How Iberi's new album was inspired by the food, wine and glorious musical harmonies of Georgia

Anyone who is lucky enough to visit Georgia, nestled against the southern slopes of the Caucasus mountains, comes back with at least four incredible impressions: first the food, one of the most delicious cuisines in the world; second the wine, with a tradition going back some 8,000 years; third the music with its glorious polyphonic singing in harmonies that sound so wrong, but so right to Western ears; and finally the spectacular landscapes with mountains like Mount Kazbek and Shkhara rising over 5,000m.

According to the Georgians, when God was distributing land among the peoples of the Earth, they were too busy drinking and feasting to turn up on time. When they finally arrived there was nothing left. “But Lord,” they protested, “we were only late because we were toasting You.” God was so touched by this that he gave them the land he was keeping for Himself – warm, fertile and fringed by the magnificent Caucasus mountains. So with feasting celebrated in a national myth, it’s not surprising that the Georgian group Iberi have made it the theme of their new album.

Iberi in their signature chokha (photo by Tina Ramujkić)

Supra, the title of Iberi’s album, is a Georgian feast, though it literally translates as ‘Tablecloth.’ It’s a deep-seated Georgian tradition to celebrate with friends and family with an abundance of food and wine with many courses. “Supra is the biggest part of Georgian culture,” says Iberi’s leader Bidzina ‘Buba’ Murgulia, “and it’s an academy of thinking and relationships.”

I have been to a Georgian supra and it’s an enjoyable ritual of eating, drinking and philosophy. The whole thing is led by a toastmaster – in Britain this term sounds pretentious and evokes formal liveried occasions, but in Georgia, a tamada is the host for the evening who makes the party buzz. Throughout the meal he (and it usually is a he) announces the various toasts in a sequence, which cue up particular songs linked to them. It’s a tradition of which the Georgians are justifiably proud.

On Iberi’s album there are 13 songs associated with various toasts from the feast. The toasts themselves – from Murgulia’s father, “the best tamada I know” – don’t appear on the album but are noted in the booklet. The first of these is traditionally raised to a long and healthy life, which cues a well-wishing mravalzhamieri, a song with health and longevity as its theme. Iberi open with an example from Kutaisi, Georgia’s third largest city. The vocals are muscular and forceful with the three parts creating a rugged counterpoint. “A mravalzhamieri is a kind of blessing and a wish for long life,” says Murgulia. “We have more than 20 distinct regions in Georgia and there are mravalzhamieri only in the ones where we are producing wine. In the mountainous parts, where there are no vineyards, there are no mravalzhamieri, but in Kakheti or Guria [both areas where wine is made] there are many.”

There’s another song connected to the vineyards. It stands as the centrepiece of the album and is cued up by a toast to loved ones who have passed away. It’s a religious chant, with words by the 12th-century King Demetrius, called ‘Shen Khar Venakhi’ (You Are the Vineyard) dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Murgulia explains that in Georgia ‘vineyard’ is one of the names or symbols for Mary. This is probably connected to the fact that Saint Nino, who brought Christianity to Georgia in the fourth century is depicted carrying a cross made out of two stems of a grapevine bound together with her hair. The music is hushed and otherworldly with slowly shifting chords creating a sense of devotional calm and relaxation.

“People love to sing because of supra. At the table you listen, you sing and you fall in love with this music”

Murgulia started singing in a boys choir aged around six, but it was rugby that became his passion as a young man and he hoped to play professionally. However, an injury turned him back to his first love – music. He started Iberi in 2012 – taking the name from the old Greek and Roman name for the region. They have performed at festivals across Europe, at WOMEX and in the US and Australia. The group are planning a big tenth anniversary concert on September 3, the same day they met for their first ever rehearsal.

The group sing music from all regions of the country: songs with clashing discords over a slowly-moving drone from Kakheti, a major wine-growing region in the east; faster songs with athletic yodelling known as krimanchuli from the western regions; archaic and angular songs from Svaneti high in the Caucasus; and much more modern urban songs accompanied by guitar. These are romantic songs – usually with tunes that are easy to sing along to – from two of Georgia’s main cities, the capital Tbilisi in the east and Kutaisi in the west. The first of these is the second song on the album, following on from the opening mravalzhamieri. It’s called ‘Mkholod Shen Erts’ (Only for You), a wonderfully sentimental love song for women and the homeland. The other one, ‘Kovel Sneulebaze’ (Harder Than Any Illness), is initiated by a toast to love. Murgulia says they’re a little more than a hundred years old, originating from the period before WWI and are clearly influenced by Western European music, possibly French. These urban songs make a nice contrast to the traditional tracks and, as they are an important part of any Georgian supra, it perhaps would have been good to have one or two more on the album.

Iberi (photo by Tina Ramujkić)

Iberi usually perform in woollen coats called chokha, which were traditionally worn by all the peoples of the Caucasus mountains. They were originally the dress of mountain warriors, which is why they have cartridge holders on either side of the chest. “If you look at the map, our geopolitical location is very bad,” says Murgulia, “so Georgian men had to wear these because they were so often at war. They were the traditional dress for men all over the Caucasus. Mainly we Georgians are using grey and black ones and we still wear them for weddings and other celebrations.”

Iberi’s debut album, First, was released on the Estonian label Elwood Muusik in 2014 and it was their agent Juliana Volož who suggested the supra theme for their next one. The idea came together after she organised a trip in Georgia for music-loving friends, including Hilde Bjørkum, then the artistic director of Norway’s Førde Festival. “I organised a journey to lots of beautiful places and at the end we had a supra at Buba’s summer house. He called up all his young Iberi members and did it just like it should be. Everyone said it was the highlight of the entire tour and it was Hilde who said they should do a supra album. Although it’s an obvious idea, no one has done it before,” Volož remembers.

Supra is vividly illustrated with naïve paintings by Russian artist Valery Ivanov. They feature moustachioed characters, love hearts and drinking vessels, notably drinking horns. Georgians use goat or rams horns called khantsi at weddings and feasts. Their key feature is that you can’t put them down, so you have to drink everything.

Georgian food is fresh and unbelievably tasty. First there are piles of herbs and radishes, tomatoes and salads. Then there’s delicious cheese bread called khachapuri and finally cooked meat and vegetable dishes, flavoured with coriander, marigold and fenugreek. Aubergines, walnuts and pomegranate seeds are frequently used, while tkemali (plum sauce) and ajika (chili paste) are the usual accompaniments. Amid such culinary riches, I wonder which Georgian dish is Murgulia’s favourite. “I have a lot of favourites,” he laughs, “but khinkali [dumplings] are what I am living and singing for. Tusheti [a beautiful and remote mountain region of north-east Georgia] is the motherland of khinkali where they are filled with lamb and cumin. The second type are the city khinkali made of beef and pork with some herbs. I like both.”

But what is it about Georgia that makes the music there so fundamental to everyday life, as integral as eating and drinking? Murgulia believes it’s because as a people they originated on this land and are indigenous to it. “The Georgians are an autochthonous nation. We didn’t come from anywhere else so we had a longer time here to make a culture, while most of our neighbours came from elsewhere.” But he also wonders whether the supra itself could be the reason. “People love to sing because of supra. At the table you listen, you sing and you fall in love with this music. When I’m celebrating something with my rugby player friends who can’t sing it isn’t the same. A supra without singing is somehow boring. But when I’m celebrating with my friends who can sing, I could go on for days.”

Read the review of Iberi's Supra in the Songlines Reviews Database

This article originally appeared in the May 2022 issue of Songlines. Never miss an issue – subscribe today