Marisa Anderson details The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music Vol. 1, due May 22, based on selections from a private archive of global recordings. Across nine pieces, Anderson reworks songs linked to Southeast Asia, the USSR, and Arabic regions, focusing on form, tone, and instrumental interplay. Proceeds from the release will partially benefit the nonprofit Tamizdat. “Quodlibet” is the new excerpt.
She explains: “This was one of the earlier pieces I worked on. It sounded pretty straightforward until I actually tried to transcribe it and realized that the source melody doesn’t lend itself to the guitar. That tripped me up for a bit, until I realized that just about every song I would be working with would be similarly out of reach and I decided to just go for it and adapt the tune as best I could. The drone is played by a small chromatic accordion that a traveling friend brought back from Eastern Europe many years ago. I’m happy with the result although the song feels a bit simplified when compared to the original, perhaps making it a good illustration of what is lost in the transposition of music from the east to the west.”
Listen below.
