Huun-Huur-Tu · KEXP, Seattle · 2024

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Live video · World · 2020s

Huun-Huur-Tu — Full Performance (Live on KEXP)

Why this recording

Recorded in the KEXP studio on August 15, 2017, the session features four pieces, including "Chyraa-Khoor (Yellow Pacer)" and "Konguroi (Sixty Horses in My Herd)", alongside "Odugen Taiga" and "Aa-Shuu Dekei-oo". The whole crew is credited: DJ Rhythma hosts, audio engineer Kevin Suggs handles the sound, and three camera operators are listed, among them Justin Wilmore, who also edited it. Uploaded in HD in October 2017, the video runs 45 minutes for these four songs.

Simon Janvier, live-sound professional and editor of the catalogue

Filmed live session by the group Huun-Huur-Tu for the American radio station KEXP, a global reference for studio captures. Hailing from the Republic of Tuva in Siberia, on the edge of Mongolia, Huun-Huur-Tu is the most famous ambassador of Tuvan throat singing (khöömei), the astonishing vocal technique that lets a single singer produce a low fundamental and whistled overtones at once. Backed by traditional instruments — igil and byzaanchy fiddles, doshpuluur lute, percussion — the musicians evoke the steppes, horses and winds of their homeland in a repertoire at once meditative and hypnotic. This KEXP capture highlights the purity of sound, extraordinary vocal mastery and spiritual dimension of an ancestral music. A precious live concert for lovers of world music, throat singing and nomadic traditions, to be experienced as an immersive, transporting sound journey and an ideal gateway to Tuvan culture and the musical heritage of Central Asia. KEXP’s intimate filming lets every overtone and bowed string resonate with striking clarity.

Setlist

  1. Chyraa-Khoor (Yellow Pacer)
  2. Konguroi (Sixty Horses in My Herd)
  3. Odugen Taiga
  4. Aa-Shuu Dekei-oo

Personnel & credits

  • Kaigal-ool Khovalyg — throat singing, igil
  • Sayan Bapa — throat singing, doshpuluur, guitar
  • Radik Tyulyush — throat singing, flute
  • Alexey Saryglar — percussion, byzaanchy