Is there any link between the music from countries in mountainous regions? This programme was inspired by a whim, after listening to an album of traditional music from the Carpathian Mountain of Ukraine, which reminded me of various other records, herewith strung together. Only at the end did the sound seem to change entirely, with the dense and intense throat singing of Tuva. Otherwise, there was lots of space and air, pretty much what you might expect.

The album of Carpathian Mountain Music arrived in a package of traditional Ukraine music sent from Poland at least two years ago. Much of it defeated my tolerance but on returning to this one, I was reminded how attractive the playing is.

For many of us whose interest in music from the rest of the world fits into the time frame of what has come to be known as world music, David Byrne opened the door to Peruvian music with his compilation of African-influenced songs, Soul of Peru. Soon afterwards, Globestyle compiler Ben Mandelson expanded our horizons further with the provocatively title Real Music of Peru, hinting at the pre-African influences of the village music of the mountains, collectively known as Huaynos & Huaylas (pronounced, approximately, waynoes and why-las). Wild saxophones and ecstatic singing stick in the head years after the album was last listened to..

Aynur is a traditional singer from the Kurdish region of Turkey, who captured my heart as a guest performing live at the WOMEX trade fair in Seville 2006. She has made other records since her debut, but Keçe Kurdan (Kurdish Girl) remains the one to recommend.

In the United States, mountain music implies the banjos and fiddles of bluegrass music from the Appalachian, pioneered by Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys, with a few yodels thrown in.

Of the last three artists, all from countries on different slopes of the Himalayas, Zainidin Imanaliev feels closest to what Westerners think of as the blues, but when I asked Zainidin if he had ever heard the blues as a young men, he angrily retorted that the only music he was allowed to hear on the radio back then was whatever was being peddled by the Communist regime in Moscow.

Yungchen Lhamo is a Tibetan singer whose career has been boosted by the Peter Gabriel’s Real World label. On ‘Ngak Pai Metog’, she sang all the voices, assembled by producer Hector Zazou as a backing group to accompany her lead vocal.

Finally, the powerful sound of Huun Huur Tu, the group which has become the best-known of the many exponents of what the West refers to as throat singing. In Tuva, this is simply how people sing.

Many thanks to the forum contributors for their suggestions for this programme.

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