Riti, Riti
Iļģi
Labvakar LBR 001
This CD is incredibly hard to acquire, but my Latvian coworker Ints happened to spot a copy for sale at a Latvian folk festival in the San Francisco area and, remembering how I’d been so taken by his copy (having borrowed it at least twice and returned it with reluctance), very thoughtfully bought it for me. So it’s doubly cherished by me, and its value is now inestimable.
Although there are no English translations for these songs in the CD’s booklets, just one-phrase descriptions, the Latvian lyrics are included, which I appreciate nearly as much as English translations. But even with neither this CD would be a joy for me, largely for “Tumša Nakts, Zaļa Zāle” and “Irbes Dziesma,” both of which fascinate me endlessly; the former is the more magical, for me, sounding like a clandestine magical ritual performed in a dark and cold cathedral…. What’s truly bizarre is to compare this recording to the 2003 one by the same group in which it sounds not only completely different but like an entirely unrelated thing…the resemblance is only to be found in the melody line.
Comments © 2005 Mark Ellis Walker, except as noted, and no claim is made to the images and quoted lyrics.