Soviet attitudes framed local culture as backward': the record label standing up to Russian imperialism

"Their gathering still had to be dispersed, but the enthusiasm that Ored Recordings inspires even among enforcers of the law speaks volumes about the power of what Khalilov and his friend and label co-founder Timur Kodzoko call punk ethnography: the recording of religious chants, laments and displacement songs at family gatherings, local festivals, in people's kitchens, to fight against the erasure of Circassian culture."

"When it was its own country, Circassia used to extend from the Black Sea shoreline in the west to the foothills and high ridges of the Greater Caucasus Mountains in the east, and from the Kuban River basin in the north to the mountain valleys bordering present-day Georgia in the south. After Russia invaded Circassia in the middle of the 18th century and then proceeded to systematically kill or displace about 95% of its people,"

Musician Bulat Khalilov and co-founder Timur Kodzoko run Ored Recordings to capture Circassian religious chants, laments and displacement songs at intimate gatherings and local events. Their approach, termed punk ethnography, prioritizes field recordings in kitchens, festivals and family homes to preserve endangered practices. Circassia once spanned from the Black Sea to the Greater Caucasus and from the Kuban basin to valleys bordering present-day Georgia. Russian conquest in the 18th century killed or displaced most of the population, fragmenting territory and producing diaspora communities across Turkey, the Middle East and Europe. Circassian culture retains distinct music, dance, customs and Sunni Islamic faith.

Read at www.theguardian.com