VISIT www.bulgarianmusic.net These are some of the stars of this CD Compilation: I. Valya Balkanska (Bulgarian: Валя Младенова Балканска) (born 8 January 1942) is a Bulgarian folk music singer from the Rhodope Mountains known for singing the song Izlel e Delyu Haydutin, part of the Voyager Golden Record selection of music included in the two Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977. Born in a hamlet near the village of Arda, Smolyan Province, Balkanska has been singing Rhodopean folk songs since her early childhood. She has been performing her reportoire of over 300 songs in Bulgaria and abroad. Balkanska is most famous for Izlel e Delyu Haydutin, which she recorded in 1972 accompanied by the bagpipe (gaida) player Dimitar Petkovski. Balkanska has been working with the Rodopa State Ensemble for Folk Songs and Dances from Smolyan, of which she is a soloist, since 1960. Her album \"Glas ot vechnostta\" (\"Voice from the Eternity\"), released in 2004, is a compilation of her best known songs, including A bre yunache ludo i mlado, Goro le goro zelena, Maychinko stara maychinko. In 2002, Balkanska was awarded the Stara Planina Order (the highest Bulgarian award).[1] She was honoured with her own star plate on the Bulgarian Walk of Fame in Sofia in December 2005. II.Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares & Yanka Rupkina. The Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir is an internationally renowned World Music ensemble that blends traditional six-part a capella repertoire with modern arrangements. It is most recognized under the recording name \"Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares.\" First created as the \"Bulgarian State Radio and Television Female Vocal Choir\" in Bulgaria in 1952 by Philip Koutev, \"the father of Bulgarian concert folk music,\" the choir is now under the direction of Dora Hristova. Koutev also created and conducted the Ensemble of the Bulgarian Republic in 1951. Singers are chosen from country villages for the beauty and openness of their voices, and they undergo extensive training in the unique centuries\' old singing style. Influenced by Bulgaria\'s Thracian, Ottoman and Byzantine history, their music is striking in its use of diaphonic singing and distinctive timbre, as well as its modal scales and dissonant harmonies (abundant second, seventh, and ninth intervals). Though the choir became widely known when the trend-setting English alternative record label 4AD released a pair of anthology albums in 1986 and 1988 with the now famous title Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, their recordings date as far back as 1957. The first pressing of the Voix Bulgares album was the result of fifteen years of work by Swiss ethnomusicologist and producer Marcel Cellier and was originally released in 1975 on his small Discs Cellier label. Ivo Watts-Russell (founder of 4AD) was introduced to the choir from a third or fourth generation audio cassette lent to him by Peter Murphy, singer from the band Bauhaus. He became thoroughly entranced by the music, and tracked down and licensed the recordings from Cellier. The group has since performed extensively around the world to wide acclaim and were honored with a Grammy Award in 1989 for their second album. Three prominent soloists of the group have also performed together as the Trio Bulgarka, notably on the Kate Bush albums The Sensual World and The Red Shoes. Wikipedia