Dreaming in Gobi Review by O. Corff (Nota Bene: Throughout this article, the original trans- literation of Mongolian names in the leaflet accompanying the CD is kept here for reference purposes) Dreaming in Gobi. MCB 93-6868. Singers: Namsrai Gankhuyag and Batmunkh Sarantuya. Playing time: 42:30. Arranged & marketed by MCB Holdings PTE Ltd. Distributed by: Garnet Co. Ltd., Mongolia. Manufactured and printed in Japan. Available in Ulaanbaatar as cassette tape for US$ 5.50, as CD for US$ 16.50. Listening to this record may raise some listener's eyebrows because it is definitely not what one expects as "Mongolian Music", a term which seems to imply that it is to be under- stood as "Mongolian Folk Music" or "Mongolian Traditional Music". To make a long story short, this record is neither "Folk" nor "Traditional" music. Far more it appears to be the first available disk with modern Mongolian soft pop music! I may be mistaken in that point but I did not find any other record yet with the same genre of music produced by Mongolians. In 1992 there was the group "Xar Chono" - Black Wolf, and there used to be also a rock group in that time which had the name "Chinggis Khan". They even went to Japan to participate in a music festival over there (and even won a special prize). But this is also a story of 1991/1992. Also I did not follow up their activities and do not know whether they actually produced commercially avail- able tapes or CDs. The music these groups made was rock, even hard rock and nothing as soft as this "Dreaming in Gobi" which does not seek to perturb the ear but tries in- stead to please the listener with melodious tunes, nice electronic piano accords, a style of singing which is some- where located between Chinese and Japanese popular music and which would be considered "Schlagermusik" in Germany. Some of the tracks have a nice rhythm and are in a way danceable but this is not wild dance. At maximum it is what can be ex- pected in a Karaoke club. The tracks are as follows (M: Music; L: Lyrics): 1) Kara-Korum. M: Sansar. L.: Ganbaatar 2) Zurh min uilah youm (My heart is crying). M: Altanhuyag 3) Ainy Shuvuud (Birds of Passage). M: Khangal 4) Anirguin Shivne (Silent Whisper). M: Enkhbayar. L: Turmunkh 5) Khavar (The Spring). M: Tsogdelger. L: Tsogtsaikhan 6) Denjin Nogo (Grasses of the Hill). M: Gonchigsumlaa 7) Ulaanbaatar Udesh (Nights in Ulaanbaatar). M: Purevdorj 8) Zuudnii Gobi (Dreaming in Gobi). M: Chinzorig. L: Lhag- vasuren 9) Superman. M: Balhjav. L.: Enkhe. 10) Buuven Du (Lullaby). M: Purevdorj. L: Zedendorj 11) Denjin Nogo (Grasses of the Hill) - Instrumental Most of the songs are sung by both singers who have clear and understandable voices. The singers occasionally try to blend elements of traditional Mongolian singing style with modern pop music but the musical loans from Mongolia do not go much further than that. Track no. 8) is the one which gave its name to the disk. It tries to catch the image of the Gobi by using a wind machine as a sound background. Track no. 9) has the most "aggressive" rhythm and reminds me of french popular music. Track no. 10) with its quiet, slow beginning of electronic piano and synthesizer background reminds one at first hand of the early works by Pink Floyd. The liner which accompanies the CD is just one sheet with the lyrics of the songs on one side and a big nice photograph of a Gobi sand dune on the other side, together with photographs of recording sessions in the studio, an eagle, an argali and camels. Unfortunately the lyrics are not given in any standard Mongolian writing but are romanized in a most haphazard way so that it is not really possible to understand the wording only from reading. On the other way, as mentioned above, the singers have clear voices and the recording technology as well as the sound mixing were under professional control. Most of the singing is un- derstandable when hearing it for the first time and thus this CD is quite a suitable material for learning Mongolian. No matter how one looks at this recording one has to agree that it is a first result of cultural internationalization going in on Mongolia. The composers, singers and musicians are still trying to find their own style which explains the wide variety of musical loans found in different songs. This record may also be the result of some probing into how far Mongolian song writers will be able to compose the lyrics that usually go with that type of music.