But Do They Wear Kilts?: Auli and "Zemzeme"

Our random tune for today is by Auli, a Latvian band formed in 2003 as a drum and bagpiping group, which is a bit of an oddity for that country. Some of its members came from the first drum and bagpiping group in Latvia, Dudinieki, which preceded them by 10 years. Latvia is not known for a tradition of drum and bagpiping, but Auli draws on folklore indicating that those instruments were frequently present in historical Latvia. Auli develops the sound of what they think Latvian bagpiping might have been, and combines it with drums, including one of the biggest tree trunk drums in the Baltics. Auli started out playing dance and bagpipe melodies and incorporating tunes and drum pieces of other European peoples, but they have since branched out, developing their own melodies and style to set them apart from other mediaeval piping groups in Europe. You have to admire their creativity! This song, Zemzeme, is from their 2010 release Etnotranss.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Source: http://auli.lv/