Riding to My Man: Chirgilchin and "Dyngyldai"

Chirgilchin and their song Dyngyldai are today's random tune. Chirchilchin is a group performing traditional Tuvan music. Formed in 1996, Chirgilchin are master throat singers and instrumentalists, and have as members multiple winners of throat singing competitions and music awards, who have made a name for themselves on the strength of their music and on the strength of their international performances and collaborations with other artists. They have collaborated with avante-garde performance artist Laurie Anderson on her album Homeland, and guest performed Puerto Rican singer Residente's song Somos Anormales (warning, video is explicit) in 2017, which may have made them one of the most unlikely groups to win a Latin Grammy. You can find Dyngyldai on their 1999 album Aryskan's Wind. The song says "I will mount the horse of the heavenly color to get to my beloved man."

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chirgilchin

Mongol Pride: Various Artists and "Khamag Mongol"

Today's song is a little bit on the interesting side. Khamag Mongol, our random song, is performed by singers from different regions that consider themselves of Mongolian descent and who came together to do this song. The song celebrates Mongolian culture and unity. At least that's how I imagine it and I'm probably not that far off. Wikipedia defines Khamag Mongol as a 12th century tribal confederation that preceded the Mongol Empire But that's where my knowledge ends. I don't know who the singers are, nor do I know what the lyrics say. All I know is that the costumes are cool, the landscape of Mongolia starkly beautiful, and the sentiment seems real. I can't tell you where to find a recorded copy of Khamag Mongol, so you'll just have to enjoy this video.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Bernie Sanders' Hero: Olchey and "Chavadak (Song of the Hero of Socialist Labor)"

The random tune for today may bring back memories of the Cold War and communism. The song is called Chavadak (Song of the Hero of Socialist Labor). However, this is not just some old era Soviet propaganda band. The group that sings the song, Olchey, is an attempt to explore the similarities between the Asian and European ethnic music in Russia. Part of the band comes from the Karelian region, which is in Northwest Russia near Finland and Estonia. The other part of the group comes from Tuva, which is in south central Russia near Mongolia and whose people have ethnic and cultural ties to the Mongolian people. Olchey was conceived by actor and musician George Beletsky as a way to find intercultural communication through traditional wisdom as translated into modern times. The band, originally all Tuvan, achieved this synthesis when two members of the Karelian band Va-ta-ga joined Olchey. Olchey began creating a new sound with the combination of these two traditions. The result was the 2010 CD Shuga, the name of which means the fragile layer of ice at the water's edge in Karelia and "thin" in Tuvan. Chavadak (Song of the Hero of Socialist Labor) can be found as the fourth track on Shuga, and features lots of Tuvan throat singing to a funky yet ethnic beat.

Yes We Khan: Various Artists and "Khamag Mongol"

So, I don't really know how to explain this song. Actually I do, sort of. Singers from different regions that consider themselves of Mongolian descent came together to do this song, Khamag Mongol, that celebrates Mongolian culture and unity. At least that's how I imagine it and I'm probably not that far off. Wikipedia defines Khamag Mongol as a 12th century tribal confederation that preceded the Mongol Empire But that's where my knowledge ends. I don't know who the singers are, nor do I know what the lyrics say. All I know is that the costumes are cool, the landscape of Mongolia starkly beautiful, and the sentiment seems real. I can't tell you where to find a recorded copy of Khamag Mongol, so you'll just have to enjoy this video.

Gimme Some Shuga: Olchey and "Chavadak (Song of the Hero of Socialist Labor)"

The random tune for today may bring back memories of the Cold War and communism. The song is called Chavadak (Song of the Hero of Socialist Labor). However, this is not just some old era Soviet propaganda band. The group that sings the song, Olchey, is an attempt to explore the similarities between the Asian and European ethnic music in Russia. Part of the band comes from the Karelian region, which is in Northwest Russia near Finland and Estonia. The other part of the group comes from Tuva, which is in south central Russia near Mongolia and whose people have ethnic and cultural ties to the Mongolian people. Olchey was conceived by actor and musician George Beletsky as a way to find intercultural communication through traditional wisdom as translated into modern times. The band, originally all Tuvan, achieved this synthesis when two members of the Karelian band Va-ta-ga joined Olchey. Olchey began creating a new sound with the combination of these two traditions. The result was the 2010 CD Shuga, the name of which means the fragile layer of ice at the water's edge in Karelia and "thin" in Tuvan. Chavadak (Song of the Hero of Socialist Labor) can be found as the fourth track on Shuga, and features lots of Tuvan throat singing to a funky yet ethnic beat.

A Lozenge: Yat-Kha and "Ahoi"

Hello friends! I'm back from my travels and hopefully will be able to resume my more intensive commenting on the music in the next couple of days. However, you know how it is...having to get back into the work scene after a two-week vacation means that there are many things in my in-box. I hope you'll forgive me if there is just a bare-bones entry today.

Today's random tune is by Yat-Kha, a band from Tuva, an ethnic region in Russia. Begun by Albert Kuvezin and Ivan Sokolovsky, Yat-Kha originally blended traditional Tuvan music with post-modern rhythms and electronica. After the departure of Sokolovsky after the release of their third album in 1993, Yat-Kha began to de-emphasize the electronica and focus on a blend of Tuvan traditional music with rock. This song, Ahoi, is from their 2005 album Bootleg and the 2010 compilation The Ways of the Nomad - The Best of Yat-Kha and features Kuvezin's distinctive throat singing.

Stepping it Up: Yat-Kha and "Ahoi"

Until about five years ago I never knew that Tuva existed, which is pretty astounding for a map aficionado. But Tuva lies in that area in the Central Asian steppes that, when I was studying maps in grade and high school, was pretty much all Soviet Russia and Mongolia. There were a lot of areas with borders and names that ended with S.S.R. Since the fall of Soviet Union, the region has split into a checkerboard of countries, all regions that have proclaimed independence from Russia. However, Tuva still lies inside of Russian borders in southern Siberia as a federal republic or state of Russia.

When Neal Copperman and AMP concerts booked a touring group from Tuva named Chirgilchin in Albuquerque, my first reaction was "Where the f*** is Tuva?" My second reaction was "What the hell is throat singing?" I was in for an education. As for the throat singing, it turns out I'd heard it before but didn't know its name. Throat singing is the sometimes low guttural and sometimes high, nasally and whistling sound that you hear in some Asian and Eastern music. When I heard it on recordings, I always thought it was some strange instrument that I didn't recognize. Otherwise, I thought it was some kind of chanting thing that monks did. Chirgilchin helped educate me on throat singing. While throat singing is practiced among different cultures such as the Tibetans, the Inuit, and formerly the Ainu of Japan, in Tuva it developed out of the animism of Tuvan spiritual beliefs and at its root is a mimicry of nature sounds. There are many kinds of Tuvan throat singing which produce many different sounds, though I am not sophisticated enough in my hearing to know precisely when a certain type of throat singing is being employed. It sounds really cool, though.

You'll hear some throat singing in this selection by Yat-Kha at around the 1:20 mark in the song. You'll also hear some traditional instrumentation in the yat-kha, the instrument that gave the band its name and which is a traditional Tuvan zither. Yat-Kha is a Tuvan band founded in Moscow in 1991. Originally a collaborative project between Albert Kuvezin and Ivan Sokolovsky, it sought to explore traditional Tuvan folk songs with elements of post-modern rhythms and electronics. After three albums, Sokolovsky parted with the band in 1994 and Yat-Kha has de-emphasized the electronics in favor of the folk tradition and rock. The band has released twelve albums. This song, Ahoi, is a bonus track included on their 2010 release Ways of the Nomad: The Best of Yat-Kha, and references throat singing (xoomejj) and a specific type of throat singing (kargyraa) that Kuvezin is using in the song.