My Concert Choir recently did a concert with Bulgarian and Georgian folk music. All the pieces were really pretty, and I think the style is just very cool and distinct. The ideal sound quality that we were supposed to strive for was a bright, forward, and not too nasally, which is so different from the typical full and soothing choir sound of the Western tradition. We did many other awesome pieces, but I have recordings of just two of them, done by groups which specialize in that type of music.

Dumaj, Zlato:

The title roughly means "Speak up, Zlato". The song is in the perspective of a boy is courting a girl, telling her to speak to her mother so that he can have her hand in marriage. The lyrics of these folk songs tended to be really cute and sweet.

Oh, and since blogger does not yet allow audio files to be uploaded I made a video. If anyone's curious, the picture is of a piece of seaweed from some beach in Taiwan.

Erghen Diado:

Personal favorite. Actually I think it was pretty much most peoples' favorite. The end has got to be one of the coolest parts of any choir piece I've ever heard!

CLARA C

So! I saw Clara C perform tonight. For those of you who haven't heard of her, she's a quirky manic-pixie-dreamgirl of a singer-songwriter who's really gone places in the past year--she won Kollaboration 10 and performed at the White House in May.

Also, She's ADORABLE. Seriously, if you ever get the chance to see her perform, go! To use an awkwardly composed simile, watching her perform is like having a guitar-and-trumpet-and-xylophone-etc.-playing sunbeam bounce into your life.

["Offbeat" - Clara C]

Among all the instruments I just mentioned, she also plays that Casio keyboard thing attached to tubing that you see in this video... which I cannot identify. Any guesses?

ETA: Google Search and an obscure New Zealand store's site tells me it's some sort of mouth organ!

["Use Somebody + Fallin' For You" - Clara C]

This cover really shows how pretty her voice is, I think.

Oh. And. Did I mention she teaches autistic kids? It's unfair how perfect she is.

Florence + Nicole

I cannot get over this song. This girl's voice blows me away.

["Heavy In Your Arms" - Florence + the Machine]

Gorgeous and haunting. The only thing I could possibly say against it is that it's on the Eclipse soundtrack... but let's be honest here. Twilight might be a laughably bad franchise, but the movie soundtracks are pretty great.

Nicole Atkins' voice has a similarly smoky, mysterious quality to it. This probably isn't the best song to showcase that; it's really peppy compared to some of her other work but I caaaan't stop listening to it.

I also just love this video. I want to hang out with every one of these people. (And I want Nicole's dress.)

["Maybe Tonight" - Nicole Atkins]

Also, aren't the lyrics to this song beautiful?