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ETHNIC MINORITY MUSIC OF NORTHERN VIETNAM

by KINK GONG / SUBLIME FREQUENCIES 2007

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1.
HMONG QEEJ 01:45
2.
HMONG QEEJ 02:26
3.
LU SONG 01:25
4.
5.
HMONG QEEJ 11:06
6.
HMONG SONG 01:27
7.
HMONG QEEJ 04:30
8.
HMONG SONG 06:14
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
MIEN ZAT 02:25
15.

about

CD by SUBLIME FREQUENCIES USA 2007
CD is SOLD OUT

ETHNIC MINORITY MUSIC OF NORTH VIETNAM
1 kheng, mouthorgan of 6 bamboo tubes played by an old black Hmong man , Sin chai village, Sapa. July 2006
2 Kheng, mouthorgan of 6 bamboo tubes played by an old black Hmong man, Sin chai village, Sapa Jjuly 2006
3 Song performed by a Lu woman from Bin Lu province, recorded in Sapa.
4 Chungja, jew s harp performed by a black Hmong woman, used indoor for young boys and girls who express interest in each other in Lao chai village, Sapa. June 2006
5 kheng, mouthorgan of 6 bamboo tubes played by a black Hmong man , for charming a girl in Lao chai village, Sapa. June 2006
6 Hungao, the singing style of the Hmong people sung by Ma, a black Hmong woman, an improvised love song intended for a boyfriend, recorded on a rainy day, by the river in Lao chai village, Sapa. July 2006
7 kheng, mouthorgan of 6 bamboo tubes played by a black Hmong man for Hmong new year in december in Ta phin village, Sapa. May 2007
8 Hungao, sung by May, a black Hmong woman, a love song intended for her boyfriend who lives in a foreign country far away from her, in Sapa. July 2006
9 Pain sing, a bamboo stick with coins performed by a black Hmong man , dancing with the stick and clapping it on his body, in Taphin village, Sapa. May 2007
10Bao zoo, the singing style of the Mien people, performed by 2 red Zao women, called Mien mouat zoo tiemto, to welcome you at night by the fire, in Lao chai village, Sapa. June 2006
11Bao zoo, performed by 4 red Zao women, called Too pouan toy tiemto, to celebrate at the first meeting with someone you like, in Lao chai village, Sapa. June 2006
12Bao zoo, performed by Ly man mei, the local star of bao zoo singing in her community, a solo song called Moo mien zoo, sung only at home to welcome outsiders, in Ta phin village, Sapa.July 2006
13Bao zoo, performed by 2 red Zao women Ly man mei, Dja leu mei and one red Zao man Dja wen wa, a song for appreciating interactions with foreigners, in Ta phin village, Sapa. July 2006
14 Piem zat, reed played by a red Zao man (Mien), for various occasions such as wedding ceremonies, he s fromTa phin village, Sapa. Recorded in the Goethe Institut in Hanoi . March 2007
15 Song performed by a Giay woman, in Lao chai village, Sapa. July 2006

In spring 2006, after some unlucky experiences with amibias and malaria in Cambodia and hot southern Laos, i wanted to go away from really tropical weather and headed north towards China and the Himalaya mountains, but i had to stop in northern Vietnam and find out more about two singing techniques I ve heard previously on a french double cd of CNRS Musee de Lhomme, released in 1997. I used to call those songs ot Giay people ( pronounced Zay) and Dao people (pronounced Zao)<descending singing>They seem to start very high with a long note and then go down scale.
In northern Vietnam, in 2006, not being associated  to any   vietnamese organization,  i had to limit my sound investigations  to  the area around Sapa, where i don t need a permit and where   tourists congregate freely with colorfull  costumed  local  ethnic  minority women . They retain  a very strong cultural  identity, not  only in the way they look but definetely in the  quality of their  music and singing techniques . Some black  Hmongs or red Daos women of the area have  permanent contact  with vietnamese and foreign  tourists, and we could speak english  together. I gave them  cds of  their music I recorded, for their  own pride and  pleasure  and also  for sale  to tourists.
Within the last 10 years, Sapa, at the chinese boarder,   became a popular touristic destination for both vietnamese and   western visitors, basically Sapa has profited from the trend of   ethno tourism and the ethnic minority groups of this area are   appreciated on a visual point of view, for their beautiful   embroderies and costumes; but very few visitors are aware of  their  extraordinary musical patrimony . .  If you look at the development of vietnamese   society, pop culture has eclipsed  most forms of traditional  music,  especially in cities; the traditional  Dao or Hmong societies and  most  ethnic groups around Sapa have not yet been polluted by  commercial vietnamese musical trends and remain, as much as the structure  of their  societies, relatively untouched. The Mien ( YAO for the chinese, called DAO  by the vietnamese ( pronounced ZAO ) or   Man by the french at the time of french colonisation have  arrived  from China as early as the 13th century, they are more  than 2  millions in southern China, more than 500 000 in northern  Vietnam  and several thousands in Laos and northern Thailand.  They have  common origin with the Hmongs, in Guizhou,China, their  language  differ but have common roots, both belonging to the  austro-asian  language family; most of the red DAOS are now at  least bilingual as  they are taught vietnamese at school, the  frequent commercial  exchanges between ethnic groups has  required  the knowledge of one  or several other languages. They  do not have  their own written  system but use chinese  characters, but prononced the dao way, the educated Hmongs also use Chinese characters. The red DAOs have settled down  in mountain  areas,  their houses are build directly on the ground . They have  been  heavily influenced by chinese culture, especially by Taoist   rituals and their social structures are patrilenear and  monogamous,  the married woman leaves  her  family and lives with  the family of  her husband for some years  before the couple is   able to build  their own home . They practise  chamanic transe to  be linked to the  invisible world . The BAOZOO singing  techniques can be responsive  songs , or canon singing where a  leadsinger has  his or her words  repeated with delay,by 1, 2 or 3 singers .  For the instrumental music,  an  oboe (piem zat) seems to be the  essential instrument, solo or  linked to a drum , a pair of  cymbals, and a gong,  used for wedding  and various ritual  ceremonies. This instrument requires circular breathing .
The Hmong also come from China, especially Guizhou, but came more recently, mostly in the 19th century, they fled south and settled down in those mountainous areas.
The Kheng is the predominent instrument of Hmong people, who all over (several millions in southern China, Laos and vietnam) have developped this musical technique , aiming to reproduce the Hungao singing technique, actually every Hmong instrument is aiming at copying the human voice flow. The hmong s jew s harp Chungja is made of simple copper and is used for courting between young boys and girls, also imitating the sound produced by human voice.
The Lu are the most mysterious to me, first I m easily impressed by people who have radical different beauty criterias, their way to blacken their teeth with a thick layer of black stuff makes every smile special, they seem to have been established in north west Vietnam since 12 th century.
The Giay like the Lu or Lao belong to the Tay kadai language group, well established in northern parts of Vietnam and Laos, but emigrated from China 200 years ago. They have 3 styles of singing for different occasions, for feast, for night drinking or to sing farewell to someone.

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released October 1, 2007

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kinkgong Berlin, Germany

Under the name KINK GONG you find 2 activities, the 1st one is to record ethnic minority music mostly in south-east Asia, the 2nd is to transform, collage, recompose the original recordings into experimental soundscapes.

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