AUSTRALIA Australie – Vogue EXTP 1056

AUSTRALIA
Australie – Vogue EXTP 1056, recorded in Central Australia by Jacques Villeminot, 1950s (7 in, 45 RPM)

This record presents the music of the Pitjantjatjara People from the Central Australian desert. During their corroboree ceremonies participants enter a mythical and metaphysical ‘dreamtime’ to transcend past and present through body-painting, music and dance. According to ethnologist Jacques Villeminot, these nomadic hunter-gatherers did not have instruments other than rhythmically striking rocks and sticks.

The music here includes secret chants sung by men in the final stage of their initiation (A1), incantations before a depiction of spirals, the totem of the honey ant (A2), a women’s corroboree (A3), secret initiation songs (A4), a Kangaroo Corroboree (B1), a Kangaroo ritual chant (B2), a camp song (B3) and a Death Corroboree with 100 male and female participants (B4).

Ce disque présente la musique du peuple aborigène Pitjantjatjara vivant dans le désert d’Australie centrale. Au cours de leurs cérémonies corroborées, les participants entrent dans le « temps du rêve » mythique et métaphysique pour transcender le passé et le présent à travers des costume, des peintures du corps, la musique et la danse. Selon l'ethnologue Jacques Villeminot, ces chasseurs-cueilleurs nomades n’avaient, en guise d’instruments, que des bâtons ou des pierres qu’ils entrechoquaient rythmiquement.

La musique ici comprend des chants secrets chantés par des hommes au stade final de leur initiation (A1), des incantations devant un dessin représentant des spirales qui symbolisent le totem de la fourmi à miel (A2), une corroborée de femmes (A3), des chants secrets d'initiation (A4), une corroborée du kangourou (B1), le chant rituel du kangourou (B2), une chanson de camp (B3) et la corroborée de la mort avec cent exécutants des deux sexes (B4).

Download
Flac
MP3

Ethnologist, speaker and filmmaker Jacques Villeminot (b. 1924) is a pioneer in ethnographic film known for his films on native peoples in Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Photographs below are from The Earth Spirit - Its Ways, Shrines and Mysteries by John Michell, Crossroad, 1975, and The World of the First Australians by Catherine and Roland Berndt, University of Chicago Press, 1964:

Corroboree Rock, Central Australia.

"The power of the spirit that pervades the great rocks is drawn out to the benefit of all living things by the ceremonies of the native Australians. By their intimate knowledge of the local spirit world (and consequently of its product, physical nature) they are able to live without material encumbrance in country that otherwise would be desert."

"A man beats his stick rhythmically as he sings to the drone of the didjeridoo. Goulburn Island, Western Arnhem Land, 1961."

"Man on Djebalmandji forked stick calling sacred invocations, Milingimbi, late 1930s."

"Djunggawon novices painted to represent the mythical Wawalag sisters and wearing sacred armbands, Yirrkalla, 1947."

Please help me purchase important traditional records to pursue my global curation                        project and share the best finds with you on this blog: