Label: Ocora

様々な音域、音色、母音の共鳴を通して、人間の声を楽器として扱ってきたエチオピア南西部のアリ族。2000〜2002年に掛けて現地で行われたフィールドレコーディングを収録した名門OcoraからのCD作品。雨期の終わりには、結婚(ウォチミ)、収穫の終わり(ブク)、葬儀(エフィ)、喪の期間(チチ)といった、大規模な集団儀式が始まり、参加者は至る所で歌と踊りを続けイベントを祝うことに身を捧げる。そこから聞こえてくる驚くべきポリフォニーのテクニック、また小さな竹笛の合唱など、あまりにも洗練された音風景に圧倒されます。







The Ari people of South-West Ethiopia treat the human voice as a veritable instrument: exploring its entire acoustic range by varying registers, timbres and vowel resonance; their grand-scale polyphonies are highly sophisticated, yet not without elements of spontaneity and surprise.

The period of great collective ceremonies begins at the end of the rainy season – marriages (wochmi), the end of harvesting (buk), funerals (efi) and the lifting of periods of mourning (chi:chi). Participants abandon their habitual activities to devote themselves to the celebration of a decisive life cycle event, amid omnipresent singing and dancing.

A strong contrast exists in Ari music between the complexity of the collective polyphonic structure and the sobriety of individual voices. A successful ensemble depends on good combinations of simple elements. Moreover, any apparently rigid polyphonic organization is counterbalanced by a certain flexibility in performance, evident in unpredictable entries of freely moving voices and in a wealth of variations. In Ari polyphonies, a variation is an open proposition, addressed to other musicians, provoking reaction and thereby developing the performance.