Ulyap Songs: Beyond Circassian Tradition

Fans of the traditional sounds of the Northern Caucasus will be familiar with the name of Bulat Khalilov and the record label he co-founded, Ored, which focuses on unvarnished but meticulously planned recordings of village music. In this case the village is Ulyap, a small neat settlement in the Adygea Republic with an outsize reputation for its garmon accordion players (this information comes from the absorbing 143-page book that accompanies the sounds, where biographies, philosophy and academic essays jostle with one another).

A first listen (without looking at the book) revealed the familiar Ored sound of garmon, group and solo singing, and minor key melodies that circle around themselves via a major key before returning, here leavened with Russian-influenced underworld chanson. But then it morphed into something quite unexpected: accordion samples above a bass loop and jerky drums, a choir drenched in reverb and delay, odd scrapings, sporadic electronic drones, ominous strings transforming a cheerful dance song into a thing of menace and jumpy glitches. The record becomes a collaboration between the transnational FLEE collective and Ored, with contributions from experimental artists from the area now living abroad using the recordings as material or inspiration. Endlessly fascinating, with a weird, unsettling beauty.