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New York Daily News, Feature >>
Hypnotic, transcendent, eerie, jubilant: You could exhaust the dictionary trying to describe the odd Grammy-winning chorus known as Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares.
On Sunday, the group - composed of 23 women and a lone male - bring their otherwordly sound to a very earthbound place: Symphony Space on the upper West Side. The group's core sound comes from a physical feat: They force highly pressurized air from their lungs through their narrowly constricted throats.
The ensemble's leader and conductor, Dora Hristova, says, "It's impossible to train somebody to sing like this. These women are born with this ability. The technique is very harmful to the vocal cords. If you are not born with the right physiology, you can easily damage them because the tension of the air passing through them is so great to make the sound so piercing and strong. This form of singing was once widespread in Europe, but Western Europe developed the bel canto style [in the 17th century], where the resonance is in the head and chest."
Locked within the Ottoman Empire until 1918, Bulgaria allowed its singers to preserve the older approach. But if the chorus draws raw material from the folk arts, it imparts a highly polished edge. Classical precision meets ancient folk techniques here, making for startling rhythms, stabbing ululations and rumbling growls.
Le Mystere's beginnings (though not its name) go back to 1952, when composer Philip Koutev organized the State Ensemble for Folk Songs and Dances, funded by the Communist government to promote greater awareness of Bulgarian music. The Stalinist politics around the art were often vicious and obtuse, but Koutev's vision for the group endured.
Now, as then, the singers come from villages where they learned traditional techniques. Then they receive training at special music schools. For each piece she conducts, Hristova weaves the vocalists into highly disciplined renditions of complex arrangements written by leading Bulgarian composers.
The distinctive sound first surfaced in the U.S. in the 1960s. But it was 1987's "Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares" that gave the chorus its current handle and made big waves in the world-music boom. Their appeal rapidly broadened when "Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares, Volume Two" nailed a Grammy in 1990. Growing fame followed, as did unexpected opportunities, like collaborating with a range of fans like Stevie Wonder, guitar hero Jeff Beck and singer-songwriter Tracy Bonham.
With Le Mystere, such odd occurrences make perfect sense.
By GENE SANTORO 12/01/06 >> go there
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