Madagascar: Pays Antanosy Sarandra

Madagascar, an island off the southeastern portion of Africa (and probably only known to most Americans because of the 2005 film of the name) is more culturally related to the Indonesian archipelago a few thousand miles east across the Indian Ocean though it is also deeply tied to France because of the colonial control asserted by that European power for about six decades until independence came in 1960 and also has strong religious affiliations with Islam.

The Malagasy people include the Antanosy, who largely occupy the southastern end of the island, and this recording from the great Ocora label focuses on sarandra, a genre of singing that the liner notes compares to the performances of Andalusian flamenco vocalists in northern Spain.  Moreover, it is said that the genre "really comes into its own when performed at funeral wakes" as "this music plays the role of memory" and involves "a sort of emotional commentary on the deceased" and relationships with the living and ancestors.  The singing is also described as blues-like and employs many notes to a syllable in the lyrics and it is telling that "the Antanosy say they love musical expression because it makes them cry."

Instruments include the sosoly, a type of flute broadly called the sodina, and is related to the ney used extensive in Arabic music; the kabosa, or lute, and which also came from the Arab and Persian migrations of long ago and another word used is mandaly, akin to mandolin; the langoro, or membranophone, which is a two-skin cylinder-shaped drum hit with a pair of sticks; and, occasionally, the atrañatra, a xylophone played only by women and situated on their legs, jejo bory, or short lute, and the lokanga, or fiddle, though these have been falling out of favor.

A little more than half the tracks, the first 11, were recorded in Paris in 2006, while the remaining nine were captured in various locations in Madagascar between 1998 and 2000 and, while the instrumental portions can be quite remarkable, it is the vocalizations that are the most striking and evocative.  As with other music in areas of the world that are totally, or almost completely, unfamiliar, hearing this album is an incredible experience, opening vistas that help bring at least a modicum of understanding about what brings people from very different backgrounds together through the universal language of music.