Music of Micronesia

The Musicians of Micronesian - The Spirit of Micronesia (1995)


I was reading a bit on the group of islands known as Micronesia a few months back and the search for music from this crazy place begun. I am interested in music from every part of the world, and luckily these tiny islands were easier to crack down than I expected. After going through several weird websites that haven't been updated since the 90s I found this fucking amazing disc. Micronesia consists of a grouping of islands in the pacific; the Republic of Kiribati, the republic of the Marshal Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia which are Kosrae, Pohnpei, Chuuk, Yap, the Republic of Palau, Saipan and Guam. I really have never heard anything like the music on this disc, which consists of recordings from most of the islands. Sticks, conch shells, little kids laughing, terrifying sounding moans, hymns, and the sound of the tide are the main contributors, a box making a guest appearance. Heavy on the vocals and most of the time obvious what they are about, one native islander on Amazon.com even got pretty pissed that they included one of the funeral recordings. Some of the most powerful music I have ever heard that unfortunately seems to be out of print. Recorded on Smithsonians off-week sometime in the 90s, grab this wonderful stuff.