Yat-Kha

Yat-Kha is a band from Tuva, led by vocalist/guitarist Albert Kuvezin. Their music is a mixture of Tuvinian traditional music and rock, featuring Kuvezin's distinctive kargyraa throat singing style, the kanzat kargyraa.

Yat-Kha
Yat-Kha playing live in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, October 13, 2005
Background information

Biography

Yat-Kha was founded in Moscow in 1991, as a collaborative project between Kuvezin and Russian avant-garde, electronic composer Ivan Sokolovsky. The project blended traditional Tuvan folk music with post-modern rhythms and electronic effects. Kuvezin and Sokolovsky toured and played festivals, and eventually took the name “Yat-Kha,” which refers to a type of small, Central Asian zither similar to a Chinese Guzheng that Kuvezin plays in addition to the guitar. In 1993, they released a self-titled album on the General Records label.

After the release of Yat-Kha, Kuvezin and Sokolovsky parted creative ways and Kuvezin went on to release five other albums under the name Yat-Kha with other musicians (and less of an emphasis on electronics), beginning with Yenisei Punk in 1995, with morin khuur player Alexei Saaia (produced by Lu Edmonds). Sokolovsky issued a remastered version of the Yat-Kha album, with additional tracks, under the title Tundra's Ghosts in 1996/97.

Since 2001, they have been performing a live soundtrack to Vsevolod Pudovkin's 1928 silent film Storm over Asia. They may release a DVD of this version of the film with Reality Film.

Discography

Albums:

• Priznak Greyushii Byedi (1991)
• Khanparty (1992)
• Yat-Kha (1993)
• Yenisei Punk (1995)
• Tundra's Ghosts (1996/97) - remastered version of Yat-Kha released by Ivan Sokolovsky)
• Dalai Beldiri (1999)
• Aldyn Dashka (2000)
• Bootleg (2001, live)
• tuva.rock (2003)
• Re-Covers (2005)
• Bootleg 2005 (2005, live)

Members

Current

• Albert Kuvezin (Vocals, Throat Singing, Guitar, Bass Guitar, Chanzy, Khomus, Yat-Kha)
• Evgeny "Zhenya" Tkachov (Drums, Percussion)
• "Scipio" (Bass Guitar)

Past

• Radik Tiuliush (Vocals, Throat Singing, Morin Khuur, Igil)
• Sailyk Ommun (Vocals, Yat-Kha)
• Makhmud Skripaltschchikov (Bass Guitar)
• Aldyn-ool Sevek (Vocals, Throat Singing, Morin Khuur, Igil)
• Alexei Saaia (Vocals, Morin khuur, Bass Guitar)
• Aias-ool Danzyryn (Vocals, Chanzy)
• Ivan Sokolovsky (Synthesizers, Percussion)

Awards

• 1991 recognized by Brian Eno, one of the international judges at the first Voices of Asia Festival in Almaty, Kazakhstan
• 1995 French RFI "Decouvertes Est" prize for Yenisei Punk
• 1999 German Critic's Prize for Dalai Beldiri
• 2002 BBC Radio 3 "Award for World Music"

External links

• Yat-Kha
• Ivan Sokolovsky
• Reality Film: Storm over Asia

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