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ARYAN MEMORY: MUSICAL TRADITIONS IN PAMIR (17.01.08)

Kailas Records, Dolina Bartanga and FULLDOZER present a unique deluxe collector's editon of traditional Pamir music "Aryan Memory". The set comprises a 6-page double DVD digipack holding two audio-CDs, a DVD and a 20-page full-colored booklet with information on musicians and conventional musical instruments of the Pamirs as well as a 100-page full-colored book in 14x25 cm format which describes the history of the Pamirs, beliefs and traditional ways of life of local residents (about 200 illustrations, texts are in both Russian and English). All components are packed in a bright-colored cardboard box. The Pamirs territory, being an almost inaccessible region, has preserved to this day tokens of the most ancient human culture, symbols, music, worldview, which are at least several millennia old - the spiritual foundation that gave birth to the greatest European and Asian cultures. But it should be mentioned that Pamir music is relatively unresearched, there have been issued only about five CD recordings, of which only one or two were favored with positive responses from the indigenous population of the Pamirs, because the spirit of this ancient civilization completely dissolves in recording studios and stays alive only when the music is performed in traditional environment. This recording of traditional Pamir music, presented in the "Aryan Memory" edition, is one of a few in this list, that had captured musicians in a fully unconstrained state and where the impact of sound-recording equipment was kept to a minimum. Particular attention should be given to the DVD, which is an integral part of the set. The film was shot both in the Pamirs in the River Bartang's Valley and at the Museum of musical instruments in Gurmindzh. It is an hour and a half long and it demonstrates the Pamir nature, it's ancient culture, dances and music and also exposes the psychology of the natives. There is no voice over or subtitles, the film relies mostly on meditative and trance-like perception. The book contains a lot of photos of forbidden regions of the Pamirs which in the recent times have been absolutely inaccessible to foreigners and are hardly accessible even now. Today the natives belong to the world famous but still mysterious sect of Ismaelites. There are currently no books in Russian which could unravel the main ideas of the mystic Isma'iliyah doctrine in spite of the immense interest toward it. In the "Aryan Memory" edition it has been attempted to make a brief reconstruction, based on scarce and frequently very contradictory information, of the Ismaelite religious and philosophical system, and an organic linkage with ancient Aryan popular beliefs has been shown. Most importantly, this edition focuses on the revealing of the traditional values of this last and therefore unique remnant of the ancient Aryan culture. The term "Aryan", which is used throughout the book, refers not only to Indo-Iranian or European nations; it could be applied to all the people who can feel their inner freedom. The word "Aryan" itself means "free", primarily concerning freedom from material world. "Speaking formally, the "Dolina Bartanga" (River Bartang's Valley) project is the result of several years of expeditions to the Mountainous Badakhshan aimed at collection of musical folklore and information about it's inhabitants. But in the essence, it is something far beyond it. <...> This is not a strictly specific net result of ethnographic research, but a certain original expression of intuitions, insights and hopes of our time. It could also be said that we are faced with a premonition of a new worldview paradigm. <...> We need to gaze more often in the "mirrors" of ancient cultures, we need to be reminded that our current state is neither an "invariant" one (unalterable by any transformations), nor a "natural" one (reflecting our essence) but an acquired one. It was different someday and will be different in the future... <...> A change of worldview is a turning point in history, and a skilful influence on it launches an unprecedented in scale and consequences project of qualitative renewal of the society..." (from a review of the "Aryan Memory" edition).
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