Mor-Folk

Mor-Folk is a subgenre of Mor-Wave that sets traditional instruments and melodies drawn from the liturgical chant of the Syro-Iradi Catholic Church over the dark synthesizer sound shared by all the "Mor" genres.^[1]

Mor-Folk ensembles play the komuz, the end-blown choor and other wooden flutes, and hand-played frame drums over analog synthesizer drones and pads. Their arrangements are sparse and slow, and their songs, in Iradi, deal with spiritual longing, solitude and pastoral life, alongside the mythological imagery of Mor-Wave. The style developed among Mor-Wave musicians in Talas in the 2010s. Ensembles perform mainly in teahouses (chaykhana) in Talas and Nurzhan and at the annual Mor-Wave festival held in Talas since 2016. Some clergy have welcomed the revival of chant melodies among young people, while others object to their use outside the liturgy, particularly alongside images of Morkhan, whom church tradition identifies with Satan. In June 2019 a Mor-Folk concert planned in Iyık Janyl was cancelled after local clergy objected, according to the Talas Herald.^[1][2] The best-known Mor-Folk recording, "Dream of Living" (2021) by the ensemble Eski Ün, became the only Mor-Folk song to find a wide audience abroad after its use on the soundtrack of True Detective in 2024.

References

1. ^ Central Asian Cultural Studies Review (2022). 'Nocturnal Steppe: Electronic Subcultures in the ISEZ.' Vol. 14, pp. 88–104.
2. ^ Talas Herald (2019). Report on the cancelled Iyık Janyl concert, June 2019. Talas.