I had the opportunity to hear Ian Nagoski speak about and play tracks from his recent CD, The Black Mirror: Reflections in Global Music (Dust-to-Digital). Calling it his “mix tape for the world”, the CD contains world music gems Nagoski culled from 78rpm recordings. The selections Ian played were amazing (some not included on the CD, unfortunately) and his commentary was engaging. He provided a capsule history of recorded music touching on topics that remain with us–media conglomerates, planned obsolescence of hardware and media, piracy and bootlegging, how the disembodied sounds of recordings still captivate us… I wish I could have stayed to the end.

I did, however, pick up a CD and have been especially enjoying “Nam Nhi-tu” performed by M. Nguyen Van Minh-con and “Smyrneiko Minore” performed by Marika Papagika. It’s been a while since a single CD has offered such a variety of listening surprises. Check out audio samples here.