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TIME: Almanac 1990s
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<text id=89TT0002>
<title>
Jan. 02, 1989: Voices From Another Time
</title>
<history>
TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
Jan. 02, 1989 Planet Of The Year:Endangered Earth
</history>
<article>
<source>Time Magazine</source>
<hdr>
MUSIC, Page 100
Voices from Another Time
</hdr><body>
<p>A Gypsy band and Bulgarian choir spark unlikely pop interest
</p>
<p>By Jay Cocks
</p>
<p> Score one for mystery. Score two, in fact: one for each
volume of Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares. (Or, The Mystery of the
Bulgarian Voices to you, Rambo.) In 1987 the weirdest album to
appear on the reliably eccentric British pop charts was the
first volume of folk music recorded by this choir of two dozen
Bulgarian women. Journals recorded approving, indeed awed,
comments from the likes of George Harrison. The group caught
on, and a record that had roughly the commercial potential of
Botha: Live in the Transvaal! became a surprise hit. Released
in America by Elektra/Nonesuch, the record attracted so much
attention that the "Voices" went on a warmly received U.S. tour
and issued the second volume, released just a month ago.
</p>
<p> The group does nothing to hide its official name -- the
Bulgarian State Radio and Television Female Vocal Choir -- but
the copy on the label and jacket doesn't exactly brag about it
either. Le Mystere is so much more mellifluous and -- no
getting around it -- mysterious. Just like the music itself, in
fact. The wonder of both Le Mystere excursions is provided by
the range of the voices and the surprise of the melodies. The
music sounds African, Middle European and otherworldly, like a
collision around a sharp mountain turn between Peter Gabriel's
score for The Last Temptation of Christ and Carl Orff's Carmina
Burana.
</p>
<p> Folk traditions of quite another, although not dissimilar,
sort animate a second fluky hit, The Gipsy Kings. The record,
sung in a Gypsyfied merging of Spanish and French, sold well
over a million copies in Europe and interested the intrepid
Elektra in a U.S. release. All members of the same family, the
Gipsy Kings make up a jolly band that combines the sly funk of
salsa and the brio of flamenco with some of the blowout
intensity of rock. The band does have mainstream appeal. The
"adult contemporary" step-uncle of MTV, VH-1, recently chose
the Kings' video of their Bamboleo single for its "Pick of the
Week," and the band is hardly shy around sentiment. Its version
of the French original that was the basis for the
shudder-inducing My Way has enough panache, never mind
schmaltz, to rate a permanent slot on the juke at any local
Irish bar. Right next to the Bulgarian women, more than likely.
</p>
</body></article>
</text>