Echoes of the Forest

Re-uploaded by request 04/18/2014.

 

During the Musick around the World journey, while in Central African Republic, I posted up some Ba-Benjellé  Pygmie traditional music recorded by amateur musicologist Louis Sarno. I mentioned two books on the Ellipsis Arts label that contained CDs of more of this music: Echoes of the Forest: Music of the Central African Pygmies & Bayaka: The Extraordinary Music of the Ba-Benjellé Pygmies. Regular NSS visitor, commenter, & fellow Bay Arean roberth queried back in April if I had either. I have Echoes but it took me until now to find it. My books are filed even worse than my vinyl.

Well, Rocket Horton – King of Appliances, this one's for you.

This collection, which calls attention to a people currently engaged in a battle against extinction, preserves forever the rarely heard & surprisingly accessible rhythms of the songs of the Ba-Benjellé Pygmies.

This CD is packaged in a beautiful 64 page full color hard-cover book filled with pictures, cultural information, poems, musical insight & conversations with outsiders who have lived with these people & recorded their music. I am sad to say that the company that originally put this out is no longer in business & this project is out of print. I have included scans of the book itself.

The 18 tracks on the CD were recorded between the 50s to the 90s by Colin Turnbull, Jean-Pierre Hallet, & Louis Sarno.

For the Pygmies of the Ituri rainforest in Central Africa, music is as much a part of their lives as waking, eating, & breathing; their vocal-based music resonating in exquisite harmony with the environment. Through the eyes & ears of these three extraordinary men, Echoes of the Forest reveals an intimate portrait of perhaps the most culturally musical people on earth.

Colin Turnbull's anthropological work in the late 50s through the 60s revolutionized Western thinking about Pygmy culture. His field notes & recordings of Pygmy music are among the first & the finest.

Jean-Pierre Hallet grew up at the edge of the Ituri & was befriended by the Efe Pygmies as a child. Through The Pygmy Fund, he has helped them stand firm against forces encroaching upon their forest homeland.

New Jersey native Louis Sarno heard a Pygmy song on the radio & his life changed forever. A one-way ticket took him to Central Africa where some thirty years later, he still lives & records.

In his own words, Sarno sez:

"They wanted to show me more than they usually show outsiders. In exchange, they demanded I give my life...I think it is a fair exchange."

 

Echoes of the Forest: Music of the Central African Pygmies, Ellipsis Arts 4020, 1995.
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Tracklist –

Men's Elephant - Hunting Song

Girls' Echo Song

Peipa (Girl's Initiation)

Honey-Gathering Song

Women's Wedding Song

Net-Hunting Song

Méli-é

Bow-Harp & Vocal

Ikobi (Gathering Song-version 1)

Ikobi (version 2)

One-string Violin

Lote (notched flute)

Sanza (plucked Idiophone, or 'thumb piano')

Birth Celebration

Geedal

Mangissa

Ejengi Ceremony

Makuse (Music to bring luck to a hunting camp)

Enjoy,

NØ