Martin Koenig - 'Sounds Portraits from Bulgaria' [Interview Video]

In November 2019, Smithsonian Folkways released Martin Koenig’s documentation of Bulgarian folk music and culture as ‘Sound Portraits from Bulgaria: A Journey to a Vanished World.’ Watch this interview video to hear him discuss the tradition of table songs, his support from Alan Lomax and Margaret Mead, and the sentimentality behind the project’s release.

Photographs by Martin Koenig
Music Recorded by Martin Koenig
Interview and video by Charlie Weber

'Sound Portraits from Bulgaria: A Journey to a Vanished World' is available as 2xCD Book Set and Digital.

Stream/download/purchase:
Smithsonian Folkways: https://folkways.si.edu/sound-portrai...
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All other platforms: https://orcd.co/soundportraitsfrombul...

Between 1966 and 1979, educator and cultural documentarian Martin Koenig made half a dozen trips to Bulgaria. Working in villages throughout the country, Koenig filmed, recorded, and photographed the lively, yet endangered, aspects of Bulgaria’s traditional culture. The results are indelibly gathered in Sound Portraits from Bulgaria: the vibrant rural life he experienced, the virtuosic musicians and dancers he met, the extraordinary music they made, and the joyous rituals and festivals he witnessed. This collection celebrates a way of life that has largely vanished due to industrialization, technology, globalization, and emigration.

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