WITH ANCIENT ROOTS
Throat singer savors working with contemporary DJs and connecting with nature, reports.
Chen Nan
With her exceptional voice, well-known for spanning seven octaves and her performance of khoomei (throatsinging), Sainkho Namtchylak, the singer from Tuva, has performed around the world.
She compares contemporary music festivals to “the archaic culture of gathering and sharing visions and dancing, like shamanistic ceremonies”.
The singer, originally from the autonomous republic of Tuva in the Russian Federation just north of Mongolia, is one of the headliners of the upcoming Graceland Electronic Music Festival.
The event will be held at Datan Paradise Bird Music Park, Bashang, Fengning county, one of the most beautiful grasslands of northern China, in Hebei province on Sept 3 and 4.
“I think DJs are a modern type of electronic shamans,” the 59-year-old singer says. “All that thousand-year basis of ceremonies didn’t change. It’s the same now.
“I like combination of DJ-ing and live ethnic musicians playing.
“In the big cities, it’s different,” adds Namtchylak, who has performed in China since 2003, when she was invited to promote her album Stepmother City in Taipei, Shanghai and Shenzhen, in South China’s Guangdong province.
Famous in avant-garde and world music circles, Namtchylak grew up in an isolated village in the south of Tuva.
The singer, who has released more than 40 albums, presents her music not just with traditional influences but also in the form of avant-jazz, electronic and modern compositions.
She also collaborates with the Moscow State Orchestra, the Moscow-based jazz ensemble Tri-O and many avant-garde musicians from Europe.
Giovanna Albanese Trigona, the Italian creative director and co-founder of the music festival, says she first heard Namtchylak’s albums two years ago when traveling in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, and then contacted the singer on Instagram.
“I left messages expressing my gratitude for the great music. To my surprise, she replied to me immediately and we started talking on a daily basis,” Albanese Trigona recalls.
“She will be performing with our great friend and Chinese electronic music produc- er and DJ Xiao Linfeng.”
At the festival, the two will present an original live set of techno music “with breathtaking vocals”, Albanese Trigona says.
The Graceland Electronic Music Festival, in its first year, is not only about the experience of music, but also the crossover experience between electronic music and nomad culture, says Albanese Trigona.
Three stages of techno music, psytrance music and chill-out music will be set up on the grassland of 40,000 square meters. Some 42 electronic artists, including DJs, live performers and multimedia artists from around the world, will offer nonstop music for 28 hours.
As for the location, the location of Bashang grassland, renowned for its scenic beauty and clean pleasant climate, is a four-hour drive from downtown Beijing.
The lineup also includes DJ Weng Weng, the founder of the Beijing-based electronicmusic Intro Festival, Guo Jian, the vocalist of the Chinese reggae band Long Sheng Dao, and DJ Ou Yang, also founder of Beijing-based live house venue, Yugong Yishan.
Albanese Trigona is a party designer who started a music party project called Black Sheep, in Rome in 2012.
The idea of the festival took shape after she moved to Beijing in 2012, and decided to revive her concept of music parties with the help of her three team members, DJ Diego Funkyto, DJ Jia Li and party organizer Shizi.
The team wanted to organize a music festival in the grasslands, and for that they traveled to Inner Mongolia many times because two of them, Shizi and Jia Li, are natives of Hohhot.
Then, two months ago, they decided to make it happen after being impressed by the beautiful scenery of Bashang.
“We had a double rainbow kissing our faces while confirming the deal for the festival!” says Albanese Trigona.
“Our brains are craving for music and our bodies are made to be connected with nature. I believe this can be the first step of another chapter, underground nomadism.”
Why was electronic music selected for the first Graceland Electronic Music Festival?
Funkyto says: “We love this genre of music, which reunites every style already existing but with more flexibility and longevity.
“The electronic music market in China is quite new compared to rock ’n’ roll or folk music, but it’s growing very fast.”
Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn