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Korova

'A Distant Echo'

Musicians:
Milyo Kepchelev - voice, tambura
Antim Nalbantov - voice, tambura
Milyo Kelchev - voice, tambura
Tsanko Kelchev - voice, tambura
Mitko Dedov - tarambouka

Label - Kuker Music
Released 1999

KOROVA are a Bulgarian folk tambura and vocal quartet.

KOROVA is an ethnographic group of four young men - a vocal-tambura quartet. They come from the village of Draginovo in the Rhodopian mountains, Bulgaria.

'As Bulgaria develops ever closer ties with western Europe, waiting more or less patiently to join the European Community and in the meantime hustling to find something more to export than wine, it is starting to show the first signs of a phenomenon reserved for post-peasant societies: a folk music revival.

It's not so much that the five young musicians of Korova (four tambura players/singers plus a percussionist) from the village of Draginovo in the Western Rodopi mountains have had to go far to search out their songs (they seem to have found them more or less on the doorstep); more that they are happy to present them pretty much unmediated, and the record company are equally happy to present them as such. The result is, oddly, something entirely fresh anbd the occasional cheerful adjustments of pitch and less than perfect synchronisation (on, for example, the irresistibly moving‚ Ljubili se dvama ludi') lend their performances an authority and an emotional depth that is sometimes missing from the most polished performances of the most highly trained choirs.

It's a lovely sound: the four male voices drifting in and out of harmony above the complex strumming of the tamburas (lute-like instruments a bit like long-necked mandolins), or winding around one another on the slow unmeasured ballads. Granted that the music does share a lot of characteristics with the songs of neighbouring eastern Macedonia, in melodic contour and vocal sound (more relaxed than the Bulgarian norm), but there is still something very special and different about this recording.'
KIM BURTON - Songlines Magazine

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Korova

'A Distant Echo'

This symbol  indicates an mp3 sound clip for that track. Click on the symbol and wait for the clip to start. For more information click here. Tracks

1. Utro v Draginovo 2. Mustafa 3. Az nail ti rekoh libe 4. Neshto e eknalo 5. Pladneshka melodia 6. Kakva moma vidiah 7. Izraslo edno krushe 8. Liubili se dvama ludi 9. Brala moma zelen zdravetz 10. Pusta mladost 11. Ovcharska melodia 12. Barem da e moma 13. Tropni le mome 14. Ah, merak 15. Dumai, mome, na maika ti 16. Ne razlivai Naide 17. Bolen lezi male 18. Zunkina melodia 19. Plivni Vaide 20. Shari moma 21. Aide, mome, da begame 22. Fatme 23. Draginovo

Duration (65'17")

Our mp3 samples are approximately 30 seconds long and of low(ish) quality for a fast download (file size app 300KB)