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SUNDAY NIGHT AT THE PALLADIUM , "M5 . , *-
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20, 21, 22, 23 August 11.30pm
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1, 2 September 10pm £12.00 (£10.00)
An evening of spoken word with
. ,3 3,4,5 September '10pm 51‘ ..£10.00(£8.00),
FRINGE BOX OFFICE 0131 226 5138 CREDIT CARD HOTLINE 0131 226 2428 ALSO FROM VIRGIN 8. RIPPING
78 rususr 6—13 Aug 1998
Eastern Promise
It started as a trickle but it's turned into a tide. Prepare to be washed away by the sound of the East meeting the West. WOrds Norman Chalmers
Move over Celtic muSrc — that homely knotwork of modal melancholy from the Western fringe of Europe - for a new sound is rismg in the East, bringing strange instruments and startling, unfamiliar singing styles to refresh the Jaded Edinburgh palate. From the huge land mass that stretches from former Communist Eastern Europe to the Pacific Rim, comes Ando Drom’s authentic Hungarian Gypsy folk and Makvirag’s Magyar music, both at the Grouse House, The Japan Experience’s Oriental zither and ritual Japanese drumming, and the rare, wrldly mysterious overtone singing of Huun Huur Tu, an exotic, stunningly gifted quartet from remote Tuva on the borders of Siberia and Mongolia
Cafe Graffiti is the focus of much of this activny, a result of last year’s hugely successful concerts by Loyko, the knockout violin and guitar trio from the Russian Far East. They were so impressed by the Edinburgh Festival and Graffiti ambience that they’ve pulled musrcal friends from all over the former Sovret Union, and return this year to create an exotic festival-wrthin-a-festival. Deep tradition, conservatory training, courageous, fleet-fingered imagination and astonishing instrumental and vocal virtuosity sets all these musicians apart from most of the
Huun Huur Tu: unlike anything you've ever heard before
musical entertainment on the Fringe.
Graffiti's 'East Winds' programme presents solo (lassrral gtritar (Yuri ZUZIH‘.) and piano (Irakly Avalianr), and the internationally famous, and r'rarrly eclertrr Terem Quartet from St Petershurr) At the rootsier end of the menu, Myllarit, a sextet from the former Finnish hearf'anil of Karelia, now part of North West Russia, ‘.'.ll| perform their up-to-the-minute take on toll: dance arnonr; the trees and fairy lights of the Graffiti Harden most e'.i‘«r‘.':ds life/Pier, the 20th century Jewish/German/American popular music hybrid is the provrnce of Calalaila, led by a wild woman clarinettist, while Loyko's ferocious fiddle technique is rumoured to frighten Yehudi Menuhin and their SliVH'lL} COUld send an SAS rnan sohhing into his vodka
For a truly spine-tingling experience, a olimpse into another musmal universe, Huun Huur Tu must be heard The ability to sing two or more notes at the same time is called laryngeal, or overtone srngirio, where the upper ltarr‘TOT‘rKS are selectively accentuated to produce secondary melodies These elusive, hair-raisingly mysteriOus skills are central to traditional Tuvan culture, but what the four musicians of Huun Huur Tu do, in common with some (onte'nporary Western groups, is to marry ancient melodies, rhythms and forms, traditional instruments and skills v.2t"= ‘>("l?lT|STLC‘i'lI€3d muSicaI insight and modern imagination
MOre used to climbing down from a 4x4 than a horse, they’re no strangers to Europe and the US, haying collab0rated wrth Zappa, Ry Cooder, the Kronos Quartet and the Chieftains, but it’s their first vrsrt to Edinburgh and the resonance of Graffitr’s huge vaulted auditorium
See Festival Supplement for full details.