David Dalle
Thursday May 27th, 2021 with David Dalle
New music from Bapi Das Baul, Namgar Lkhasaranova and music from Quebecois composer François Tousignant

Today we will look at Quebecois composer François Tousignant, who died too soon in 2019. Tousignant taught at the University of Ottawa and the University of Montreal and was a champion of new music. He conducted several series of new music in Gatineau and promoted new music through the National Arts Centre and local festivals, as well as on the radio. Despite his diverse career, Tousignant thought of himself primarily as a composer, and the Canadian Music Centre has helped fill out the discography of his compositions with a new recording of his music by Ensemble Paramirabo, a Montreal based ensemble whose focus is Canadian contemporary music. Before we get to the music of François Tousignant, we will start with two more new recordings. The first from the Buryat singer Namgar Lkhasaranova and her group "Namgar". The Buryats are a Mongolian ethnicity who live mostly in the Russian Republic of Buryatia in Southern Siberia. They mix traditional instruments and throat singing with some contemporary touches. The second new release is from the 8th generation Baul singer Bapi Das Baul (Baul is a mystical musical tradition from the Bengal region of Eastern India and Bangladesh).