Various Artists – Musique Inuit – Inuit Music (Ocora, 2025)
Ocora Radio France released Musique Inuit – Inuit Music – From Thule to the Bering Strait, a one-disc set drawn from field recordings captured by French scholar-explorer Jean Malaurie between 1960 and 1987. The album gathers performances from communities stretching from Thule to the Bering Strait, presenting songs, throat singing, and drum pieces recorded during multiple polar missions.
The collection distills roughly forty hours of tape made across six Arctic regions. Malaurie framed the project as documentation first and tribute second, noting that Inuit artists worked with him “in a spirit of friendship and trust” to safeguard an “irreplaceable” heritage. “Listening to their music is essential to understand a people,” he wrote in 1988 notes translated by Jeffrey Grice.
Malaurie (1922–2024) led 31 Arctic expeditions and became known for extended field work that bridged geography, ethnography, and anthropology. He served as Emeritus Director of Research at the CNRS, was Director of Studies at EHESS in Paris, authored The Last Kings of Thule, and founded the “Terre Humaine” series. He died at home in Dieppe on February 5, 2024, at age 101.
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.