The twenty-two-year-old Rustavi Choir, Soviet Georgia's leading male choral ensemble, takes its sturdy repertoire from centuries of Georgian folk songs: tunes originally roared and rustled while villagers plowed fields or marched over mountains, got married or praised God. According to Ted Levin, who with the Choir's founder, Anzor Erkomaishvili, chose Georgian Voices' 14 selections from a group of 100 such recordings released in their home country, only the mealtime songs still are sung with any frequency by contemporary Georgians.

But as the recent release of Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares, by the Bulgarian Women's Choir, and Ryuichi Sakamoto's 1988 Neo Geo indicate, many Europeans and Asians don't easily let go of their song ancestries; the tunes are kept alive by musicians who go on singing them as though they never faded from use. Like the more dissonant Bulgarian women – whose popularity paved the way for this group – the Rustavi Choir makes old songs sound new by streamlining arrangements. But lucid attacks and refocused melodies are only the choir's starting point.

Within their chosen conventions, these singers manage a wide range. The most immediate performances are songs of tremendous ruggedness and grace like "Lashgvash," a march, or "Hasanbegura," where two vocal teams double and spin variations on each other's parts. Still, the collection tips newcomers to the scope and spirit of the organization right away, as the Choir moves from a deliberate sacred chorale and an up-and-at-'em riding song to the introspective "Mival Guriashi," with its spare strumming in the background. The singers sometimes rely on krimanchuli – fast and demanding yodel-like surges that are like the Bulgarian women's quick, clipped-off notes. This remnant of traditional performance is part of the group's involved, intricate approach to songs. That said, the Rustavi Choir at its best just sings – in blinding shades of ancient and modern strength. (RS 576)

JAMES HUNTER