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Sainkho Namtchylak

 
Artist: Sainkho Namtchylak
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Similar Artists:

Biosintes, Evan Parker, Los Tri-O, Schematix, Björk, Polygon Window, Michael Sterns, Daba Djan, Sabotage, Luna Sol, Jay Chappell, Steve Fisk, Moonwater, Butt Boy, Fatima Miranda, Bruce Gilbert, Peter Kowald, Djivan Gasparian, Batacoto, Modulate, Electronic Eye, Michael Kandel, Cecil Lytle

Influenced By:

Yoko Ono

Formal Connection With:

Shabotinski, Ned Rothenberg, Randy Raine-Reusch, TriO
  • Active: 2000s
  • Genres: Avant-Garde
  • Instrument: Vocals
  • Representative Albums: "Naked Spirit", "Lost Rivers", "Stepmother City

Biography

With her shaved head and seven-octave range, Sainkho Namtchylak would stand out on any stage. Add her particular mix of Tuvan throat-singing and avant-garde improvisation, and she becomes an unforgettable figure. The daughter of a pair of schoolteachers, she grew up in an isolated village on the Tuvan/Mongolian border, exposed to the local overtone singing -- something that was generally reserved for the males; in fact, females were actively discouraged from learning it (even now, the best-known practitioners remain male, artists like Huun-Huur-Tu and Yat-Kha). However, she learned much of her traditional repertoire from her grandmother, and went on to study music at the local college, but she was denied professional qualifications. Quietly she studied the overtone singing, as well as the shamanic traditions of the region, before leaving for study further in Moscow (Tuva was, at that time, part of the U.S.S.R.). Her degree completed, she returned to Tuva where she became a member of Sayani, the Tuvan state folk ensemble, before abandoning it to return to Moscow and joining the experimental Tri-O, where her vocal talents and sense of melodic and harmonic adventure could wander freely. That first brought her to the West in 1990, although her first recorded exposure came with the Crammed Discs compilation Out of Tuva. Once Communism had collapsed, she moved to Vienna, making it her base, although she traveled widely, working in any number of shifting groups and recording a number of discs that revolved around free improvisation -- not unlike Yoko Ono -- as well as performing around the globe. It was definitely fringe music, although Namtchylak established herself very firmly as a fixture on that fringe. In 1997 she was the victim of an attack that left her in a coma for several weeks. Initially she thought it was some divine retribution for her creative hubris, and seemed to step back when she recorded 1998's Naked Spirit, which had new age leanings. However, by 2000 she seemed to have overcome that block, releasing Stepmother City, her most accessible work to date, where she seemed to really find her stride, mixing traditional Tuvan instruments and singing with turntables and effects, placing her in a creative firmament between Yoko and Björk, but with the je ne sais quoi of Mongolia as part of the bargain. A showcase at the WOMEX Festival in Berlin brought her to the attention of many, and in 2001 a U.S. tour was planned. ~ Chris Nickson, All Music Guide
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Wikipedia: Sainkho Namtchylak
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Sainkho Namtchylak at Moers Festival 2004, Germany

Sainkho Namtchylak (born 1957) is a singer originally from Tuva, a small autonomous republic in the Russian Federation just north of Mongolia. She is known for her Tuvan throat singing or Khöömei.

Contents

Style

Sainkho Namtchylak is an experimental singer, born in 1957 in a secluded village in the south of Tuva. She has an exceptional voice, proficient in overtone singing; her music encompasses avant-jazz, electronica, modern composition and Tuvan influences. In Tuva, numerous cultural influences collide: the Turkish roots it shares with Mongolia, Xinjiang Uighur and the Central Asian states; various Siberian nomadic ethnic groups, principally those of the Tungus-Manchu group; Russian Old Believers; migrant and resettled populations from the Ukraine, Tatarstan and other minority groups west of the Urals. All of these, to extents, impact on Sainkho's voice, although the Siberian influences dominate: her thesis produced while studying voice, first at the University of Kyzyl, then in the Gnesins Institute in Moscow during the 1980s focussed on Lamaistic and cult musics of minority groups across Siberia, and her music frequently shows tendencies towards Tungus-style imitative singing.

Career

After graduating, Sainkho worked with several ensembles: the Moscow State Orchestra; the Moscow-based jazz ensemble 'Tri-O' (since 1989); School of Dramatic Art under the direction of Anatoly Vasiliev (Moscow), various orchestras in Kyzyl, the Tuvan 'folkloric orchestra'—a far less sanitised example of folk baroque than, say, existed in pre-independence Kazakhstan—that has housed many of Tuva's other important singers. However, for several years Sainkho annually invited foreign musicians to Tuva to promote Tuvan culture.

In 1997, Sainkho was horrifically attacked by Tuvinian racketeers which left her in a coma for two weeks. Other sources maintain that she underwent surgery for a severe malignant brain tumor; regardless, 1997 marked an appreciable change in her life. Since then, she has been resident in exile in Vienna, and has also recorded more prolifically as a solo artist. Although she has released over thirty albums in the past twenty years, only seven have been entirely solo.

In 2005, the Italian publishing house Libero di Scrivere released a book of poetry Karmaland. In 2006 in Saint Petersburg, a book Chelo-Vek (in Russian, "A Human Being") was published in Russian, Tuvinian and in English.

Discography

  • 1990 - TRI-O Plus Sainkho Namchylak Transformation of Matter, DOCUMENT, vol.V - Leo Records
  • 1991 - Tunguska-guska - Eine Meteoriten-Oper, EFA-Schneeball
  • 1992 - Lost Rivers - FMP
  • 1992 - Kang Tae Hwan and Sainkho Namchylak Live - Free Improvisation Network Record
  • 1993 - Out Of Tuva - Mapping the interim time from 1987 to 1993; some folk, some baroque, some examples of ethno-pop and trans-Siberian songs pertaining to her thesis
  • 1993 - Letters - Experimental voice pieces based on letters sent home to her parents while studying from 1980-1993
  • 1995 - Moscow Composers Orchestra and Sainkho Live at City Garden - U-Sound
  • 1996 - Mars song - Duo with Evan Parker
  • 1996 - "Amulet" - Duo with Ned Rothenberg
  • 1996 - Moscow Composers Orchestra and Sainkho An Italian Love Affair - Leo Records
  • 1997 - Moscow Composers Orchestra and Sainkho Let Peremsky Dream - Leo Records
  • 1997 - Time Out - A personal album, given only to a handful of fans, musically detailing the aftermath of the attack
  • 1996 - Moscow Composers Orchestra and Sainkho The Gift - Long Arms Records
  • 1998 - Naked Spirit Amiata Records
  • 1999 - Temenos - Leo Records
  • 2001 - Stepmother City Ponderosa
  • 2001 - Aura Ponderosa
  • 2003 - Who Stole The Sky - the preceding two albums produced while in Vienna, showing a greater tendency towards both multicultural influences and electronica. Naked Spirit features a beautiful duet with Armenian duduk player Djivan Gasparyan; Stepmother City features several songs in English, as well as other Siberian influences- one track features prominent Tungus-style imitational singing, another the Bashkortori kurai; Who Stole The Sky further culturally diversifies with a band incorporating bansuri and kora players.
  • 2005 - ARZHAANA" Asia Records - a fairy tale
  • 2005 - TriO & SAINKHO FORGOTTEN STREETS OF ST.PETERSBURG" Leo Records

External links

References


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 
Learn More
Sainkho Namtchylak: Freedom Now (2008 Music Film)
Musicworks #68 : Tearing Down Borders (1997 Album by Various Artists)
Lost Rivers (1991 Album by Sainkho Namtchylak)

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