استاد بیلتون / Ustad Biltoon – استاد مهوش / Ustad Mahwash – and other great artists – МЕЛОДИЯ / MELODIYA Compilation

Ustad Biltoon

You can see here a compilation released on Russian Label Melodiya. Although the title of this LP could be translated by “Afghan Traditional Music“, the contents are almost all taken from Kabul radio recordings sessions. 

Here is a short list of artists you can find on this compilation: Jalil Zoland, Ahmad Wali, Mohammad Naïm Mazari, Ustad Mohammad Omar, Ustad Khyal, Ustad Mahwash, Ustad Rahim Bakhsh and Ustad Biltoon that you can hear above with a fantastic Logar song.

This compilation was released in 1979 on the only one Soviet Label of this time Melodiya – just one year after the communist Coup d’Etat and the same year as the Russian invasion – but we don’t know if songs were recorded during these trouble times or if it was taken from the archives of Radio Kabul. Unfortunately, except artists names, I’m not able to understand what is written on the back cover you can see above, and so I couldn’t say if the text is limited to musical and historical informations or if there is also any politic contents.

But the music is sounding free of all this as you can check now with a very beautiful Ghazal sung by Ustad Farida Mahwash:

Ustad Mahwash

Here are labels of this LP. Songs titles are not indicated, only a very short description like “traditional piece” which are not very reliable, especially since the order of artists on both sides doesn’t correspond with what we can hear on the LP.

Step by step, I will transfer all titles of this LP on the youtube channel. Hope you will enjoy them.