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South India: Music of the Nilgiri Hills / Various on CD

The recordings on this double album are the result of field-trips from August 2003 to June 2012 into the region of the Nilgiri Hills (the "Blue Mountains") in South India, which is home to the Kota, Toda, Mele-Nadu Irula and Alu-Kurumba people, among others. These indigenous groups create music - on instruments like the conical, belled 'Shawm,' the bamboo trumpet and the Idioglottal clarinet, with singing in a variety of techniques - that covers a vast aesthetic field, from the immediately "Indian" accents of Kota Bhajan, to Toda singing which seems to come from another world altogether. The release includes an extensive booklet with photographs and notes on the life and languages of these people.