Global Rhythm, Review >>
Sainkho Namtchylak's Stepmother City (Ponderosa/Harmonia Mundi 003) brings together the ultimate in ortherworldly-ness with modern, groove-infused electronica. A woman of the Steppes, Namtchylak is Tuva's most happening songstress, transfixing audiences with her wide seven-octave vocal range. She aims to unite East and West, creating a forum for such growth within her expansive and versatile musical conceptions.
This mysterious being comes from a family of nomads in the Republic of Tuva (located in the former USSR near the Mongolian border). It was there that she studied the cult music of the lamaistic and shamanistic traditions near Siberia, and practiced throat singing, a traditionally male-dominated form of song, which earned her outcast status. She moved to Europe and developed her spellbinding sounds, and became impressed with forms of free-jazz happening there, particularly in Moscow.
Sainkho Namtchylak is a portal into two totally foreign realms: one that exists on the planet (her culture and land) and one that transcends this life completely. Music and spirituality are intimately entwined for the throat-singing madrigal; the liner notes are written by a Buddhist monk.
Imagine a more foreign and avant-garde Bjork, complete with sometimes awkward notes and pitch, but with a strange quality of magnetism that can feel basically uncomfortable. Shrills, screams, squawks, moans, whispers and wails sometimes get to be too much, too intense or too weird, but if you listen to the music as if it were purely an experiment in vibrations, sonic frequencies, and multi-culturalism, these things would all just be part of the show. That's why it's called experimental music.
The beats on Stepmother City are phenomenally laid as the ground surface, and they blend with Namtchylak's eerily seductive vocals, ringing as multi-textured echoes that penetrate through to the ethereal realm. Instruments such as the shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute), igil (Mongolian horse-head fiddle believed to be connected with the spiritual world), and the doshpuloor (three-stringed banjo) move swiftly alongside upright bass and seductive beats.
This music is essential for those familiar with the film Genghis Blues, about the blind American blues musician Paul Pena, who travels to the Republic of Tuva with other Tuva-philes after he tunes into a radio program broadcasting throat singing. (There is also a mysterious connection to mystic-physicist Richard Feynman among the travelers and the idea of Tuva.)
Namtchylak's track "Tuva Blues" is reminiscent of the film's music, imagery and story. The flute arrangement, coupled with the high minstrel voice of a lady of the wood on the track "Old Melodie," has an almost Celtic feel to it, drawing upon the myriad influences that Namtchylak has received in her nomadic journey. It is a music of discovery, for her and for the producers involved in getting this form of sonic vibration to be detected by the world's radar. Some of the beats even have a drum 'n' basslike sense of urgency to them, making this release accessible to a generation that pulses a few beats faster.
"Let the Sunshine" is a catchy track with uplifting optimism attached to a melodic acoustic guitar and Namtchylak's knowingness: "Getting better, getting easy, let the sun shine." One of her primary visions is to awaken people to a vibrational form of being through song. During acappella interludes, she narrates penetrating philosophical insights in regards to earth-based mysticism, planetary awareness, virtual space, holiness and innocence. Her musings are backed by the sounds of birds, babbling streams and the wind: "We are all different, we are all different biological information."
Animalistic, or perhaps derived from a pixie tongue, we are not accustomed to the sounds that her voice produces, so they are startling and sometimes a bit nervy. If she stuck with the smoother vocals and continued producing hypnotic tracks like "Boomerang," she could really blow up here in the States.
But perhaps she is not rushing to join the ranks of American pop singers, and who can truly blame her? She has come a long way from her home in the far mountains of what seems to be a Lord of the Rings chapter, to her new home in Vienna, recording albums like Stepmother City with Italian arranger/producer Roberto Colombo. "I am one lonely soul, oh yes it's true, just an innocent child, passing through."
--Sari Heifetz 12/01/02
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