Soudan Pays des Nouba – VDE 30-294, Recorded by Pierre and Eliane Dubois, 1978 (LP)
The first time I encountered the Nuba people and culture was as a young boy, when my parents purchased the book The Last of the Nuba in 1973, followed by The People of Kau in 1976, both striking collections of photographs taken by the highly controversial Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003), who had been Adolf Hitler’s favorite film propagandist.
I was totally fascinated by the beauty and nobility of Nuba traditional culture and felt a deep sadness over the destruction of this way of life and the natural environment in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan which were about to disappear forever. Sudan has since split into two countries under extremely painful circumstances, with the creation of South Sudan.
Side A of this album features Nuba music, but the real gems are to be found on Side B, which includes Nuba music, plus performances by Chalabla Arab nomads, Nubian tribes from South Kordofan and a folk song from Khartoum.
J'ai découvert les nuba pour la première fois pendant mon enfance lorsque mes parents ont acheté les magnifiques livres The Last of the Nuba en 1973, suivi de The People of Kau en 1976, contenant des photos époustouflantes de la très controversée Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003), la cinéaste de propagande préférée d'Adolf Hitler.
J'étais totalement fasciné par la beauté et la noblesse de la culture traditionnelle nuba, et je ressentais une profonde tristesse devant l’inéluctable disparition de leur mode de vie et de leur environnement naturel dans les montagnes nuba dans le Sud-Kordofan. Le Soudan a bien sûr depuis été divisé en deux pays distincts, avec la création du Soudan du Sud, dans des circonstances particulièrement douloureuses.
Cet album présente de la musique nuba sur la Face A; mais les vrais joyaux se trouvent sur la Face B comprenant notamment de la musique nuba, des performances collectives de nomades arabes Chalabla, de la musique de tribus nubiennes du Kordofan du Sud et une chanson folklorique de Khartoum.
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Photographs below are from Leni Riefenstahl’s The Last of the Nuba, Harper and Row, 1973, and The People of Kau, St. Martin’s Press, 1976:
Got nudged to your blog by a friend. What a treasure trove!
ReplyDeleteIf I may say so, the two LPs I downloaded today, which I have just played, have been quite superbly digitised. Gorgeous - among the best I've heard. I'm very grateful.
Thanks for your comment Dave. For digitizing LPs I use great tools which do miracles with clicks/crackles, but avoid any denoising process (noise recognition/removal/eq) as it always tends to take the energy/life out of analog recordings, which makes them so special in the first place.
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