[ALBSA-Info] Lab Music

[Agron Alibali]

Is there any way the wonderful Lab music can be promoted in the US?  As for Albania, they should consider holding the Gjirokastra Folk Festival every other year (biannually) rather than every 5 years, in order to keep the tradition alive.

 

Independent on Sunday (London) 

January 6, 2002, Sunday 
FEATURES; Pg. 1 

ARTSETC: WHAT DO YOU CALL A CHOIR OF ALBANIAN MEN?; 
 WHY 'WORLD MUSIC' IS NEVER ENOUGH 

Michael Church 




IIn what passes for the town hall of a tiny, dirt-poor village in the mountains of South Albania I'm being serenaded by 11 male singers. Their eyes are either shut, or fixed ecstatically on the ceiling; their music is unlike any I've ever heard before - wild shouts over a rock-hard drone, a massive wash of sound which comes to a halt as abrupt as a precipice. Welcome to the splendour of Lab singing - named after the province of Laberia - which is probably the oldest form of polyphony in existence. Some people think this was what Homer listened to 2,700 years ago. I first came here in 1997, and accidentally heard a snatch of this incredible stuff; it's taken me since then to find the men again, and to persuade them to sing into my recorder. Those who are employed work as lorry-drivers or shepherds; those who are not - and a great many aren't in this lawless part of the world - scratch a hard living any way they can. Occasionally they get a gig, but there are similar choirs also chasing what little work exists; I just wish they could be heard in Britain. 

And I very much wished, when yesterday's Radio 3 World Music Awards were announced, that Lab could have been in the frame, because without question its performers would have deserved a gong. 

But would they have got one? Looking at the magic circle of those who did win, I have a feeling that the Albanians' raw authenticity would have told against them. Great that Cachaito Lopez should have triumphed - and who could deny the pre-eminence of Taraf de Haidouks? - but the other winners all had that international gloss, that charm designed to transcend borders, that has now become the hallmark of successful "world" music. 

Full marks to Radio 3 controller Roger Wright, for yanking his channel in the right direction. But he must beware of world music's commercial embrace. 


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