Various Artists - Albania: There Where the Avalanche Stops - Music From The Gjirokastra Folk Festival 1988 (1990; 2019)

New on Touch; a first vinyl edition of ’There Where The Avalanche Stops’, a compilation of indigenous folk styles recorded at the National Folk Festival of Albania in 1990 and originally issued on CD

Revealing a spectra of folk styles to the vast majority of us who have never visited the quinquennial folk festival, held in a castle overlooking the town of Gjirokastra in southern Albania, the set speaks to the remarkable breadth of unique instruments and styles native to the region since ancient Iliryrian times (pre-Roman).

It’s a truly enchanting collection presenting selections from six of the 26 participatign districts - Vlora, Gjirokastra and Lorca from the south, and Shkodra, Debra and Tropoja from the north - and covering a gamut from spine-freezing, elegiac, layered vocal harmonies to bouzouki-sounding strings and flutes, and pinch-yourself scenes of pastoral bliss in the ‘Untitled Melody’ piece that is worth the price of entry alone.

Can’t afford a holiday this year? This LP will surely suffice.

Tracklist:
01. Unknown Artist - Tana's Legend (4:05)
02. Unknown Artist - If I Had Your Body (2:21)
03. Drita Metushi - Fairy of the Highlands (2:41)
04. Unknown Artist - Blessed Albania, Her Leadership Illuminates Her Road (2:02)
05. Unknown Artist - In the Dropull Plain (3:08)
06. Unknown Artist - Karaguna (2:59)
07. Unknown Artist - Untitled Melody (3:24)
08. Fatmir Dandlli - Let Us Sing to the Brave Men (2:53)
09. Eli Fara - Mule-Driver of Grebene (3:44)
10. Sofika Babliku - Korca, Your Son Has Come to See You (2:48)
11. Folk Orchestra of Korca - Untitled Orchestral Melody (3:48)
12. Myfterim Kupa - I Am Waiting for You at the Sheep-Pen Gate (2:25)
13. Unknown Artist - Bride's Dance (2:34)
14. Myfterim Kupa - The Sun and the Moon Don't Shine (2:03)
15. Ibrahim Muça - There Where the Avalanche Stops (3:29)