Slavic Folk Songs

Ansis Bētiņš and Artūrs Čukurs, like almost every other Latvian, grew up surrounded by folk songs. No wonder they developed profound love for different lyrical and singing traditions – communal singing occupies a central spot in Latvian culture. After years of studying classical singing, they started researching, interestingly, not Baltic but Slavic songs and techniques. Slavic Folk Songs delivers just that, but songs chosen by the duo are exclusively South and Eastern Slavic – Ukrainian, Belarusian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Macedonian – where the tradition of ‘white voice’ is the strongest to this day. To stress the uniqueness of this technique, Bētiņš and Čukurs decided to perform songs a cappella. A bold and powerful move. The richness and depth of their voices is just stunning, but sometimes their performance becomes too static, recalling Soviet-era folkloric recordings. Thankfully, the album is divided in two parts. In addition to studio recordings it contains a live performance from Stockholm in March 2023. This second part is much more dynamic and less perfect, which makes it more interesting and soulful. As a whole the album serves as a good overview of traditional Slavic singing.