World Music Album Reviews

Scythian Horn - Ritual

I wasn't sure what to expect when a package arrived from Sibera of all places. I've heard some bits and pieces over the years, but never a whole album, so it was quite a novelty to open the package and find inside a double CD called Ritual which appears to be sent to me by the "Slavonic Ethno-band", Vedan Kolod - who have a track on the album.

This complication album was put together by the cultural fund, Scythian Horn, a Siberian CD label who have put out several compilations such as Slavs. Part 1 which contains a mixture of music from Croatia, Serbian, Ukraine and Russian amongst other places.

Now, New-age Pagan-folk music is not normally my cup of tea, but I was pleasantly surprised by Ritual. The first piece, Selezen by Evgenii Buntov opens with a wooden flute and harp with a few background waterfall noises - pretty but nothing new. The second track, U nas nyne features several women singing in harmony that reminds me of Ukrainian music.

Track 5 of the first CD is my favorite - I'm a sucker for throat singing of any kind and the The Birch on the Sea by Vedan Kolod is great!! There are overtones of traditional Siberian Shamanic ritual in the piece - if you like these sorts of sounds, you might also enjoy listening to the Shamanic music of Lapland.

The first CD finishes up with two up-tempo pieces by Russian band Skolot who play their own compositions on folk instruments such as Bagpipe and Zhaleika - a Russian single-reed woodwind instrument.

While the first CD is primarily Russian bands, the second CD features a mix of other nations such as USA, Chili, England and Belgium.

Though similar in style to the first CD of the set, I'm not so sure it's as cohesive - there's a similarity of sounds in the various Russian bands - and a darker overtone to the music, whereas the second CD includes everything from Panpipes to Tabla.

The standout piece on the second CD is Track 9 - The Flight of the Arrows, by Russian composer Alexey Kravchenko.

I think that if you like New-age music and you're after something a little edgier than usual and something a bit more diverse than usual then you would enjoy listening to Ritual. Whichever way, Sychthian Horn are doing a great thing by bringing all this music to a broader public and I look forward to keeping track of their other projects in the future!

> Find out more about Scythian Horn cultural fund and Ritual CD

Vedan Kolod - Веданъ Колодъ - на горе мак