Music, Science, Geography and Psychology

[sevelos]

Found today an archive of Romanian Gypsy music and downloaded all of it. 
Romica Puceanu is simply great - get her MP3's here: http://aris.ss.uci.edu/rgarfias/kiosk/romica.html

I also found this song extremely cute: http://media2.nacs.uci.edu/rgarfias/mp3/banat/asa-mi-zice-lumea-nsat-banatul.mp3

My PhD supervisor finally answered an email of mine

Comments

[umishko]

Thanks for the music! where are you going to spend your birthday?

[sevelos]

In the ancient and eldritch city of Minsk, birth place of Alexander of Macedonia, Pope alexander the II and Alexander Ivanov Pahvalov.

[mapu]

You should like Esma Redzepova. I 'll bring you some songs of hers.

[sevelos]

Thanks. I downloaded some samples of Esma Redzepova from her site on the web. She sounds very able, dynamic Ugoslavian style (naturally). It even sounds as if her composer listens to Bregovic.
I would love to get some of her music.

I do recommend you to try Romica Puceanu - she's completely different from Esma. Low voice, slow singing, many sad tunes, more-classic (romanian) Gypsy music with slow solos played with exceptionally fast trills.
Try the link in my first post above... I mostly recommend downloading the "Cine nu-stie" album. It's souly and sad yet has a strong Gypsy edge.

[mapu]

I loved Romica, but for me, she is too quite, too modest in her intelligent collaborative dialogue with the band. I can tell you what I like about Esma. She is a simple-minded. Her voice is more “ethnic” than professional; so is the general mood of her band. They maybe less suitable than Romica’s “romale” for the big arena, and maybe their lyrics is less intricate but their harmony is contagious and melodies - danceable. And what I also definitely like about them is their “mizraxi” twist.