Mien (Yao): Canon Singing in China, Vietnam, Laos

This album features four intricate samples of canon singing from Mien (Yao) hill tribes living in China, Vietnam and Laos. Recorded between 2009 and 2013 by Laurent Jeanneau, they offer a rich and varied portrait of heterophonic chant of the Mien across Asian borders. Jeanneau lives in Yunnan, China, close to his sources, and these tracks demonstrate both the stylistic continuity of Mien tribal singing as well as intriguing regional differences.

The album has extensive liner notes, with photos, names and locations of all singers, but being more than a mere act of ethnographic preservation, it provides a fascinating listening experience. The first and longest track, ‘Lan Pan Moon’, is an amazing duet sung by two Laos-based women, Keo and Na. Hypnotic and dreamlike, their voices keep diverging and converging over a span of 20 minutes, each voice meandering and adding ornaments in individual fashion. Atmospheric support is offered by cicadas, birds, and other outdoor sounds. The women’s lyrics make reference to the mythical origins of the moon, but also to the devastating impact of war in Vietnam and Laos, which forced so many Mien to flee their native grounds. The raw and ethereal qualities of these songs may remind one of Bulgarian or Sundanese traditional chant, though the chords are less strident than those of Bulgarian songs, and there is no instrumental accompaniment except in the last track, where loud gongs, drums and cymbals accompany a coming-of-age ceremony for a teenage boy in Vietnam. Powerful stuff.