The Orphan's Lament

Huun-Huur-Tu

album cover

Eerily Peaceful Singing

You're forgiven if, when you first hear Huun-Huur-Tu, you think this "throat singing" thing is a gimmick. The singers of the most popular group from Tuva, near Russia's Mongolian border, manipulate the air in their throats and windpipes to sing several tones simultaneously. And not just any notes—croaking low drones, flute-like high register wisps, and myriad tonal colors in between. When put in the service of folk songs (about the role of ancestors and the beauty of the Tuvan steppe), these voices give off an oddly celestial resonance. Or they can sound like the flatulence of ponddwelling creatures. No matter where Huun-Huur-Tu go, the disconcerting sounds follow: Though enormously skillful, this isn't your typical relaxing-by-the-fire kind of singing group.

Although the four members of Huun-Huur-Tu sing gently and often quietly, some quality inside the voices suggests urgency. Using techniques similar to those Tibetan Buddhists and North American Inuit employ, the singers rarely need much instrumental support: On the faster tunes, the voices outline the tempo, with help from frame drums and their own percussion instruments (one rattle is made from bull's scrotum and sheep's kneebones). The long, enveloping drones are riveting in a different way—here the singing moves slowly, in almost microtonal shifts that can become quite abrasive.

And though throat singing is probably an acquired taste, at several moments on HHT's second international release those trembling glottal sounds totally define a mood—see the despairing title cut "The Orphan's Lament," or the more impulsive "Borbanngadyr," which both display an alarming beauty that requires no translation.

Genre: World, Russia
Released: 1994, Shanachie
Key Tracks: "The Orphan's Lament," "Eki attar," "Borbanngadyr."
Catalog Choice: Live 1
Next Stop: The Bulgarian Women's National Radio and TV Chorus: Le mystère des voix bulgares
Book Page: 376

1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die