There is so much music out there! Man-made, of course, but so much of it sounds alien or even science-fictional to our Western, mass-media-fed ears.

Take for example traditional music from Tanzania, choral singing from tribes living in African savannahs, songs passed down orally and never put on record -- until very recently! Impossible Music has released a CD of recordings of the "Loruvani Choir: Songs of the Maasai Steppe".

As CS says (he helped produce the record, and met Robinson when he was in Antarctica), a Westerner might not think of that music when he thinks "classical", but it is certainly classical to the ears of the Maasai culture! Think twice of that when you read The Memory Of Whiteness and try to conceptualize its Orchestra!

From the CD insert:

Spiritual and uplifting, Maasai and Swahili gospel songs, based on ancient and traditional tribal tunes which float out of the heart of the sweeping African grasslands, are the roots of rhythm which will affect East African music for decades to come.

These songs from the origin of the world will be as important and defining to East Africa as the Delta Blues were to America.

They will combine with sounds coming out of the Congo to form something we haven’t yet imagined.

It is possible to hear samples and purchase here.