Throat Singing Growls and Face-Melting Guitar Riffs: Stallion World Music Festival Gallops Into BJ

Located in the south of Siberia along the Mongolian border and cut off from most of the world, The Tuva Republic has been considered one of Russia’s best preserved and culturally vibrant regions. Even today, it’s impossible to reach the region by railroad and direct flights are rare. This isolation from the rest of the world has helped to preserve the distinct culture of the Tuvan ethic group, which makes up around seventy percent of the population. This September, local music management company Stallion Era will be hosting three world-renowned acts from the Tuva region - world-class diva Sainkho Namtchylak (pictured above), Tuva rock and roll pioneers Yat-Kha, and khoomei masters Huun Huur Tu on Sep 14, 16, and 27 in venues across Beijing. 

Since Stallion Era started in 2012, they have worked with an array of world music artists inside and outside of China, such as Anda Union, Kerman, Huun Huur Tu, Namgar, Dona Rosa, and more. While they continue to make these giants in the world music scene accessible to Chinese audiences, they felt that the region of Tuva deserved a special spotlight. The region shares much in common with their adjacent nomadic Mongolian neighbors (Tibetan Buddhism, mixed with indigenous Shamanism, is the predominant religion), but it is best known as the birthplace of khöömei – or throat singing – the ability to produce two or three notes simultaneously, creating an otherworldly and mesmerizing sound. This overtone may sound like a flute, whistle or bird, but is in fact, solely a product of the human voice. 
 

Huun Huur Tu

Because of their devotion to the craft of khöömei, four-piece group Huun Huur Tu is widely regarded as the musical ambassadors of the region. Founded in 1992, the group has been conjuring up images of sweeping grasslands, galloping horses, and the natural beauty of their homeland with their rousing and awe-inspiring compositions for years. Their compositions bring them plenty of international attention, including the chance to work with Grammy-nominated producer Carmen Rizzo on the 2009 release Ethereal. For the occasion, the two will be performing together once again, their first team-up in China. 
 

Sainkho Namtchylak

If Huun-Huur-Tu is a glimpse of Tuvian traditional music at it’s purest, then Sainkho Namtchylak is a glimpse of the future. At 61 years old, the artist is a khoomei renegade, a female singer whose voice spans seven octaves (from a throaty demonic growl to a high-pitched falsetto) who has since used her gift to bring the traditional music of Tuva into a new era. Combining elements of avant-jazz and electronic music, while also referencing blues, desert rock and more into her modern compositions, there’s a trailblazing quality to her music that is simply hypnotic. A highly versatile artist, whose work ranges from extremely abstract experimental music to more straightforward jazz and soothing world music, she is beloved in both the world music circuit for her throat singing, as well as in free improvisation circles for her use of extended techniques and her frequent collaborations. 

Yat-Kha

Stallion Era World Music Festival’s third act – Yat-Kha – is what happens when Tuvan music meets rock and roll. Taking cues from psychedelic rock from the 1960s, industrial electronica, and heavy metal, there’s a sense of danger to the band’s music – where outbursts of punk gusto are supplemented by incredibly low growls that bleed into ethno-surf jams before being elevated to stadium rock status by face-melting guitar work and the ingenious integration of traditional instruments like the cello-esque igil and doshpular. While the band has headlined festivals across the world, such as Transglobal Underground and WOMAD in Berlin and have performed alongside such heavyweights as Oysterband, The Chieftains, and renowned Russian keyboardist Andrei Sokolovsky, they’re always searching for the through-line between rock and traditional music. 
 

The nomad feast of music will kick off on Friday, Sep 14 as Sainkho Namtchylak takes over the Art Centre of the National Library. Then on Sunday, Sep 16, Yat-Kha will bring the goods to Mao Livehouse. Finally, later this month on Saturday, Sep 27, Huun Huur Tu will join DJ Carmen Rizzo at the Art Centre of the National Library.

Never miss a gig: click here for a huge list of live shows in the city, updated daily.

Photos courtesy of Stallion World Music Festival