Laver Bariu ~ Songs from the City of Roses [Globe Style]

01. Vitori May Your Mother Be Blessed
02. I'll Love You as Long as I Live
03. I'll Take a Gun and Go Hunting
04. Pogonishte Permetare
05. Little Leaf
06. Our Bride in the Dance
07. Lokum With Sugar
08. Dance of Tirana
09. Oh Dear, Bad Raki
10. Old Women's Dance
11. The Many Petalled Rose/O Basil
12. The Permet Bagpipe
13. Emigration Song-Weep, Maro
14. The Face Smiles



Usta Laver Bariu : clarinet, voice, leader
Lefter Nurka : accordion, voice
Ifran Ponoçi : llaute, voice
Ilir Durralliu : second clarinet, voice
Alban Zeqiri : def, voice
Drini Kanani : singer (male)
Evgjeni Culli : singer (female)

Rec. in Përmet, Albania
16 & 17 April 1994

Laver Bariu is arguably the best known Albanian clarinetist of the last half century and an important figure in the development of urban folk music in the south-eastern Albanian region of Toskëria. Born in the southern town of Përmet, Laver was exposed to Përmeti folk music traditions from a young age via his father Bari Nurka, a well known local singer and llautë player. As a youngster he resorted to making his own instruments from any handy materials that he could find and his keenness and passion for music did not go unnoticed by his father. In 1935 the family moved to the eastern town of Korçë, at that time a vibrant and important centre of Tosk Albanian music and culture. Here he mingled with a far wider selection of singers and musicians and gained his first experience of playing in different groups and ensembles.

By the time his family returned to Përmet in 1944, Laver was ready to begin a full-time career as a musician and band leader. He played llautë with Vangjel Leskoviku's ensemble for a year or so before forming his own ensemble. Despite inevitable changes in personnel this ensemble remained active for the next six decades. Along with the Lela Family, Laver Bariu was largely responsible for promoting the Përmet style of urban folk music to the point where it has almost come to symbolise Tosk folk music in general.

He has been recorded several times by Radio Tirana and has also appeared on Albanian television. Foreign engagements were understandably restricted but following the collapse of Communism Laver Bariu was able to record a couple of CDs for labels based outside of Albania, one of which - Songs From the City of Roses - was widely available in the West, having been recorded in Përmet by Ben Mandelson in 1994.

There are two central points for this recording, each inseparable yet distinct. One is the instrumental music, which has echoes of the Balkans, Greece, southern Italy, and the Middle East. This is the music of clarinetist Laver Bariu and his ensemble of accordion, reeds, and percussion. The second element is the singing, a true polyphonic style, with multiple singers moving freely and apart above a single droning voice. The combination is quite unique, with instruments and voices improvising and mimicking one another, creating complex and rich sounds. There are moments where the drone of the accordion and the wail of the clarinet create a soaring, modern sound, only to be pulled down to rich earthiness by the voices. Recorded by the Globestyle team in 1994, these live-to-digital recordings are wonderful documents of a remarkable musique. Laver Bariu was appointed an 'Artist of Merit' in 1979.

320 thx to espilos

Albanie: Polyphonies Vocales et Instrumentales ~ recordings by Bernard Lortat-Jacobs & Beniamin Kruta, 1983-88

C.N.R.S.-Musée de l'homme, LDX 274897
LE CHANT DU MONDE, 1988
Enregistrement Bernard Lortat-Jacob en collaboration avec Beniamen Kruta 1983-1988

01 What Have Ianina's Eyes Seen ~ Albanian Men's group from Vlorë
02 Legend Of The Walled-In Woman ~ Albanian Men's group from Vlorë
03 At The Peshkëpi Pass ~ Men's Choir from Tepelene
04 Song for Odriçan ~ Men's Choir from Tosk
05 For Freedom And The Flag ~ Men's Choir from Tosk
06 By The Riverside ~ Men's choir from Tosk
07 May You Live As Long As This Earth ~ Choir from Gjirokaster
08 Konofat's Song ~ Women's Choir from Permet
09 Song Of Emigration ~ Women's Choir from Permet
10 Kaba ~ Gypsy musicians from Tosk
11 Kaba preceding a dance ~ Gypsy musicians from Tosk
12 Carter Leading The Caravan ~ Women's Choir from Permet



'Until very recent times the folk music of Albania has remained, even to the specialists, more obscure than the songs of the Eskimos or the highlanders of New Guinea" (Lloyd 1968). So wrote British folklorist A. L. Lloyd in 1968. Twenty years later, scholars outside Albania know little more about that country's music as there continues to be a scarcity of both recordings and writings in languages other than Albanian. The release on the Chant du Monde label of a compilation devoted entirely to music from southern Albania should therefore attract considerable interest among ethnomusicologists. This is the first scholarly release of vocal music from Albania to be issued since Lloyd's recording on Topic (1966). It includes ten examples of polyphonic singing, as well as two instrumental improvisations, all recorded with excellent clarity and balance by Bernard Lortat-Jacob and colleagues from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the Ministere des Relations Extkrieures of France. All performers had participated in 1983 in the National Folkloric Festival in the city of Gjirokaster and so may be assumed to be among the most highly regarded singers and instrumentalists within their districts. Their highly polished, often spectacular renditions represent something close to an ideal for the styles of their respective areas. Albanians distinguish two major subdivisions among themselves: Ghegs in the north of the country, Tosks in the south. While most Gheg music is monophonic, the singing and instrumental music of Tosk communities is in a variety of polyphonic styles. This release focuses specifically on Tosk polyphony, presenting songs in two out of three of the major regional styles. One of these, known as the 'Lab' style [Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 7], is found in the districts of Vlore, Tepelene, Gjirokaster, and Sarande, and it generally features two to three soloists plus a syllabic drone sung by a group. Songs are homophonic in texture and closely resemble those of Greeks from the Pogoni district of Epirus. In contrast, the 'Tosk' style [Nos. 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10] features two soloists whose lines overlap and interweave above a choral drone sung to a vowel sound. This style is found in the region extending north of the Lab region to the river Shkumbin, as well as among Tosks.

Yugoslavia, and is shared with some Slavic and AromAn communities in the same region.' The two instrumental selections [Nos. 11 and 12] are also from the 'Tosk' region. They are both of the genre kaba,a type of nonmetric improvisation paralleling the Epirut Greek 'miroloi' that is performed most often by Gypsy musicians. Lamentably the three women's songs are all from the same area within the 'Tosk' region, and they are in much the same style. The disc therefore provides a much better introduction to the range of men's singing styles in southern Albania than of women's' ~
Ethnomusicology: Journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology no. 34 ed. 3 pg. 488