The Wild Field
The Dmitri Pokrovsky Ensemble
This is an album of peasant songs from southern Russia, specific to an area known as "the wild field" because it has no natural barriers and over the centuries has been ravaged by invaders and marauding Tartars. The songs all date from before the 1917 Revolution. Most have been handed down generation by generation over several centuries and are now sung by workers on collective farms. Almost entirely vocal, the complex polyphonic harmonies build a web of rich, sonorous melodies.
The Wild Field at realworldrecords.com
