Maldivian Traditional Music from V.Keyodhoo is part of a special project for Asasi Records with the sole objective of paying tribute to gifted yet unrecognized artists of traditional music in the Maldives history. In association with the label name "Asasi" which means essential or fundamental in the Dhivehi language, we at Asasi Records felt strongly about fulfilling this long overdue obligation of capturing on record the raw talents of these artists depicting traditional Maldivian music at its best. This recording was made in 2012 in the island of V.Keyodhoo on 22nd and 23rd June, just a few months after establishing first contact with the artists. At the time of this recording, Mariyam Hassan (lovingly known as "Maama"), whose beautiful voice you will hear recorded here for the first time ever was over 100 years old, and her son, Manikbe was in his early 70s. It was certainly a surprise to us at Asasi Records that neither Maama's voice nor Manikbe's amazing talent had been recorded before. There is no doubt that this has been an amazing journey of discovery for us at Asasi Records. As conveyed to us by the artists, this has also been an incredibly novel and rewarding experience for the artists as prior to this, they have not heard even their own voices being played back. All the recordings in this CD were recorded live, and with one take. They are raw and unedited. While it was certainly possible for us to sweeten the final mix with edits and overdubs, the objective of this project is to share the natural performances of these priceless and historic recordings. This 3 CD set is a collection of the most important forms of Maldivian traditional music. A total of no less than 30 people took part in these performances. We are very proud to be part of this recording, and now, Maama's beautiful and unique voice can be appreciated by generations to come.
