Central Asia PhoNographic Mornings #09/15
Each Morning of the World #09
Almaty ~ Kazakhstan
« Love Songs of the Silk Road »
Burt Gregory
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I hopped off a plane on a winter morning in Kazakhstan, and only had limited time before my bus was leaving for the countryside. I heard some of our Camera Operators were planning to film with a local group, Kausar Mura, and jumped at the opportunity to add some sound to the pictures. It took me a long time in morning traffic to arrive at the park to meet the musicians, so I arrived a bit late and they were already quite cold. To add to my challenges, the park was situated next to a busy roadway. I barely had enough time to plug in my microphones and press record before they started playing, so I hastily positioned my mics as well as I could, and rolled on some beautiful traditional Kazakh music. I was told by one of our local fixers that the second song, Kozinnin Moldirin-Ai, is a very old love song from the silk road, and is written and sung in a very old dialect, similar to a “Shakespearean” style of wordplay. Before I knew it the musicians were packing up and I was off on a bus journey eating noodles and horsemeat, with a full heart and beautiful music to carry me through my short 2-day journey to this lovely country. I look forward to going back and recording more!

Featured Artist : Kausar Mura
A blend of two songs –
Song 1 : Unknown title, Traditional
Song 2 : Kozinnin Moldirin-Ai, Traditional


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Burt Gregory
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Born in San Francisco, CA, I was constantly entranced by the then-vibrant collection of street musicians all over the city. I started making crude recordings at a young age and followed that path into making field recordings of musicians in other countries, mainly the middle east at first. I was then guided into the film aspect of sound and have worked on a wide array of film and TV projects, but still retain the focus of recording music and wildlife. I have recorded in over 100 countries and still counting. I record specialty audio for “The Amazing Race”, collecting music and ambiance from all of the countries visited on each season of the program. I am currently building projects based on music and language preservation on the African Continent. I live in Brooklyn, NY.

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www.soundcloud.com/burtislistening
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