Various Artists - Ritual Mouth Organs Of The Murung, Bangladesh

The Murung are people living in the hills of West Bangladesh, near the Burmese border. Consisting of a population of around 50,000, they have their own language and were able to avoid being converted to the neighboring religions.

Their main musical instrument is the plung, a mouth-organ (whose origin is from the region of Burma and Cambodia). It is made of a wind-chest made of a calabash gourd, several bamboo pipes (between three and five), and a bamboo mouth piece. Each pipe has a hole and contains a free reed which vibrates when the hole is closed by the fingers of the players. The reed will vibrate either when inhaling or exhaling.

A plung ensemble can contain between ten and 20 instruments of different sizes. The music is repetitive and rhythmic; it creates more tone-color melodies than real melodies. It is heard during particular events (weddings, funerals, or other celebrations or ceremonies). There is also another version of the plung, called the rina plung. It accompanies litanies, lists of names of ancestors, or love poems, which are half-sung and half-murmured. These songs are accompanied by ecstatic dances.

This record was produced in France during the Festival de l'Imaginaire. The Murung music was heard for the first time outside of their native hills of Bangladesh.