The Mystery Of The Bulgarian Voices featuring Lisa Gerrard,
‘BooCheeMish’ the new album out 25.05.18
CD / DACD / 2xCD ARTBOOK /
VINYL / COMPLETE BOX SET
[Prophecy Productions]
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HEAR THE MUSIC.
includes the single ‘Pora Sotunda’ video
“An essential listen for everybody who misses 4AD’s ethereal salad days in the
mid-1980’s, or anybody whose spine tingles at the thought of ‘sonic cathedrals’
“An incantatory slice of geousness that sweeps you away” SONGLINES
Prophecy Productions is proud to present the coming together of some of the most exquisite vocalists
on earth. The legendary female choir The Mystery Of The Bulgarian Voices is set to release its first
album of new material in twenty years together with iconic Australian singer Lisa Gerrard, whose own
style was strongly influenced by the ensemble.
‘BooCheeMish’ fuses traditional Bulgarian folklore choir singing and contemporary arrangements,
incorporating stringed and percussive instruments and even Bulgarian artist SkillR’s beatboxing.
The album is released worldwide on 25th May in five different configurations, which are all available
to order now at prophecy.de
The Mystery Of The Bulgarian Voices will release their first album of new studio recordings in over two
decades in late May. Better known to many as Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, ‘BooCheeMish’ sees the
esteemed Bulgarian choir performing together with erstwhile 4AD Records label mate Lisa Gerrard
(co-founder of the duo Dead Can Dance) on several tracks, thereby uniting two of the most
distinctive vocal acts working in music.
The majority of the songs on ‘BooCheeMish’ are written, arranged and produced by Petar Dundakov.
While some of his tracks are fully original pieces, others are based on folklore songs and dances with
original material added. Gerrard’s contributions are co-written with Jules Maxwell, a musician with
whom she has worked for several years. Gerrard, who is also well known for her movie soundtrack
work on films such as ‘Gladiator’ and ’The Insider’, has often spoken about the influence the choir
exerted on her singing technique when she discovered their music in the early 1980’s.
In successfully connecting Bulgarian folklore with other traditions and cultures, the album manages
to retain the unique identity of the voices, vocal styles and techniques of the individual choir
members, even when allying them with acoustic accompaniment such as stringed instruments and
various types of percussion, including beatbox.
World music before the term even existed, ’Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares’ was a compilation album of
modern arrangements of Bulgarian folk songs featuring the Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female
Vocal Choir. Comprised of timeless melodies and rich, eerie harmonies enhanced by the open-throated
vocal technique employed by the ensemble, this pure, distinctive music was originally recorded on a
number of field trips made to the former Eastern Bloc country by the Swiss musicologist and producer
Marcel Cellier and eventually self-released with its French title in 1975.
The album found some famous admirers, including Paul Simon, Sandy Denny, Frank Zappa,
members of Crosby, Stills & Nash and The Grateful Dead. However, like much music from outside the
traditional Western rock-pop world, it had largely been forgotten until, over a decade later, it was
reissued by the 4AD label and reached a brand new audience already enchanted by the superlative,
other-worldly voices of their existing signings Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins) and Lisa Gerrard (Dead
Can Dance). A second volume was released on 4AD in 1988 and went on to win a Grammy for Best
Traditional Folk Recording.
Under the direction of Dora Hristova, the choir has performed over 1250 concerts outside its home
territory since the late 80’s in some of the most prestigious venues in the world. Choir members have
also worked with or been sampled by artists as diverse as Kate Bush, U2 and Drake.
Once described as “the marriage of the avant-garde and the Middle Ages”, the magic of the ensemble
stems from its success in mastering Bulgaria’s diverse, age-old vocal traditions while simultaneously
sounding strikingly modern and original, thanks to the unique choral music structure – multi-part a
cappella arrangements that transform its collective sound into strange colours as if something other
than the human voice is being heard. Hristova describes it as “a natural, piercing sound for the
outdoors to carry across the fields or from hilltop to hilltop. The sound is created in the larynx and
resonates in the chest. It requires great pressure of the breath to create the sound and you must be
very strong to sing in this fashion.”
“The ‘mystery’ is in just how they combine diaphonic singing and dissonant harmonies to produce a
breathtaking, otherworldly sound somewhere between the Muslim call to prayer and the Beach Boys”
THE GUARDIAN
Prophecy Productions is a label of the SPKR Label Group
Contact Gary Levermore at Red Sand PR for further information.
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