The Wonderful Ainu

Two Ainu women performing "Rehbuhkara"
14 x 11 inches, oil and acrylic on canvas, 2018

Rehbuhkara is a vocal style closely related to the Chukchi pic-eine'rkin and the Inuit katajjaq typically performed by two women. The three vocal styles form the backbone of a new issue of Ach Ja. It is the tenth issue and the second titled The Origin of Music. Katajjait are performed in the north of America and in Greenland, an area of land that is supposedly isolated from the old world at the end of the last ice age 14,000 years ago. The vocal styles of all three (ethnically related) peoples form yet more striking evidence that there must have been contact between the new and old world. Either that or these styles were already practiced before the separation of Chukchi, Ainu, and Inuit, in which case the traditional singing styles are older than 14,000 years. The Ainu, considered the indigenous people of Japan, live on Japan's northernmost large island Hokkaido. The island is connected to the Kamchatka chain running to Kamchatka in Russia. From Kamchatka run the Aleut island chain all the way to Alaska. The Ainu use their hands as a resonance chamber. The Inuit, as lore has it, use to sing so close together that each others mouths serve as resonance chambers. The source image from the painting is a still from a video uploaded by ainuworld. 

 Ach Ja! #10: The Origin of Music (2) is a zine published in an edition of 25. 8.5 x 5.5 inches, 16 p. It comes with a CD featuring 32 tracks from my collection (I don't own the rights to any of them) and can be purchased for $15 + shipping. Just shoot me an email.

Track listing

1. Inuit:  Katajjait with geese cries (Canada)                 2:45
2. Inuit: Katajjait on "Hamma" (Canada)        `        1:29
3. Inuit: Assalalaa (Canada)                        0:38
4. Inuit: Qiarpa (Canada)                        3:34
5. Annie Kappianaq / Jeanne Arnainuk – Vocal And Throat-Games "Pirkusirartup" Huangaahaaq (Inuit, Canada)                0:41
6. Ainu: Rekuhkara, throat singing (Japan)                0:27
7. Kiyo Kurokawa, Teru Nishizama – Horippa (Ainu, Japan)        2:23
8. Utekn, Yuimuk – Women's Wu-unka songs (Aborigine, Australia)             2:04
9. Kiighwyaq, Sivugun und Nunana – Pic-eine’rkin: Ay-ay-amamay (Cukchi, Russia)         1:59
10. Anna Dimitrievna Neostroeva – Throat Song                0:52
11. Nowaylethi Mbizwenti And Nofirst Mbizweni – Duet With 'ordinary' Umngqokol    (Xhosa, South Afrca)                    1:39
12. Antonia Vasil'evna Skalygina – Alterateur de voix Kal'ni (Even, Rus.)    1:02
13. Mergen Mongush – Alash (Tuva)                    1:14
14. The 1898 Torres Strait Recordings: Death Wail (Aborigine, Australia)    2:12
15. Papua New Guinea: Wame Igini Kamu                 1:43
16. Shipobo Song (Shipobo, Peru)                    2:09
17. Ashaninka Songs (Ashaninka, Peru)                    1:15
18. Ulahi and Eyo:bo Sing with Afternoon Cicadas (Bosavi, Papua New Guinea)             2:47
19. Ulahi Sings While Making Sago (Bosavi, Papua New Guinea)    1:26
20. Ana Caraballo & Asuncion Caraballo – Canto Para Pilar Maiz (Venezuela)                 0:54
21. Gumbojav – Running Horse (Tuva)                    0:36
22. Deux Femmes Ngozi – Ubuhuha (Ngozi, Burundi)            2:00
23. Pako Tà Ôi peoples – Duo A'Reng (Pako Tà Ôi, Vietnam)        1:02
24. Pako Tà Ôi peoples – A'bel (Pako Tà Ôi, Vietnam)            2:16
25. Te Bow with Two Women's Voices (San, Namibia)            3:03
26. Princess Constance Magogo KaDinuzulu – Helele! Yiliphi leliyani? (Zulu, South Africa)  3:31
27. The Indians of the Gran Chaco – Instrumental, strings (Argentina)    0:57
28. Avdo Mededovic – Bosnjacke Gusle (Montenegro)            1:23
29. Tin Can Bow Solo (San, Namibia)                    1:44
30. Marija Nikoforovna Ceculina – Chant et Jajar (Koryak, Russia)    0:57
31. Chukchi Shamanic Ritual (Chukchi, Russia)                3:57
32. Kittoro (Roro, Papua, Indonesia)                    1:20

The Golden Paintings

After many years of random formats I decided to, once again, choose the serial approach to the new top 100 that started in August. Tempted to seriously study abstract painting I would create a series of 100 abstract works on an 11 x 9 canvas with a golden acrylic lining. Over the next few months I created a number of such painting but then the urge came to paint musicians once again (on 11 x 9 canvases with golden backgrounds.) Now they exist side by side. I still want to make one hundred abstract works—for abstract work to be valid, quantity is needed. The abstract works so far seem way too specific to add figures too, as intended, later on. What do you think?

Eyo:bo

Eyo:bo
14 x 11 inches, oil and acrylic on canvas, 2018

Ulahi starts a song and Eyo:bo repeats. Eyo:bo is an echo as it were of Ulahi, but her voice is different. The echo, together with a chorus of cicadas in the background makes for a spellbinding musical recording. Steven Field recorded it in 1977 in the Kulali area of the Bosavi rain forest in Papua New Guinea.

Wanderer

Cat Power (after Ryan Pfluger)
11 x 14 inches, oil and acrylic on canvas, 2018

Wanderer is out now. I had preordered a copy that came with a 45. My first Cat Power 45. The record is great and my favorite thus far is the title track Wanderer. The song appears at the beginning and the end of the album and my preference is the latter version. The source for the image of the painting was provided by a September 23 New York Times article with a photo by Ryan Pfluger. A painting often paints itself and in this case it meant staying true to Pflugers photograph. All 100 for the current top 100 will be painted on a golden acrylic ground, some with an abstract design, some with none. The blue rectangle in the background here makes it look a cover for the National Geographic.