Reviewed Elsewhere: Chornobyl Songs Project: Living Culture from a Lost World. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, CD (1), SFW CD 50420.

Chornobyl Songs Project: Living Culture from a Lost World. 2015. Produced by Maria Sonevytsky in association with The Center for Traditional Music and Dance and The Yara Arts Group. Annotated by Maria Sonevytsky with Yevhen Yefremov. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, CD (1), SFW CD 50420.

 

The Chornobyl Songs Project, released by Smithsonian Folkways, is a musical project under the direction of ethnomusicologist Yevhen Yefremov of the Kyiv Academy of Music and performed by a New York-based choir, Ensemble Hilka (meaning "Branch"). The material is based on the folk songs that may have been sung throughout the year in a "typical Polissian village," in this case, referring to the traditional songs of those residing largely in the area along the border of Ukraine and Belarus, a region geographically characterized mostly by woods and marsh. This setting is, of course, implicitly overshadowed by the more prominent tragic backdrop to the album—the abrupt and permanent disruption of the local inhabitants (and their traditions) in 1986 due to their close proximity to the Chernobyl disaster. The significance of this event is emphasized not in the music, but in the liner notes to the CD. Also emphasized in the liner notes is the resurgent interest in traditional music (such as the songs produced in this album) during and after the waning years of the Soviet Union. ...

 

The material itself was based on recordings collected in the region and is organized into a cycle of a "ritual year" ...

 

While liner notes are provided for each song, unfortunately they are only available online. However, they greatly help to put the album into context and clearly label each track by title, translation, and a reference to a season. In most cases, this is accompanied by a sentence or short paragraph explaining the song. ... the album might have benefitted from a complete translation of the lyrics, because a short translation, though certainly better than nothing at all, gives only a brief flavor of the song. Greater appreciation of the intricacies of the material for non-Ukrainian speakers could be derived from a complete translation. The liner notes about the album are 18 pages overall, but the notes about the songs themselves fill only three of them.

 

Although the liner notes provide both photographs and context, they lack details that may be of interest to the reader. The notes do exceptionally well in arguing the importance of the album, and they create a context that begins almost globally (referring to the disaster at Fukushima in the second paragraph) and builds down to the region from which the music on the album was based. The notes use the Chernobyl disaster and the collapse of the Soviet Union as the backdrop for the sudden importance of, and interest in, traditional culture, especially that which is perceived as being less influenced by the Soviet government. These tie-ins to political history are especially emphasized. The focus on the dispersal and permanent loss of traditional heritage adds to the emotional weight of the album. ...

 

Overall, the emotional weight of the album in terms of it being a re-creation of "lost" music under the direction of an expert is what drives the project. Clearly, the case is made for its importance both in its place of cultural history and in the tragic dispersal of the people in the aftermath of nuclear catastrophe. The custom cardboard packaging and the physical lack of notes leave something to be desired from the production standpoint. However, when notes and album are taken together, an appreciation for the music's place in world heritage and enjoyment at the arrangement of the album certainly lead to a unique and enlightening experience.

 

Matthew Musacchia. Journal of American Folklore 131, 519 (2018), 115–116.