Deep into January. I was preparing dinner, feeling as grey as the sky outside — we were supposed to have snow the next day. Then, in between the equally dreary news on the radio, something interesting caught my ears.

I heard Robert Siegel on All Things Considered interviewing the director of a movie called “Oka!,”  about a group of Bayaka pygmies who live in the Central African Republic. Interesting enough.

Then he said the pygmies produce “stunning music – (with) their voices, and their use of virtually everything around them, trees, even the water in the stream, as musical instruments.”  I was hooked.

For background, the director explained that the Bayaka, a forest people, are among the most ancient people on earth, being related to the San bushmen and the original inhabitants of Africa, and they remain hunter-gatherers. The word “oka” means listen in their language, Aka. The children begin singing and dancing with the group when they are two years old.

The soundbites he played awakened the armchair traveler in me, who took a YouTube break while dinner simmered. It was enchanting. I plan to buy a copy of the CD of the soundtrack, “Listen, Oka” when it is released in February. (The movie, unfortunately, received mixed reviews.)