Music from the Pirin Mountains

The Bisserov Sisters are to Le Mystère de Voix Bulgares as the New York Dolls are to Blink-182, a pure example of a musical tradition as opposed to a slickly packaged commercialization. Although the three sisters (lead vocalist Lyumbimka, and harmony singers Mitra and Neda) are conservatory-trained, they perform the music of their Bulgarian homeland in strictly traditional style, accompanied by the three-man instrumental group Karadzovska, who play strictly traditional Bulgarian instruments. This 70-minute set, recorded in front of a live audience in Amsterdam, finds the sisters and their musicians essaying 26 different traditional tunes from the Pirin Mountains, ranging from the tricky Turkish-influenced instrumental "R Cenica," to the sweetly wistful love song "Zlatoj Mome." The sisters' vocals are sublime, and all the instrumentalists are skilled players, giving the album a directness often missing from the more academic iterations of this form of music. That the album ends with "Kicice," which the extensive liner notes dryly describe as a "party song" before explaining that the verse is basically an invitation to a knife fight for the honor of the village's maidens; it shows the earthy humor and local color this type of collection often lacks.