Cloudbusting -- Kate Bush In Her Own Words

Trio Bulgaria

They work so hard! When we went out there we worked from nine in the morning to 11 at night. They'll sing all day and always stand in the same order; you'd think that the soloist would stand in the middle, but stands at one end. They run Yanka, Eva, Stoyanka - and it spells ``yes."

...We didn't mike them individually. We took advice from Joe Boyd, who worked with them, and he suggested a single ambient mike... It's incredible the quality when the three of them are singing - you can almost hear the air cracking. The harmonic distortion is so exciting. One of the songs they do I just cry - there's very little music that hits me deeply enough to make me cry.

Dorka Hristova is conductor of the women's choir of the Bulgaria broadcasting service, conducting some of the most beautiful female voices in the world - including the Trio Bulgarka:

It's quite different from Bel Canto singing in the West. It is straight and natural. Very direct with great tension. The sound comes from the epiglottis, with the resonance mainly here in the breast and not in the forehead. That is why the women in our choir are... not fatter, but have fuller breasts!

But it isn't just the style of singing that makes the music so unusual:

Well, the harmonies are different. Bulgarian Folk is characterised with one voice singing, then two voices - Diatonic - and sometimes, three voices singing, Triaphonic. Diaphony is typical for the Sophia region. One is a drone and the other voice makes the melody. These are at second intervals and include quarter notes as well as semitones. Western harmonies are based on 3rds... This type of singing cannot be taught in the colleges; it comes from inside the person. So, it is a kind of mystery to us as well. (1989, International Musician)

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