The Latin phrase Sub Rosa translates as “under the rose” a term referring to secrecy. A rose can often be found on the ceilings of old buildings which were once places where discussions were held in secrecy. A glance through the Belgian Sub Rosa record catalogue and you can begin to see why the name is so fitting for a label that releases some of the most unusual recordings your likely to come across. Their field recordings catalogue ranges from the occult to experimental music from around the world. One release which caught our attention, and which we’ve been continually drawn back to over the past week is a mesmerising album by Tatiana Dordzhieva & Maria Beltsykova which is being released on vinyl (presumably for the first time as it was digitally released on Ored Records in 2015).
Tatiana and Maria come from Kalmykia, a region in the southwestern part of European Russia. Interestingly it is the only region in Europe where Buddhism is the most practised religion. Those that live there are called Kalmyks. The focus of this album is on the “Dzhangar” epic. Bulat Khalilov of Ored Recordings:
“In early November 2014, we went to Kalmykia. Our goal was the local “Dzhangar” epic. The epic genre, as one of the most archaic, can be called a basis for Kalmyk music culture. Not so long time ago among Kalmyks there were their own professional epic storytellers – Dzhangarchi who as a socio-artistic institute today are practically absent: repertoire of modern folk singers mostly consists of late folk art of the Soviet era. But as usual in our search we did not ignore these more recent forms of traditional music that allowed us to find very valuable material. One week spent in Kalmykia was filled with meetings and record sessions. And, as we see it, the most interesting and the richest one was the day spent in the village of Bulgun (officially known as Troitskoe).
“We met up with Maria Beltsikova and Tatiana Dordzhieva in this village. The energetic and charismatic grand mammas are winners of various music competitions, in the recent past, they have been frequent guests of national holidays and official events. In addition, both of them are self-taught grown up in conditions of respect for traditions. On the day of our meeting, we were able to record more than twenty songs. In the repertoire of Maria and Tatiana, there have been religious Buddhist songs, droning laments, ceremonial wedding songs, heroic ballads about Kalmyks in the Patriotic War 1812, and, of course, Soviet folklore. The songs of the “red” period was presented with a variety of songs: praising the Communist Party and workers of the collective farms and songs about the deportation of Kalmyks in 1943-1944.
“Tatiana and Maria know well this period of time – with their own bitter experience: with their relatives and neighbors they were deported to Siberia. Also this album contains several songs composed by Tatiana Dordzhieva. In addition to the a-capella performance, in some of the songs you can hear traditional Kalmyk dombra playing. Maria Beltsikova is the person playing this instrument.”
Listen to Narmin Sanchir (Song about a man called Narmin Sanchir):
Order via Sub Rosa (distributed via Morr Music)