Various Artists – A Musical Anthology Of The Orient: Georgia I

The Georgians have a particularly singular way of singing. It’s bonkers, harmonically, but absolutely brilliant. Nobody puts a foot wrong. My first thought when I heard it was ‘What the fuck was that?’ I just had to put the track on again and I was just completely blown away. I’d never heard any choral music anything like it. Not just quite like it, but anything like it. It was just, ‘How do they do that? Who’s got the tune? Is it partly improvised?’ I’m completely thrilled by it. How the hell it works is completely beyond me. I just like the noise that comes out. People say, ‘Oh, folk music is always simple and unsophisticated.’ Unsophisticated, huh? No it bloody ain’t! It’s bloody hard if you want to try and get it right, and to get it right is the least it deserves.