VARIOUS ARTISTS
South Pacific Island Music:
The Nonesuch Explorer Series (Nonesuch)
Reviewed by Sherman Wick

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I hate winter - the cold, the snow, the ice - all make life almost unbearable by mid-winter. One way that I combat this annual problem is with the Nonesuch Explorer Series. I may not be able to afford a vacation to the dozens of intriguing and exotic locations featured in this series. But I can buy one of these classic ethnographic music recordings and hear field recordings from Ghana, Burkina Faso, the Caribbean, Java, Tibet, Iran, India and Bulgaria to name just a few far flung locales featured.

My first exposure to this incredible series was the original recordings on used LPs and cassettes. Fortunately, the series has been reissued on CD, since the majority of the titles are extremely rare. South Pacific Island Music was first released in 1981, and showcases music recorded with groups in the Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji, Tahiti and other settlements in the various Island chains. The sound quality on all the songs are excellent; the music is pristine local folk music seemingly unaffected by outside culture influences. Hence, the musical vistas are astonishing. "Spirit Song U'ula" is a meditatively beautiful song from the Solomon Islands sung with passion by a men's group. Another highlight is a song sung by a large Tongan vocal ensemble, "Faikava Love Song," which is structured on a mellifluous melody. "Muli Tu Pe" is sung by a large chorus, who are accompanied by a drum that gradually builds in tempo to an exciting climax.

Overall, this is a consistently interesting record, and if you don't like a particular song, they're short enough that another will soon follow. The Nonesuch Explorer Series allows a porthole to world music inexpensively, and in the case of this listener, as an escape from the howling winds, omnipresent snow and frigid temperatures outside.

© 2005 - Sherman Wick