south of that country. Similarly, a track from Russian band Apparatschik gives a foot-stomping tour of popular Russian rock/tango/polka hybrids. And what I found most impressive of all the tracks here was a 1965 recording by Albanian singer Mark Pashku, who plays a lute in an exotic tuning with great viruosity.

The local music scenes of Eastern Europe, from folk to authentically local popular music, are rich and well worth exploring. It's a pity that this disc is taken up by the Bulgarian and "Gypsy" songs that aren't actually representative of the area. The disc can still be a good purchase by those enchanted with this part of the world, though for Bulgaria you'd be better off getting Timothy Rice's book May It Fill Your Soul: Experiencing Bulgarian Music (Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology) which can point you the way.

I agree with the other reviewer that this could be a jumping-off point for a deeper exploration of Eastern European music. It's true that you couldn't possibly feel like you "knew" E. European music after hearing this album, but it will certainly give you enough of a taste to whet your appetite. I'm amazed at the variety and virtuosity that I hear in these 15 tracks. I know that a lot of worthy music was left out, but I feel richer for having heard this selection.