Folklore ensemble of the village of Lebskoye in the Arkhangelsk region of Russia

The village of Lebskoye lies on the River Mezen in the Arkhangelsk region in Northern Russia. In 1977 Soviet folklorists Y. Kustovsky and S. Ayvazyan invited the local folklore collective to Moscow and arranged a recording session at the All-Union Recording Studio. In 1978 these songs were published as an LP by the Soviet record company "Melodiya". 13 of the original recordings are stored in the phonoarchive of the Institute of Russian Literature in St. Petersburg.

The LP cover contains no additional information on the ensemble or the songs they are singing. As you can hear, the singers are all elderly women, and both the songs and the manner they are presented in are highly traditional and authentic. My personal favourite is no 12, "I feel awfully sorry for those that aren't here", sang in a sort of "Honkey Tonk Women" fashion.

The little "a" in the catalogue number S20-09875-76(a) reveals that this printing was meant for export. It would be interesting to know, how many copies did they actually print and sell?

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Amateur groups from the cultural house of the "Steaua roşie" clothing factory, Chişinău

During Soviet times, the "Steaua rosie" clothing factory was the flagship of light industry in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. Founded in 1945, the factory received the name "Steaua rosie" (Red Flag) in 1975. During those days, it had 18 workshops, 240 work brigades and 3855 shock workers.

In the the Capitalist Republic of Moldova the factory became "Steaua Ltd". In 1999, it went bankrupt. Almost all dressmakers were sacked, and those left now work for an Italian company.

Let us commemorate the work of those seamstresses with a 7" EP published by the Soviet record company "Melodiya" in 1976. The folk tunes on this disc might not be particularly inspiring, but do pay attention to "Factory Girls" - a real gem that is actually written by a well-known Moldavian composer Yevgeni Doga, whose music you might remember from the popular film "Tabor uhodit v nebo" (1975).

01 Fabrichnye devchata (Y. Doga - M. Krupnik)
02 Bukuria (Moldavian folk song arranged by P. Frekaucanu)
03 Nunte vesele (Y. Doga - N. Chepraga)
04 Syrga (Moldavian folk song arranged by P. Frekaucanu)

1, 3 - vocal ensemble "Primevara" led by G. Rotta
2, 4 - folk music orchestra led by P. Frekaucanu

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