THE FLYING ZOO: Choral

21/02/2023

Raising prayers to heaven

Yvonne and Yvette McCarther (1950 - 1993) were craniopagus twins, one of the rarest types of Siamese twins. They had separate personalities, brains and other organs but shared a circulatory system.Yvonne & Yvette spent many hard years as sideshow attractions, but were tapped by their church to go into the gospel field. These recordings were private pressings not made for public distribution, and include their raucous 60's pairing plus a sweet childhood chant and an unusual incantation by their mom, set to spook show organ grinding; after that, they became successful gospel singers.

Yvonne & Yvette - After It's All Over

After being in the circus for a few years, they became succ ..

24/01/2022

In search of light

Anchiskhati Church Choir is a Georgian choral group, formed by Malkhaz Erkvanidze, Davit Zatiashvili, Guram Gagoshidze, Rezo Kiknadze, Davit Shughliashvili, Zaal Tsereteli, Temur Imnadze, Alexandre Khakhishvili, Vasil Tsetskhladze, Mamuka Kiknadze, Grigol Bulia, Gocha Giorgadze, Davit Megrelidze, Levan Veshapidze, Gocha Balavadze and Nikoloz Beriashvili, A shared love of Georgian folk song brought a group of Conservatoire students together in 1987. Their aim was to study Georgian traditional song, both well-known and lesser known examples.

Alongside learning songs, an interest in learning old, forgotten traditional polyphonic church hymns soon emerged. This became possible thanks to several collections of transcriptions of Georgian chants published at the end of the 19th century and preserved at the Georgian Folk Music Department of Tbilisi State Conservatoire. A very important priority for the young singers was to select their repertoire from recordings of old folk singers, where they could find a number of examples, not performed by any contemporary folk groups. A large place in the repertoire of the choir was occupied by songs of renowned folk singer Benia Mikadze (from the village of Kulashi, Samtredia District) and his choir "Sanavardo", as Malkhaz Erkvanidze, "Anchiskhati’s" young leader and Benia Mikadze shared the same village roots.

Anchiskhati Choir - Polyphonic Voices Of Georgia