Comments for Paul Pena's Kargyraa Moan

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Produced by Jonathan Mitchell

Other pieces by Jonathan Mitchell

Summary: a blues singer discovers a new voice
 


Review of Paul Pena's Kargyraa Moan

All I can say is, musician or no musician, you should take a few minutes to listen to this piece. This piece introduces us to two new subjects, Paul Pena, and Tuvan throat singing. 'Throat singing!', you might exclaim, but I will bet you, after you listen to this piece you'll want to give it a try.

I'd accidentally stumbled into 'Genghis Blues' couple of years ago. I guess you'll have to look that title up to see what I mean.

But first, listen, listen to this piece. Notice how Jonathan introduces Paul and the unusual music (if you don't know about it).
A great example of radio verite. That term doesn't exist, you say? Now it does.

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Review of Paul Pena's Kargyraa Moan

Can you whistle and hum at the same time?

That trick contains something of the dissonance of harmonic singing (though Tuvan throat singers don't whistle Dixie, or anything else – they just sound like they've got stereo vocal chords double-barreling out of a singular throat).

Jonathan Mitchell's arts feature "Paul Pena's Kargyraa Moan" is composed of terrific notes: ethereal short-wave radio waves, an international treasure hunt, a serendipitous used record store discovery, a ruined Discman, and howls of frustration that, in harmonic convergence, turn sweet. Eventually, "Big Old Jet Airliner" lands in Central Asia for some Tuvan throat singing. There's a lot of story here.

Jonathan Mitchell is a marvel, a musician in producer's clothing. All his work is informed by his training, background, and talents in music. Here, interview is overlayed on interview, producing a richness of time and location that's astonishing in five-and-a-half minutes. And all the while, Mitchell is masterfully orchestrating a quartet of otherworldly songs.

The sheer focus of "Kargyraa Moan" is its broader limitation, though. It's a microscope set in the laboratory of Studio 360's "The Voice" edition, and MDs will be required to build out something more than the accompanying Host i/o to land this Big Ol' trippy tremolo back onto the public radio dial. Mitchell has "carried me too far away" to come back to regular melodic music so fast. Maybe Jonathan will refashion this vision for wider redistribution