Sainkho Namtchylak

ARTIST: Sainkho Namtchylak

COUNTRY: Tuva

GENRE: modern composition, world music, free jazz, free improvisation, experimental, Tuvan, throat-singing, khöömei

ABOUT: Sainkho Namtchylak is an experimental singer, born in 1957 in a secluded village in the south of Tuva, a small autonomous republic in the Russian Federation, just north of Mongolia. She has an exceptional voice, proficient in overtone singing; her music encompasses avant-jazz, electronica, modern composition and Tuvan influences.

MORE ABOUT: “I was born in Republic of Tuva in small village, at the family of school teachers. My parents both liked very much at youth time to play on music instruments, father on seven string guitar and mother on mandolin (russian kind of 4 strings, usually dabbled, banjo). Father had nice, soft baritone voice and often presented his song with amateur groups at the concerts in Tuva. After working in small village they decided to go to Hem-Beldiry (old name of capital town of Tuva) to continue their studies. I remember on sundays he liked to play and teach to us already three daughters to dance and mother looking out of kitchen was asking with the smile: “Don`t you feel tired? May be you can skip it till next weekend? Lunch is ready!”

What do I remember about those times? When he was reading his poems to my mother and me (he liked to read, it was his way to add his love and passion in to daily life and I understand only now how much he loved) I remember it was on women holiday on the 8 of march 1966 he was reading one of those long wording poems, very difficult to understand for me, a small girl and I was looking out of window to the beads of lights on the bridge in the night and thinking “when I will become big as my father, I will drive away through this bridge and I will read my own poems!”

Completing music collage ” Ippolotova-Ivanova” I continue my studies in Gnesin Institute in Moscow.At that time my big interest was about discovering recordings and books or dissertations about different techniques of singing in archaic examples of cult music of lamaistic and shamanistic traditions of Siberia. As well as Tuvan and Mongolian throat,-and overtone singing stiles. First appearance on professional stage on competition of folk singers in 1986 had impressively large geography and forgotten mystery of syncretism of old songs from minorities and other nations of Siberia: nganasan, itelmen, korjack, nivch, nanai, buriat, tuvan and russian traditions. Successful appearance had its resonance. In the years 1987-1989 in the group with other artists. I have been presenting my program in Spain, USA, Canada, Australia, Phillippines, New Zealand.The same time I started to look for new collaborations in contemporary and improvised music and bland those old traditions in to experimental and contemporary music. Starting to perform a lot with new jazz musicians, I have learned about capacity and possibilities of my own voice. Discovery had more then I expected.Appearance on Munster jazz festival and later on Luzern contemporary music festival brought me new relation to western contemporary music. I started played with many musicians in Western Europe.

On one of my concerts in Austria I met Georg Graf an austrian musician. In spring 1991 we merry at his home town Scheibbs,Austria. On 12 of april magnolias was blooming and when we came out of building snow was covering everything. Everything was white! “Ötcha” (big mountain near Scheibbs) was shining though clear blue sky and I had feeling its calling me or greeting me with silent Hymn of Joy and Love. Raising up together with Georg my daughter and regularly from 1991 till 1994 organizing mini festivals and concerts in Tuva, inviting musicians from Austria, Switzerland, Germany to play for audience in Tuva. Short before celebration of Millennium, I became grandmother. And I started to understand that most important in all this stories is my unity of being realized artist and singer, woman in three generations. (Sainkho Namtchylak, 04.04.2004)

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 Turkic 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.

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.

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.

Based in Vienna far from her beloved homeland Tuva, Sainkho sculpted “Stepmother City” to reflect her ambivalent feelings about European metropolis. Calling herself “first and foremost a woman from the Steppes,” Sainkho’s first musical inspiration came from her nomadic grandmother, who would sing lullabies for hours. She grew up in a culture where people just sing when they feel like it—singing when they’re happy and singing when they’re sad. Denied professional credentials from a local college where her explorative nature led her toward forbidden male-dominated overtone singing styles, Sainkho transferred to Moscow where she discovered Russian improvisation & where she also continue to study about vocal techniques of Siberian lamaistic & shamanistic traditions. Audiences are astounded by the diversity of sounds Sainkho can produce with her voice, from operatic soprano to birdlike squawks, from childlike pleas to soulful crooning; which at various moments elicit comparisons to Zap Mama, Patti Smith, Billie Holiday, and Nina Hagen. In 1997, Sainkho was horrifically attacked by Tuvinian racketeers which left her in a coma for two weeks. Again, sources regarding this contradict- others 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.

Sainkho claims that music and spirituality are related by desire, or the tension that yells to reawaken people. Eager to take part in the process of remembering what has been forgotten, “Stepmother City” presents itself like a map, proposing routes to connect Western physicality with Eastern spirituality…

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

SELECTED PRESS REVIEWS AND QUOTES:

“One of the most genuinely enjoyable and energising things I’ve heard all year” (Phil Johnson, The Independent)

“Sainkho Namtchylak, I hope, needs little introduction. Her enormous range and throat singing technique that allows her to use aliquots (Tuva) combined with her artistic sensibility make her voice a tool of limitless expression. Sainkho can cast spells with her voice, beginning with angel-like, charming lyricism (high-register, oriental scales, nasal, asia-sounding timbre) ending with wild passion (cries, screeches, clicks, growls). Everything from sounds of butterfly-like lightness to those that (defying gravity) come from some deep, dark hollows, sounding like all kinds of alien creatures (with, sorry for the triviality of this association, Jabba from the Star Wars on the front). Sainkho weaves her shamanic tales not afraid of extreme measures but her voice can also lull You gently and bring to land full of dreams. Her singing is so characteristic, it’s easily the greatest, constant value of all of her recordings (which means also, that if You didn’t like it on earlier recordings, these presented here will not persuade You in her favor either) what is still changing though is the context. Her esoteric, exotic singing paired (contrasted) with various music stylistics and elements can produce effects that are fresh and surprising.” (Jazz Alchemist)

“Vocalist Sainkho Namtchylak is a master of the unique multi-octave Tuvan throat-singing style, which is known for its deep guttural moans as well as high-pitched whistles and buzzing overtones. As haunting sonic textures provide the backdrops, the vocalist uses her seven-octave range to create a vivid variety of vocal characters that are intermittently sultry pop divas, children, demons, and songbirds, as well as more traditional-sounding singers of the Tuvan, gospel, blues, and opera styles.” (Tad Hendrickson, Tower.com)

“She is one of those artists that exist outside of categories. The same could be said of any woman who combines Tuvan throatsinging, experimental jazz, classical, electronica, and Buddhism. Then again, she is the only woman on the planet that fits this description.” (Culture Pleasure)

“It’s easy to understand why Tuvan Sainkho Namtchylak has been an avant-garde icon for a long time; she’s remarkable at producing the unexpected. But unlike many in her field, she also possesses a strong ear for melody, which makes her music accessible to a much wider audience.” (Culture Pleasure)

“This is as much, if not more, of a musical future as all the genre-mixing beats you’re likely to find” (Chris Nickson, All Music Guide)

“Extreme vocalist, performance artist and musical chameleon” (Jon Lusk, fRoots)

“The biggest star of this year’s festival is the Tuvan diva of traditional and improvised music, Sainkho Namtchylak” (Ring Ring Festival)

“Tuvan singer and international diva Sainkho Namtchylak has over the last three decades won recognition for her unique fusion of central Asian throat singing techniques with modern musical forms, including avant-garde jazz and ethno-techno electronica.” (Sarah Ankersmit, World People’s Blog)

“Tuvan Sainkho Namtchylak, who has a cult reputation, is a voice artist and experimental singer, whose expressiveness has no limits. With her voice, spanning 7 octaves, she has wandered on the fields of jazz, avant-garde, electronica and traditional Tuvan music, without any need to make divisions between these genres. Key elements in Sainkho’s music and use of voice are free improvisation and khöömei, in other words overtone singing or throat singing. Sainkho is actually known as the first throat singer of Tuva.” (Etnosoil Festival)

“Voice artist Sainkho Namtchylak has been one of my biggest inspirations in working with the voice. When I heard her music for the first time, I found many levels in it. The compositions without lyrics gave my imagination possibilities to interpret the atmosphere of the performances freely. The expressiveness of her voice fazed me. It felt like her throat was similar to nightingale’s throat, capable of repeating any kind of sound. It was amazing.” (Anna-Kaisa Liedes, Finland)

DISCOGRAPHY:

- “Simply – Live” compilation of live recordings (Tree Music, China, 2011)
- “Cyberia” solo suite for voice acapella (Ponderosa Music and Art, Italy, 2011)
- “Terra” Jazz arrangements of Tuva songs with Wolfgang Pushnig, Paul Urbanek (Leo Records, UK, 2010)
- “Not quite songs” electro acoustic with Nick Sudnik (Leo Records, UK, 2010)
- “Tea Opera” electronics with Dickson Dee (Leo Records, UK, 2009)
- “Portrait of an Idealist” Moscow Composers Orchestra with Sainkho (Leo Records, UK, 2009)
- “Mother-Earth! Father-Sky!” Huun-Huur-Tu with Sainkho (Jaro Records, Germany, 2008)
- “Intrance” acoustic duo with Jarrod Gagwin (Leo Records, UK, 2008)
- “Nomad” Best Of compilation, celebrating Sainkho’s 50th anniversary (Leo Records, UK, 2007)
- “Tuva-Irish live music project” electronics with Roy Karrol (Leo Records, UK, 2007)
- “Karmaland” Book+CD (LiberoDiscrivere, Italy, 2005)
- “Forgotten streets of St. Petersburg” new improvised music with Tri-O (Leo Records, UK, 2005)
- “Arzhaana” a musical fairy tale (Asia Plus Records, Russia, 2005)
- “Who Stole The Sky” songs (Ponderosa Music and Art, Italy , 2003)
- “Golden Years of the Soviet New Jazz” vol 3 & 4: Sainkho with Pop-Mechanika 18 nov 1985, Sainkho with Mikhail Zukov 10 june 1990, Sainkho with Tri-O 1989, 1991, Sainkho with Sergey Letov 11 june 1989, 1991  (2002)
- “Naked Spirit – Dance Remixes 12″ (Sun Generation Records, 2002)
- “Do” Melo-X (Quinton, 2001)
- “Harmonices Mundi” Christian Muthspiel (Blue Denube, Austria, 2001)
- “El Lebrijano – Lagrimas de Cera” (EMI International, 2001)
- “Aura” (Ponderosa Music and Art, Italy, 2001)
- “Homo Sonorus – International Antology of Sound Poetry“ poetry compilation vol IV (Russia, 2001)
- “Stepmother City” songs (Ponderosa Music and Art, Italy, 2000)
- “Engelspfad” Angels as Pilots (Algels Lab Production, 2000)
- “Quatro/Quatri” Almamegretta (BMG, Italy, 1999)
- “Voci in Viagio” (Amiata, Italy, 1999)
- “Temenos” film music (Leo Records, UK, 1999)
- “Kharms – 10 Incidents” (Long Arms Records, Russia , 1998)
- “Naked Spirit ” voicing meditations (Amiata Records, Italy, 1998)
- “Time Out” seven songs for Tuva (Ponderosa Music and Art, Italy , 1997)
- “Let Peremsky Dream” Moscow Composers Orchestra and Sainkho (Leo Records, UK, 1997)
- “The Gift” Moscow Composers Orchestra and Sainkho (Long Arms Records, Russia, 1997)
- “An Italian Love Affair” Moscow Composers Orchestra and Sainkho (Leo Records, UK, 1996)
- “Amulet” Sainkho with Ned Rothenberg (Leo Records, UK , 1996)
- “Mars Song” Sainkho with Evan Parker (Leo Records, UK, 1996)
- “Techno mit Storungen” Jon Rose (Plag Dich Nicht, 1995)
- “The First Take” Biosintes with Sainkho (FMP, Germany, 1994)
- “The performance art unit subway performance” RAU (Granit Records, Austria, 1994)
- “Live At City Garden” Moscow Composers Orchestra with Sainkho (U-Sound, 1994)
- “Dancing on the Island” Irene Becker and Sainkho (DOCD, 1994)
- “Hot Sounds from the Arctic” V.Rezitzky (Leo Records, UK, 1993)
- “Synergetics Phonomanie III” (2CD, Leo Records, UK, 1993)
- “Mixing it” (Chill Out Label, UK, 1993)
- “Expos Jazz & Joy” (Ver Abra Records, Germany, 1993)
- “Letters” Experimental voice pieces (Leo Records, UK, 1993)
- “Out Of Tuva” songs (Crammed World, Belgium , 1993)
- “Live” Kang Tae Hwan and Sainkho (Free Improvisation Network Record, Japan, 1993)
- “Puls” with Michael Sivert (Dizzi Essentials DE 002, Germany, 1992)
- “Marsias Song“ with Mattias Ziegler, Mark Dresser (Switzerland, 1992)
- “Octet – OST“ with Christian Muthspiel (Amadeo, Austria, 1991)
- “When the sun is out…” (FMP CD 38, Germany, 1991)
- “Lost Rivers” solo voice improvisation (FMP, Germany, 1991)
- “Tunguska- guska” Eine Meteoriten-Oper (EFA-Schneeball, Germany, 1991)
- “Transformation of Matter” TRI-O Plus Sainkho Namchylak (Leo Records, UK, 1990)