Giriama Wedding
I originally found this track on a CD entitled Secret Society Music Of Cameroon. I had raced out to buy the CD after an instructor played me this track in class- I was in awe of the reed horn used...a completely strange and alien sound...just the timbre of it and the odd scale. But I was a bit broke at the time and I returned the CD next day after making a shitty cassette dub and forgetting to write down the track listing and information.
Perhaps my memory is foggy of the CD I purchased- but I only found this track again recently on Soulseek under the Nonesuch Explorer Series of Witchcraft And Ritual Music Of East Africa...a completely different region than Cameroon (on the other side of Africa). If the tracklisting is correct, this recording is from the Giriama region of Kenya and it is a song played for a wedding ceremony. The rhythm is provided by a kayamba, a rattle-type instrument made of reeds and filled with seeds and pebbles. The horn? Anyone know?
Kayamba Dance Giriama Wedding (mp3)
Pictured above are Giriama dancers in mid jump...found on ye' ol' interwebs.
posted by Gregory Jacobsen at 10:45 AM
4 Comments:
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HELLo...
It's called a bung'o horn. On the track after the one you've posted, the same instrument is played, except an extension has been added so the pitch is lower...
KPC
Kinda neat how a completely organic, home-made instrument can sound so much like a "retro" lo-fi synthesizer voice.
lovely...i once owned a record called Music of the Golden Triangle that was like this.
thanx.
m.
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