"The third part of Ideologic Organ Music’s trilogy of field recordings of sacred flute music from Papua New Guinea, recorded by Ragnar Johnson and Jessica Mayer in the 1970s. A book titled “A Papua New Guinea Journey” consisting of Ragnar Johnson’s account of the circumstances behind the recordings will be published simultaneously with this music release.

“The recording of a male initiation ceremony with sacred flutes, bullroarers and ‘crying baby’ leaves was only possible after fifteen months residence during anthropological research. From the same Ommura villages in the Eastern Highlands there are bamboo jews harps, yam fertility flutes and singing. Nama (‘bird’) sacred flutes were recorded in a Gahuku Gama village in the town of Goroka. There are Mo-mo bamboo resonating tubes and singing from the Finisterre Range of Madang. From the Ramu Coast region of Madang there are: Waudang flutes, garamut slit gongs and singing from Manam Island, Maner flutes from Awar village and Siam and Guna flutes and garamuts from Nubia Sissimungum Village. These previously unreleased recordings were made in 1976 and 1979.” –Ragnar Johnson, London 2021

Recordings, notes, and photographs by Ragnar Johnson and Jessica Mayer.
1979 recordings and Mo-mos by Ragnar Johnson.

Tape to digital transfer and mastering by Dave Hunt at Dave Hunt Audio, London.
Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates and Mastering, Berlin.

We would like to thank the performers and people of the Ommura villages of Samura, Sonura, and Moussouri and the neighbouring villages of Kurunumbaira and Asara and the performers and people of the villages of Awar, Bo’da, Damaindeh Bau, Nubia Sissimungum and Okizuhara (Goroka)for making this record possible.
Copies of the master tapes are in the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies, Port Moresby. Ragnar Johnson thanks the Canadian I.D.R.C. for having supported his anthropological research resulting in a doctorate from Oxford University."