Utom: Summoning the Spirit

Captured by ethnomusicologist Manolete Mora in 1995, this release is a collection of field recordings documenting the music of the T’boli, a group of approximately 80,000 people living in small, scattered villages in the mountains and valleys of Southwestern Mindanao, Philippines. Summoning The Spirit includes songs of celebration, a hymn dedicated to Lake Sebu (the T’boli’s ancestral heartland), and the popular local song “Prized Banana” about the discontentment of a beautiful and ambitious young woman as she discovers all of her suitors’ flaws. The utom melodies compiled on the album are performed on lute, bamboo zither (a neckless, stringed instrument), flute, fiddle, various forms of gong, mouth harp, percussion, and voice. Utom: Summoning the Spirit was released in 1997 as part of “THE WORLD” series (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways).

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Track Listing

101	Call of the cicada (Utom udei luleng helef)	Bendaly	01:46
102	Flying woodpecker (Utom k'telet moyong)	Bendaly	04:17
103	Dance tune (Utom nadal)	Bendaly	01:12
104	Call of the cicada (Utom kuleng helef)	Lendungen Simfal, Ihan Sibanay	04:55
105	Gongs of the Lemlahak man (Utom k'lintang tau Lemlahak)	Lendungen Simfal, Ihan Sibanay	01:44
106	Reed Pipe (Utom feu)	Lendungen Simfal, Ihan Sibanay	03:42
107	Song of the night bird (Utom udel blila)	Galang S'bagung	02:14
108	Beat of the horses hooves (Utom legedeg kuda)	Galang S'bagung	03:23
109	Call of the cicada (Utom udel kuleng helef)	Galang S'bagung, Sol Ayaw	02:33
110	Cackling m'naul bird (Utom t'kak m'naul)	Galang S'bagung, Sol Ayaw	01:48
111	Concealed touch / Mother of Daddang / Lute dance (Utom semigot / Utom Ye Daddang / Utom hegelung nadal)	Ganay Delikan	07:13
112	Beating the gongs slowly (Utom s'magi batul)	Danilo Kasaw	02:48
113	Beating the gongs criss (Utom s'magi semfefay)	Danilo Kasaw	03:35
114	Sound of the wind (Utom luk lenos)	Danilo Kasaw	02:45
115	Hymn of Lake Sebu (Lingon Tutul Sebu)	Ye Gas	04:14
116	Prized banana (Soging Tundan)	Ye Gas	04:40
117	Lute / Child yearns for its dead mother (Utom hegelung / La Titilem la Tundan)	Arturo Bulang	03:42
118	Sendulug (Utom sendulug)	Gong Ensemble	02:11
119	Fast tenintu (Utom tenintu k'let)	Gong Ensemble	01:24
120	Continously / No head (La helos / La kulu)	Blahing Mil	07:01