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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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010289
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01028900.002
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1990-09-22
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MUSIC, Page 100Voices from Another TimeA Gypsy band and Bulgarian choir spark unlikely pop interestBy Jay Cocks
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.
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.
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.