Ulyap Songs: Beyond Circassian Tradition

"The Songs of Ulyap" is the result of a multifaceted study of the small village of Ulyap in Adygea in the north of the Caucasus. Labels Ored Recordings and Flee, together with curator Nikita Rasskazov, have done tremendous work to document the local musical heritage, combining ancient motifs, rural traditions, criminal songs, and the influence of post-Soviet culture.

The album can be loosely divided into two parts. The first is authentic music recorded in field conditions, in musicians' homes, at festivals, and events. The second part consists of interpretations, remixes, and other experiments with ethnographic material.

In addition to music, Flee publish books, so the album comes with a richly illustrated collection of essays in English and Russian. According to Bulat Khalilov, co-founder of the label Ored Recordings, the idea of the book is to focus on the part of Circassian culture that is perceived as low and marginal, namely the drinking and "criminal" songs. For this, the authors invited two researchers of Circassian culture, Lina Tsrime and Madina Pashtova.

The book turned out conceptually heterogeneous. The authors argue and disagree with each other. For Bulat and Lina, this "low" genre of music is an indicator of the viability of Circassian culture. For Madina, it is more of an indicator of degradation. An excerpt from the book can be read on the EastEast website.

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