Hanoi
Masters (Vietnam) – War Is A Wound, Peace Is A Scar – (Glitterbeat)
LP/CD/DL
30 March 2015
A collection
of songs from Vietnamese musicians.
This is the
sort of album that we should all be educated to listen to. Eleven tracks that were recorded last year by
Grammy award winning producer Ian Brennan as part of an audio document. Labelled as being ‘ recordings of
lesser-known global music traditions’ the album highlights traditional songs
together with tunes that were sung to the troops of the Vietnam War to boost
morale.
Still known
as the ‘American War’ by the musicians, the hurt and pain of the forty year old
memories are still present as we are
taken on a trip through hope, love,
death and loss with voices that are as endemic to Hanoi as are the instruments
that are used.
One
particular ‘find’ was the K’ni, a plucked instrument made up of a single string
that is held between the teeth creating an almost vocoder or Theremin
effect. The Wind Blows It Away by Quoc
Hung whilst only one minute long is a fascinating piece of music and not to be
missed.
To the
outsider, there is a feeling of sadness and regret in the tracks featured
here. Whether it be a lack of literal understanding
or whether it be the tone of the passages is hard to determine, but what is
clear is that everything is sung with emotion and passion.
Heroine Song
contains both male (Xuan Hoach) and female (Vo Van-Anh) vocals, and the
interplay and connection between the two is quite startling. Similarly, Doomed Love tells of a woman’s
youth slowly slipping away with a backing of simple percussion and a mono-chord
instrument called a Dan Bau.
It’s fair to
say that War Is A Wound, Peace Is A Scar maybe isn’t immediately easy listening
for the Western World, but given time and patience it is easy to see its
appeal. Gratitude is performed in the
style of blind artists who used to flit from town to town performing in a way
similar to modern day busking.
At little
under thirty-five minutes, it’s a short album but one that is packed to the
rafters with enough diversity to entertain even the harshest music critic, and
closing with the eight minute Taking Your Spirit To The Next World both
percussion and voice are provided by Pham Mong Hai in a lament said to honour
the death spirit.
Enthralling
stuff indeed.
8.5/10
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Published on Louder Than War 27/03/15 - here
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