su wai: gita pon yeik

Su Wai is a modern virtuoso of the ancient Saung Gauk, a Burmese harp instrument of both royal and religious significance (fashioned to resemble a leaf of the bo tree which the Buddha attained enlightenment beneath) with roots as far back as the 6th century. In this collection of 8 traditional poem-songs, Wai unfurls clusters of melodic lines alongside a cyclical bell chime-pulse to accompany texts drawn from the Mahagita, a collection of 500 court songs not unlike the British Isle's Child Ballads. Recorded in masterful fidelity by Burmese ethnomusicologist Rick Heizman (White Elephants and Golden Ducks, Green Tea Leaf Salad) and presented here for the first time on vinyl, Gita Pon Yeik offers a small window into a tragically under-documented royal tradition that sits comfortably next to both ethnomusicological documents and abstract avant-garde folk forms.