Sometimes it pays to keep digging
May. 20th, 2024 07:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soniaKitka sings this lovely Bulgarian song Son Mi Dojde (video link). The video notes state that they learned it from Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares in 1988.
I was asked if I had a Bulgarian source recording. I didn't have it in my large stash of folk recordings, and a general search online didn't turn up that version at all. Kvartet Bulgarka Junior did record a similar version (video link).
I got puzzled, and kept digging. Discogs.org, a comprehensive listing of old album contents, didn't list the song for Mystere des Voix Bulgares, but did list this likely looking album by Orchestra of the Bulgarian Television and Radio Folk Song Ensemble, which is their precursor. Balkanton published it as BHA 565.
I looked on archive.org to see if someone had uploaded this album. Sadly no, but while searching on the Balkanton number I did stumble across this treasure trove of rar archives of old Bulgarian recordings, and the odd Macedonian and Georgian songs too. It helps to read Cyrillic, and to have downloaded a rar decoding utility. The albums come from https://bulgarian-folk-treasure.blogspot.com .
I paused for thought, and then wrote to a folk dance teacher who helped me with another obscure album in the past. Yes, he had the album, and kindly sent me an mp3 of the source recording the next morning. Elapsed time from request to forwarding the recording, a little less than 24 hours.
I'm proud of knowing how and where to dig for information, and proud of continuing to think of new avenues when I get blocked. I use that a lot in my programming work, too. Back when I first got back into Balkan music after a long hiatus, I could tell it was important to me because I would keep digging for more information online, and get excited about what I found. Nowadays general search is getting less and less useful, but knowing specific places to search is still fruitful.
ETA: I uploaded the recording to dropbox: feel free to listen and download.
I was asked if I had a Bulgarian source recording. I didn't have it in my large stash of folk recordings, and a general search online didn't turn up that version at all. Kvartet Bulgarka Junior did record a similar version (video link).
I got puzzled, and kept digging. Discogs.org, a comprehensive listing of old album contents, didn't list the song for Mystere des Voix Bulgares, but did list this likely looking album by Orchestra of the Bulgarian Television and Radio Folk Song Ensemble, which is their precursor. Balkanton published it as BHA 565.
I looked on archive.org to see if someone had uploaded this album. Sadly no, but while searching on the Balkanton number I did stumble across this treasure trove of rar archives of old Bulgarian recordings, and the odd Macedonian and Georgian songs too. It helps to read Cyrillic, and to have downloaded a rar decoding utility. The albums come from https://bulgarian-folk-treasure.blogspot.com .
I paused for thought, and then wrote to a folk dance teacher who helped me with another obscure album in the past. Yes, he had the album, and kindly sent me an mp3 of the source recording the next morning. Elapsed time from request to forwarding the recording, a little less than 24 hours.
I'm proud of knowing how and where to dig for information, and proud of continuing to think of new avenues when I get blocked. I use that a lot in my programming work, too. Back when I first got back into Balkan music after a long hiatus, I could tell it was important to me because I would keep digging for more information online, and get excited about what I found. Nowadays general search is getting less and less useful, but knowing specific places to search is still fruitful.
ETA: I uploaded the recording to dropbox: feel free to listen and download.
Gold star research!
Date: 2024-05-21 09:10 pm (UTC)Between SEO optimization and AI “help,” general search is becoming very frustrating.
Words to live by:
It helps to read Cyrillic, and to have downloaded a rar decoding utility
Learned about OldaVista via Metafilter; it shows a single, German result
Re: Gold star research!
Date: 2024-05-24 12:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-05-24 10:34 pm (UTC)I'm impressed by your ability to research and discover information of this type. That is a special talent to have and skill to have developed.
no subject
Date: 2024-05-25 07:45 pm (UTC)I uploaded the recording to dropbox: feel free to listen and download.