ragnar johnson assisted by jessica mayer: sacred flute music from new guinea

Recorded by Ragnar Johnson, assisted by Jessica Mayer, in Papua New Guinea, April-August 1976. Tape-to-digital transfer by Dave Hunt at Dave Hunt Audio in London, July 2015. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin, August 2015. Notes and photographs by Ragnar Johnson and Jessica Mayer. First combined release. Originally released as two distinct LPs on Quartz Publications (!QUARTZ 001 (1977) and !QUARTZ 002 (1979)) by David Toop with the assistance of Sue Steward, Evan Parker, Robert Wyatt, and Alfreda Benge. Reissued as two distinct CDs on Rounder Records in 1999 (Rounder CD 5154 and Rounder CD 5155). Includes recordings of sacred flutes blown to make the cries of spirits by adult men in the Madang region of Papua New Guinea, pairs of long bamboo male and female flutes played for ceremonies in the coastal villages near the Ramu river, Ravoi flutes from Bak accompanied by two garamut (carved wooden slit gongs), Waudang flutes from the island of Manam accompanied by two large and two small slit gongs and six singers, Jarvan flutes from Awar accompanied by a shell rattle, and the cries of six different pairs of flutes and one pair of conch shells from the Ramu coast, two pairs of Waudang flutes from the island of Manam with singing, and Mo-mo resonating tubes from the Finisterre Range. Occasional percussion is provided by wooden slit gongs and hand drums. "We would like to thank the performers and people of the villages of Awar, Borai, Bo'da, Kaean, Kuluguma, Nubia Sissimungum and Damaindeh-Bau for making this record possible. Copies of the master tapes are in the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies, Port Moresby. Ragnar Johnson thanks the Canadian I.D.RC. for supporting his anthropological research. Thanks to Dave Hunt for transferring the original magnetic tape recordings onto digital media and to Stephen O'Malley, David Toop and Evan Parker for assistance."