Friday, February 6, 2009

Huun-Huur-Tu





Huun-Huur-Tu, the throat singers of Tuva, hearken from southern Siberia. They practice xöömei, or throat singing, and "transform the sounds of the natural world into music through imitation," making "sonic 'maps' of physical landscapes:" mountains, grasslands, wind, water, and light.

According to their website, "Tuvan music is not abstract, like most Western music, but radically representational, the product of a cult of imitation that ties it to an animistic understanding of the world."

Hell yes!

Oh, yeah, and they can sing two notes at the same time (see second video).

P.S. And they have something to do with Doc Fowler-precursor and physicist Richard Feynman! Go figure!

BUY The Orphan's Lament

2 comments:

Unknown said...

How has nobody posted on this yet? Chris, I saw this when you first posted it and it blew my mind. So different and yet so beautiful. Seriously, I listen to the throat singing once every couple days because I think its so cool.

Unknown said...

I gave you my Huun-Huur-Tu CD, right? (Since I burned "The Orphan's Lament" from our music library...)