Thanks for choosing KTK airlines!
If you're into great music, no matter where or when it's been recorded then you're at the right place! Grab a drink,
take a seat, fasten your seatbelt. The pilot and the crew wish you a nice trip:
Far out, far east or somewhere else...


12/31/2012

KTK19: "THEY SING FOR YOU"


Hi everybody!
You sure now know we like to fly around and to get postcards from all over the globe. Well, it's been a while since the last postcard we recived. To end this year, we got some sweet little songs by some great singers who keep their musical traditions alive since thousands of years all over the world... And today, once again, "they sing for you".

It's quite hard to resist those kinds of cute ep's when you find them at flea markets: ILS CHANTENT POUR VOUS (IV), recordings by Georges Albouze (le chant du monde LDY 5004) from the sixties.

01 ALOUETTE LULU (Lullula arborea)
02 ALOUETTE DES CHAMPS   (Alauda arvensis)
03 TARIER PATRE (Saxicola rubetra)
04 MESANGE CHARBONNIERE  (Parus major)
05 HIRONDELLE DE CHEMINEE (Hirundo rustica)
06 HIRONDELLE DE RIVAGE (Riparia riparia)
07 PINSON DES ARBRES (Fringilla coelebs)
08 CHANTEUR D'AFRIQUE  (Serinus leucopygius)
(all scientific names leads you to a description)


 

Thanks for flying with KTK... see you next year

12/28/2012

KTK18: JUMPIN' AT THE BAR LEA

Welcome!
Ladies and Gentlemen, we hope you recovered well from christmass festivities... While waiting for new year's eve party let's go JUMPIN' AT THE BAR LEA, Papeete, Tahiti. By  Charley Itchner et l'Orchestre Bar Lea (Tahiti records, 1959). Produced by Eddie Lund who was already behind the record we talked about last week.

early sixties orchestra (Quinn's)
Not much is known about Eddie Lund exept that he was an american piano player who felt in love with the islands of Tahiti the first time he visited in the mid 30's. He then moved there and has been a major influence in modernizing the local folk music into tahitian rock & roll... Modern Tamuré was born! He wrote most of the popular songs of the 50's and 60's (either in french, tahitian or english) and became an icon of polynesian pop culture with many "cheesy" kitch covers of the genre in exotic places such as Poland, Germany or Italy.

Papeete nightlife (Quinn's)
Since the 50's Eddie Lund worked on many records edition (Tahiti records) and internationnal distribution through Criterion (USA) and Viking (New Zealand). He was also active in the night clubs life (playing keys at the Quinn's). This little Ep is a great occasion to feel the atmosphere of one of those early clubs, the "bar Lea".

01 TAMURE BAR LEA
02 TEI TE ARA TAU TINO
03 HAAMOE TO OE CARICATURE
04 TIARE AUTE



Though Eddie Lund was very active producing many records like as this one, he's been also productive with his own band (Eddie Lund and his tahitians) but we'll have more time to talk about this later... We hope you're enjoying the stay!

Eddie Lund

12/23/2012

KTK17: MINUIT CHRETIEN, NOEL POLYNESIEN, MESSE A TAHITI

Hi everybody! Here's your captain speaking... We started our musical trip a few months ago and I must admit I'm quite happy to notice that people from almost everywhere in the world likes to fly with us. Thanks to everybody! (Your little postcards are still more than welcome: kadaotonkao@gmail.com).
I'd also like to thank all the great bloggers for the good work they do to convert analog to digital and share so many awesome tapes and records that would be soon lost if nobody acts! Today, we're getting back to our first destination, Tahiti, and we'll be happy on this second trip around to get a closer look at mr Eddie Lund's work to promote the great local culture in early vinyl days... 
Well we'll soon have more time to talk about him in details but for now we got a special seasonal treat! MINUIT CHRETIEN, NOEL POLYNESIEN,  MESSE A TAHITI (Tahiti Records EL 1033) released in 1970.
Papeete's Notre-Dame Cathedral
On Christmass 1954 Eddie Lund recorded a live  performence at Papeete's cathedral (the day before the Christmass's public performance). This recording's been long lost until 1969 when it's been restored and released on Tahiti records and sold as benefit for the local school. Traditionnal church choir and organ where on the program of this evening...

01 MINUIT CHRETIEN (adam)
---LA MESSE (Eddie Lund)---
02 KYRIE
03 GLORIA
04 SANCTUS
05 BENEDICTUS
06 AGNUS DEI
07 DANS UNE ETABLE OBSCURE (Praetorius)
08 SANCTUD DE GOUNOD (solo orgue)
09 I TE PO (Eddie Lund)
10 ADESTE FIDELES 
If anybody know what the "LAST" sticker over the label stands for? Tell me
PERFORMED BY: 
Papeete's choir 
Directed by: Sarah Dexter 
Tenor solo: Henri Drolet 
Organ: Eddie Lund (who also composed for the occasion)
Most of the lyrics are in latin (as it's before Vatican II reforms) few in french and tahitian


12/20/2012

KTK16: MAROC (VOYAGES AUTOUR DU MONDE)

Ladies and gentlemen, last day in Maghreb! I guess the little stop at Jemaa El Fna was not enough to enjoy the morroccan atmosphere. Today we're getting some more with MAROC, VOYAGES AUTOUR DU MONDE (Philips P70.743 L) Though this LP is from 1960 all the recordings have been done in the 50's by Jean Mazel (who spent most of his career recording audio and video documents in Morocco, mostly for BAM records).
It's quite interesting to mention that the second side of this record have been previously released as a 10 inch record in 1955 under the name of FEERIE SUD MAROCAINE (Philips B76.048 R). The recording features comments in french by Jean Mazel himself and have been award winner of "Grand Prix Du Disque" in France.
This LP record have lots in common with the pervious post though it focuses more on the traditionnal music of the Middle and Grand Atlas (south of the country). The back cover features a text in both french and english to get more into it. A great record for sure!
FACE 1:
Le grand Ahouach de Telouet
(the great Ahouach of Telouet)
Flûte pastorale du Moyen Atlas
(Middle Atlas pastoral flute)
Ahidous d'El Hadjeb
(Ahidous of El Hadjeb)
Choeurs des Ait Hadidou
(Ait Hadidou choir)
FACE 2:
La caravane du Caïd
(Caïd's caravan)
Les hommes des tribus
 (Tribe mens)
Tambourins et pipeaux
(Tambourines and pipes)
Chants et danses à Ighboula
(Ighboula songs and dances)
Les mendiants bienheureux de Moulay Yakoub
 (Moulay Yakoub blissfull beggars)
Les charmeurs de serpents
(Snake charmers)
La Guedra de Goulimine
(Guedra of Goulimine)


cover of the 1955 10' version

12/19/2012

KTK15: CHANTS ET DANSES DU MAROC

Ladies and Gentlemen, good news today, the engine has been repaired and we hope that now all will be fine! We're happy to continue our journey around Maghreb. Today we visit Morocco, home of great music and some of the finest food in all Africa.
People and music at Jemaa El Fna

Here the food and music owns a lot to the various cultures and traditions you can find all around the country (Berbers, Gnawa, people from the mountains...). Great that you can find most of those cultures mixing together at night at Jemaa El Fna place in Marrakech. Today, we have CHANTS ET DANSES DU MAROC (le chant du monde LDY 4148). Some interesting recordings by Maurice Benitah (who did a bunch of other recordings for LCDM in Morocco in the 60's) This record gives us a nice view around Jemaa El Fna's atmosphere. I guess, the tracklist says it all... 
Our crew hope you'll enjoy the stay.
FACE A:
Ambiance De La Place Jamaa El-Fna 
(atmosphere at Place Jemaa El Fna)
Chanteurs Et Danseurs Gnaoua 
(Gnawa Singers and dancers) 
Charmeur De Serpents 
(snakes charmer) 
Chanteur De La Montagne  
(singer from the mountain)
FACE B:
Orchestre Marrakchi
(Marrakchi orchestra)
Orchestre Berbère Et Danseurs D'Amizmiz
(Berber orchestra and Amizmiz dancers)
Complainte Du Berger À La Flûte
(Shepherd's flute)
Appel Du Muezzin Au Coucher Du Soleil
(sunset Muezzin call for prayer)




Snakes charmers
If you got a chance to find it, Sublime Frequencies released a DVD on the subject a while ago called "Jemaa El Fna: Morocco's Rendez-vous of the Dead".

12/12/2012

KTK14: TRADITIONNAL IDHEBALEN (KABYLIE)

Ladies and gentlemens...
We still try to fix engine troubles. (If luck is on our side it should be OK by the end of the week and things should get back to normal very soon).
Today we get some great live music straight from our black box recorder! Traditionnal Idhebalen from Kabylie (north of Algéria) recorded a few weeks ago at a party by your captain.

Traditionnal Idhebalen orchestra
Traditionally, This "trance" music is played at parties and weddings. This live recording consist of a 3 pieces orchestra, (drums: tbal and darbuka and flute: zorna). It also include a participating audience. It's recorded right in the middle of it so you can feel the great atmosphere!
Live Idhebalen orchestra
(full set)
 
 
We really hope to be back very soon with some great music!
Thanks for flying with KTK

11/26/2012

KTK13: MOHAMED JERRARI, SIDI MANSOUR

Here we are in Sidi Mansour (Tunisia). The weather is nice, the sea and mountains too! While we are visiting the place, we enjoy some music...
It seems like Mohamed Jerrari had a big hit in 1979 with this popular song: SIDI MANSOUR  (EP on ENNA SHAM, STD 35C). There is at least six different editions of this 7' and you can find some versions of Sidi Mansour from other bands too...
alternative covers
01 SIDI MANSOUR
02 YALLI FIKROU DIMA MHAYER
 
Another version with a woman singing:
This week has been busy trying to repair some engine troubles. 
We'll sure have more music from Maghreb very soon... 
Thanks for flying with KTK.

11/21/2012

KTK12: CHANTS ET DANSES DES PAYS ARABES

Salam aleikoum!
Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking! We are now arriving in North Africa, we'll spend the next weeks travelling through Maghreb and Egypt. We really hope you are in a mood for dancing because we are!

I'm very happy to spend some time here! The music is really gorgeous and it reminds me of my young years when I could spend hours near the maghrebian tapes stands at local market. They where pumping their loud sound all around, mixing with coriander and spicy smells...
We'll start our journey with CHANTS ET DANSES DES PAYS ARABES (musidisc 30-CV-1378 from 1976), a wonderfull LP by Abdu El Hamid and his orchestra. They forgot to tell us where those musicians are from on the cover and made quite a bunch of misspelling errors. Otherwise they did a pretty good introduction job with traditionnal and popular songs from Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt: Men and woman vocals, darbuka and other percussions, banjo, mandolin, violin and flutes... Don't break your back trying to belly dance, we need you in good shape for next week!

01 LOTARAF MIN HIBBEK (if you knew who love you)
02 DANSE RAGSA MASRIA (Ragsa Masria dance) Egypt
 03 CHANT DU LABOUREUR (plowman's song) Egypt
04 HASEN, YA HSSEIN (Hussein the great) Egypt
05 AVEC TOI (with you) Algeria
06 DALAMOUNI (they humiliated me)
07 CONSCIENCE (conciousness) Tunisia
08 MALOUF (traditionnal) Tunisia
09 ANA OU ANTI, ANTI OU ANA (you and me, me and you) Tunisia
10 MATA NESTAHIRON (when will I rest?) Algeria
11 AIR DE MA PROVINCE (song from my district) Algeria


 
Alternative covers
Belly dancer
 You can read a brief history of belly dance here

11/16/2012

KTK11: POSTCARD FROM TEXAS

excerpt from a Daniel Johnston drawing
Allwright folks! I hope we did not forget any passengers in Vietnam... Anyway, we got a sweet little postcard from Texas today. I found it back while cleaning the mess in the cockpit... You would not belive all the great stuff you can in find there!


Cat Chamber live (2006)
 
Today we got this sweet "demo" CDR from CAT CHAMBER (2006). We got no cover, no info, not even song tittles. Just 21 home made tracks by a little girl and her dad. Lo-fi folk style with 6 years old kid lyrics, funny talks in between and dad on guitar (and a bunch of other stuff sometime). In the mood of Daniel Johston and the Moldy Peaches. More than the music itself, it's always great to see a dad spending time with his kid on creative projects! I found them a while ago and asked for some music, so I got this CD. I guess there are not much of it out of the neighborhood... I hope you'll enjoy!

21 unknown tracks

11/14/2012

KTK10: THIENG HAT QUE HUONG

Today is the day of our visit of Vietnam, we'll end up with an interesting LP from another obscure vietnamese label from France THIENG HAT QUE HUONG (Union des intellectuels vietnamiens de France SF 570-146, early 70's). It's probably from the same people as the 7' from last week (the label names and subjects are pretty similar).
Unlike the previous posts this record focuses mostly on Vietnamese folk songs and traditionnal instruments. It also include some poetry (02/10) exerpt from popular theater (04) and monochord instruments concerto (05). Though the gorgeous cover and record seemed all mint you can expect some windy noise all around... 
01 BAI CA DONG THAP GUI ANH CHIEN SI GIAI PHONG
"song from the rushes field"
02 BA ME SUOT
"mother Suot"
03 TOY GAP CHI AY
"meeting"
 04 HAU PHUONG GUI TIEN TUYEN
"the back of the front"
05 VI MIEN NAM
"for the south"
06 HO CHI MINH DEP NHAT TEN NGUOI
"Ho Chi Minh our dear uncle"
07 EM LA HOA PO-LANG
"I'm Po-lang, the mountain flower"
08 BA CA 5 TAN
"the song of the 5000kg"
09 XA KHOI
"song from the sea"
10 VAM CO DONG
"at oriental river Vai-Co"
11 SAIGON QUAT KHOI
"Saigon rise"
The crew hope you enjoyed the stay in Vietnam, get ready to get back in the plane... It's a long journey till we reach our next destination. Thanks for choosing KTK...
02 BA ME SUOT by kadaotonkao