This CD box set, released seventy years after World War II ended, contains music composed by those who were persecuted during that same war; any performance of these works was strictly forbidden at the time. Nineteen Dutch composers were deported to concentration camps of which only six survived the atrocities. Others went into hiding or they survived using fake identities. Almost all saw their musical career end inopportunely.

This collection of traditional zäuerli (wordless yodels) was recorded by ethnomusicologist Hugo Zemp in the Appenzell region of northeastern Switzerland, an area known for its dairy farms. Zäuerli are among the most celebrated yodels in the world and have a very distinct sound. Contrasted with the yodeling of central Switzerland, which is high and fast-paced, Appenzell zäuerli are sung in the lower register of the vocal range and feature a relaxed voice, slow tempo, and an elongation of the tones. The yodels compiled here are songs of work—sung while milking cows or herding cattle—social life, and celebration.

The Laotian national instrument is the khène, typically an eighty centimeter (roughly a two and a half foot) long mouth organ constructed of seven or eight pairs of bamboo pipes that are connected with a small, hollowed-out hardwood reservoir into which air is blown. Its sound is similar to that of a violin, and it may be played as a solo instrument or to accompany singers and instrumental ensembles. The khène also occurs in a two meter (approximately six and a half foot) version, which few musicians have powerful enough lungs to master.
The khène can be heard on most of the tracks in this recording, which includes ritual music, wedding music, and songs such as "Lam Sithandone" sung by professional singers Thao and Nang Sikhone.

After two millennia under the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman empires, not to mention musical invasions from the West, what remains of Greece’s early musical heritage? What can be called “Greek”? Although the origins of musical genres and systems identified with the country are often confused, misunderstood, and mislabeled, this 1970 collection provides fourteen vivid examples of vocal and instrumental music from mountain and island regions that have maintained the closest ties to ancient tradition.

The city of Cuzco, Peru is home to a number of indigenous peasant communities. Much of their music continues to be associated with fertility rites and to mark agrarian cycles, but the Spanish introduced guitars, mandolins, and other instruments that the indigenous peoples adapted and blended into their ancestral music. The songs are sung in Quechua.
The liner notes, in English and French, provide information about the geography of the region, the history of its inhabitants, local rituals involving music, and especially the musical instruments heard on the recording.

Born in Manresa, Agustí Charles began his music studies at an early age. His first works in composition date from the 80s, under the guidance of his first composition teachers: Miquel Roger, Albert Sardà and Josep Soler. Later he studied with Franco Donatoni, Luigi Nono and Samuel Adler, as well as working with other composers and conductors including Joan Guinjoan, Cristóbal Halffter, J.R. Encinar and Ros Marbà.
He has had much recognition for his work, receiving nearly fifty awards, among these are the most important national and international composition prizes. He has also received commissions from important institutions and prestigious performers, as a result of which his music is performed worldwide.

Remembered in the west almost solely for his Soviet-era ballet The Red Poppy – and even then, for one popular selection from it, the energetic "Dance of the Russian Sailors" – Reinhold Glière is long overdue for a revival. If this 2006 recording by the Pulzus String Quartet of two of Glière's four string quartets gives any indication of his music's potential appeal, then it's high time that this neglected oeuvre is reassessed, both by ensembles in search of new repertoire and labels in need of fresh material.

The northern Vietnamese vocal song traditions of ca trù and quan họ are the focus of this recording. Ca trù, literally translated as “song with little tokens,” is a genre of Vietnamese chamber music sung only by female vocalists with instrumental accompaniment. Ca trù singing was inscribed on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding in 2009.
This 1976 recording was made in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam by noted musicologist Trần Văn Khê. The ca trù songs, including classics in the repertoire, are sung by Quach Thi Hô, one of only a small number of ca trù singers at the time.
Additional tracks are examples of quan họ songs. Quan họ is a genre that originated in Bac Ninh province (now called Ha Bac), about 30 kilometers from Hanoi. Sung by both men and women with instrumental accompaniment, the songs are passed orally from generation to generation.

In Iraq, maqam—a term referring to any one of the rhythmically complex and improvisational melodic modes of Arabic classical music, which dictate pitches, pattern, and song progression—is performed in three distinct regional styles by vocalists, instrumentalists, and mixed drum groups. This compilation of recordings by ethnomusicologist Habib Hassan Touma features various musical genres from Basra Province and Baghdad that provide a glimpse into the varied iqa’at (rhythmic forms) in traditional Iraqi music.

This recording presents in its entirety the “Invocation to the Goddess Yeshiki Mamo,” performed by Buddhist monks (lamas) from the Nyingmapa Monastery of Dehra Dun in India with the authorization of the private secretariat of the Dalai Lama. The monks, who represent one of the oldest Buddhist sects to be established in Tibet in the 8th century, are trained to produce vocal sounds at a very low pitch, believing the disembodied sounds to be the nearest to the divine. The liner notes provide a brief overview of the ritual to the goddess Yeshiki Mamo.

A second volume from the Dutch Masters series with the Hungarian cellist Tibor de Machula.

A hard-to-get volume of the famous Dutch Masters series. What to say? A man with such a beautiful name is bound to produce beautiful art. And cellist Tibor de Machula does indeed.