Le Mystère des Voix Serbe

Serbian Folk Music
The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
RTB Records, 2510057, Belgrade, 1981

That the unique brand of polyphonic singing that entranced the world since 1988 didn't solely belong to Bulgarian state choirs has become clear to me since my record collection of Eastern European traditional music has stretched well beyond the iconic Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares. All throughout the Balkan and well into Russia examples can be found of groups of singing women (and men as well) in that same spellbinding style that won The Bulgarian State Television Female Choir all those music awards in the early 90s. Case in point is this Serbian Folk Music album I picked up at the Kiwanis Thrift Store in Cape Coral, it is one that could be considered authentic. You know it's authentic when you hear side B open with a shepherd woman calling to a group of young women on another hill in another part of the village, you can hear the sheep too. But for the song of this week I chose a song by two groups of three women, all in their fifties and sixties, and all from the village of Gornji Krčimir near Niš. It's a harvest song called Граδајте, Да граδамо that translates as "You grasp a big bunch, and we do too".