Your Face is Like the Moon, Your Eyes Are Stars

Zhungdra music, according to Kuensel, Bhutan’s national newspaper, ‘was first performed [in Bhutan] in the 17th century to commemorate the victories over Tibetan invaders. It was performed as a gesture of appreciation to the protective deities Yeshey Gonpo and Pelden Lhamo.’ Field recordist and producer Ian Brennan crisply documented the 12 Zhungdra pieces in this album ‘live in a hilltop forest outside of the capital, Thimphu.’ In ‘The Day You Were Born’ the female choir weaves a simple pentatonic melody for nearly seven minutes creating gentle, rich, flowing textures. The rest of the songs are solo singing with accompaniment on either a drumnyen, a lute with three double-strings, a lim wooden flute, and the chiwang, a two-string, bowed fiddle. ‘Even If You Remember the Home You Left, You Must Remember Where You Are’ has, with the combination of lute and fiddle, an earthy, almost bluesy, feel similar in some ways to the desert blues of Mali but set in the Himalayas.