Track Listing

1. Nov Den (A New Day)
2. Polegnala E Toudora (Todora's Dream)
3. Pilentze Pee (A Bird Is Singing)
4. Kalimanko Denko (Grandmother Denka)
5. Triptih (Three Customs)
6. Utopia
7. Begala e Vena (Vena Has Run Away)
8. Mechmetio
9. Sestro Dobriano (Sister Dobriana)
10. Jano, Hubavo Jano (Yana, Beatiful Yana)
11. Trista Pushki (Three Hundred Rifles)
12. Zavesata Pada (The Curtain Falls)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15887 in Music
• Released on: 2000-10-10
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Amazon.com's Best of 2000
What makes this recording so special is that it's the choir's first opportunity to showcase their virtuoso vocals in a finely recorded setting where solos rebound in sorrowful echoes and the ethereal power of the 20 women resounds. The new songs from Eddie Jobson melt into the Bulgarian folk tradition seamlessly and though a complex melancholy permeates the album, Voices of Life ends up being just what its title says. --Karen K. Hugg

Amazon.com
After listening to the Bulgarian Women's Choir one might think Bulgaria is the most wondrous country on the planet. And in some ways it is. Geographically it lies where the origins of the Western musical scale developed, but the music made there was isolated for centuries after the Eastern Orthodox Church split from the Roman Catholic Church. The result is a choral ensemble such as BWC, whose sound is born somewhere between the medieval Byzantine church and the Eastern European mountains. While the vocals are piercing and plaintive, they're also heavenly and childlike, and this is the complex beauty of the Bulgarian Women's Choir.

Recorded in 1999 for a forthcoming documentary, Voices of Life beautifully displays the ensemble's bold harmonics, wavering tonality, and yodel-like whooping. The effect is chilling when the pitch drastically fluctuates under their masterful throat control, as on "Pilentze Pee," or when the sorrow explodes forth via a soloist, as on "Kalimanko Denko." Unlike the collaboration with Africa's Ray Lema or the electronic dance treatment of From Bulgaria with Love, this collaboration with writer-producer Eddie Jobson is not a miss. In fact, it's a direct hit, thanks to Jobson's deep understanding of and respect for this style of Bulgarian music. Listen, and be amazed. --Karen K. Hugg

Customer Reviews

Stunning, instantly-accessible beauty.
Some of the most beautiful, haunting sounds ever made. The first two "Mysteres Des Voix Bulgares" albums were very poorly recorded, to the point where it interfered with enjoyment of the music, but this recording is quiet and transparent as crystal.

There is still far too little of the vast Bulgarian repertoire available in the West, so it is somewhat a shame that they chose here to re-record several of the same songs from the first two albums. However, it still richly deserves its five stars.

If you don't have the first two "Mystere" albums (or the out-of-print and surprisingly poor third album), this is certainly the one to start the re-education of your ears -- they will eternally thank you.

Some world music crossover gimmickry, and what's more authentic has been recorded elsewhere.
When recordings of the Bulgarian State Television and Radio Female Vocal choir reached the West in the late 1980s under the name "Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares", a fad was sparked by the enchanting voices of some twenty women. Sure, this was not authentic folk music, but rather polished Communist-era arrangements, but the unusual singing techniques and strangely sexy dissonances was a pleasant surprise to music listeners abroad. The Bulgarian Women's Choir Angelite ("The Angels") continues this style of Bulgarian music for Western ears, and their album VOICES OF LIFE is mainly a series of Voix Bulgares staples. Three tracks (1, 3, and 6), however, have a different provenance, for former Yes performer Eddie Jobson worked with Angelite toward some material for a future album, and some of the results are here.

Much of the more traditional material here has been recorded elsewhere, and usually with better performance and/or production. "Polegnala e Todora", the faux folksong written by Philip and Maria Koutev, has strange reverb which was probably meant to give the song a more ethereal feel, but really just dilutes the power of the voices. "Pilentze Pee" is played at a much more languid pace than the legendary version on "Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares", with unexciting results. The one track I was happy with here is "Begala e Vena", which contains some thrilling vocal effects reminiscent of "Djore dos" from the "Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares Vol. 2". The three Jobson tracks are simply horrible, and totally incongruent with the rest of the album. Essentially, they are long, meandering synthesizer works with the Bulgarian vocals and instrumentation overlayed. "Nov Den" would have worked great had it consisted only of choir and gaida, but the cheesy keyboard playing ruins it all. On "Utopia", the Bulgarian singers are so low in the mix that even that part of the performance is difficult to enjoy.

If you enjoyed "Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares", and I imagine most people considering this album do, do yourself and the Bulgarian musical tradition a favour and begin seeking out more authentic folk music recordings. Nonesuch has two, one a Communist-era work that is closer to the real folk tradition, and the other a thrilling set of ethnomusicological gatherings. The lesser production on VOICES OF LIFE is disappointing, and the modern cross-over gimmickry of the Jobson tracks is culturally vacuous.

From Bulgaria with Orpheus's Touch
What a CD? I was exploring deeper into other cultures when I came across this CD newly placed on the shelf. I remembered Bulgarian music as one of the most unique. After listening, I felt as if I had no need to acculturate myself with the Bulgarian culture any further. The music comes from the ancient land of Thrace, where the mythical musician Orpheus was said to have originated. This has been the first foreign adventure into cultural music since 2001 and I have found a new addition to foreign music. The women's choir has the ability to bring a chilling mood to its listeners evoking the world of color, beauty, harmony, and religion. A song such as Polegnala E Toudora has the ability to sooth its listeners as well as other tracks. This music comes from Bulgaria with the touch of Orpheus; thus, nothing negative can come about of this music.