"Although long dead, it still feels weirdly alive to those who are that way inclined."

Indeed. When we were kids our local joke shop sold things called 'magic worms' which fascinated me to the point of distraction. Basically it was a small paper sachet containing a dozen pellets that looked like Rice Crispies. When these objects were placed in a glass of water they immediately began to expand into serpentine shapes and continued to do so until they filled the glass. It was the nearest thing I'd come to the idea of something from nothing and although I'm sure there's a plausible scientific name for these dessicated cells, the 'magic' of first seeing them has stayed with me.

I made the magic worm connection when hearing about the revival in Georgian folk music. In short, Georgia had been under the yolk of various invading forces for so long - not least the Soviet union - that there were no recordings of its traditional song or music. Nobody in living memory knew what it sounded like. None that is, save for a few made by pioneering British song collectors in the early days of mobile sound recording. From this capsule, this pellet of tradition, a whole culture has grown which is spreading throughout the country and overseas. Folk music is like that. If it's allowed to it will expand to fill all the gaps so long as the ground is fertile. You could argue that such a limited repertoire of sound is unrepresentative of the diversity of Georgian national music but it seems there was just enough to aural seed for the entire cultural greenhouse.