Čalgija | Unforgotten
The second album that was to be Čalgija’s second, recorded in the mid-1980s, all ready for production, never released in its entirety, but partly recycled on their 1991 album. Rediscovered and digitised in 2019, with five unreleased studio tracks, supplemented with one live track from 1978 and five from 1983.
Straight to the liner notes ⇲
(info, music and downloads below)
Album information
Tracks / total playing time 66:31
- Cheimariotikos
- Krivo horo
- Dali znaeš pomniš li
- Baş bar
- Razložko kalajdžijsko horo
- Acem kızı
- To aidhoni
- Naz bar
- Alexandra
- Tronkata
- Ispaiče
- Köşküm var
- Beratçe
- Nevenstinsko oro – Live
- Kırım’dan gelirim – Live
- Mǎdro horo – Live
- Schoon lief – Live
- Damian-Vojvodovo horo – Live
- Proviknal si e Nikola – Live
30-sec. track samples on Soundcloud.
Genre
Folk music from the Balkans (Albania, North Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria) Anatolia, Armenia and Flanders.
Liner notes
Read all about the rediscovery of these recordings, the history and significance of Čalgija, and the individual tracks.
Credits
Musicians
Wouter Swets (musical director) – kanun, accordion, tăpan
Jan Hofmeijer – clarinet, santur, tanbur
Roel Sluis – vocals, sopranino recorder, kaval
Tjarko ten Have – santur, bağlama saz, kaval, gajda, tăpan
Frank Leenhouts – oud, laouto, Macedonian tambura, divan saz
Roelof Rosendal – darbuka, def, tăpan
Monique Lansdorp – violin, gǎdulka
Remco Busink – Macedonian tambura
Crispijn Oomes – violin
Thijs de Melker – Macedonian tambura
Tracks
All material is traditional, and has been analysed and arranged by Wouter Swets. Tracks 1–13 were recorded, mixed and mastered in 1983–85 by Carlo van Nierop (Van der Linden Studio, Rossum, Netherlands), and digitised and remastered in 2019 by Wil Hesen (Farmsound Studio, Heelsum, Netherlands).
Tracks 14, 15, 17, 18 and 19 were recorded live on 6 November 1983 at Theater aan de Haven (The Hague, Netherlands) with two dynamic Sennheiser microphones and a Revox A77 4-track tape recorder by Willem Bakker, who digitised the material in 2017.
Track 16 was recorded in the same venue in 1978 by Frenk van Meeteren and Jørn Plas (Pan Records) using a TEAC 34-2 tape recorder and Neumann omnidirectional microphones, and digitized in 2019 by Wil Hesen. The live material was denoised and mastered by Vangelis Apostolou in August 2019 (Studio Vasmaris, Heraklion, Greece).
Album
Production, artwork and liner notes – Michiel van der Meulen for Pan Records
Executive producer – Bernard Kleikamp
Acknowledgements
Michiel van der Meulen and Bernard Kleikamp thank Roel Sluis, Roland van Abel, Martine van der Meulen, Crispijn Oomes, Frank Leenhouts and Monique Lansdorp for providing information, comments and contributions, Dominy Clements and Magnus Robb for correcting the English, Roland van Abel for supporting the production financially with a grant from the estate of Wouter Swets, and Cengiz Arslanpay, Zehra Çayıroğlu, Nikos Kokolakis and Vassilis Philippou for helping with the translations of lyrics in the revised online liner notes (01/2022).
PAN 2056 / TouMilou Records #4 / EAN 713958205648
© 1991 Parallax (tracks 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13)
℗ 2020 Pan Records and TouMilou Music
Reviews
- Marija Dumnić Vilotijević, Yearbook for Traditional Music 54, 85–87 (2022): “This edition is intriguing with its depiction of music from the Balkans and Anatolia from the point of view of a fascinated and dedicated cultural outsider.” (scholarly review, not openly accessible)
- Joop Wierenga, New Folk Sounds (March 6, 2020; in Dutch): “Wouter Swets, musician, ethnomusicologist and fieldworker, was the first Dutchman to introduce us to the music traditions of the Balkans.”
Get the album
Čalgija CD sales revenues are transferred to the estate of Wouter Swets and used to cover the expenses of a continued effort to safeguard his musical legacy. TouMilou Music contributes to this effort on a pro bono basis.
Downloads / Terms of use in the footer
Album art / 1000 x 1000 px jpg
Scores / ‘Schoon Lief ‘ [17] and other Dutch songs / pdf
About the artwork
The album art features the Albanian city of Berat, nicknamed “Town of a Thousand Windows”, a UNESCO world heritage site renowned for its beautifully preserved Ottoman architecture. Front cover image: modification of a photo of the city by Olena Kachmar, reproduced under a 123RF Ltd Standard License). The scorebook cover image is taken from a 17th-century traditional Dutch wall tile, depicting a dancer with a rommelpot, a traditional friction drum.
Other releases by Čalgija
- Üçayak / TouMilou #5, 2021 / album
- Vintage Recordings (1964–1966) / TouMilou #2, 2017 / EP
- Mosaique Vivant / MV695, 1995 / compilation album with three tracks by Čalgija
- Music from the Balkans and Anatolia #2 / PAN 2007CD, 1991 / album
- Music from the Balkans and Anatolia #1 / MU 7425, 1978 / PAN 7425, 2013 / album