The Art of Mongolian Khoomii (ARC Music, 2015)
Sometimes it is not so easy to step out of our comfort zone. That being said let me suggest for just a moment you step out of your own cushy comfort zone and take a listen to Bayarbaatar Davaasuren’s The Art of Mongolian Khoomii, out on the ARC Music label. Khoomii is throat singing. Yes, throat singing, or sometimes called overtone singing, where a singer produces two, or sometimes more, notes at the same time. Usually associated with central Asia, throat singing can also be found in parts of Canada and U.S. among the Inuit peoples and in South Africa among the Xhosa women.
I suppose that recommending a recording of throat singing other than to a group of ethnomusicologists, Mongolians or people like me, who possesses an odd sort of fascination with the craft, might seem rather strange. But that strangeness, that inexplicable exploration beyond the familiar and fashionable is exactly the point. The Art of Mongolian Khoomii is filled with the elegant lines and nuances of an art more than 2000 years old and that’s worth stepping out into the unfamiliar.
Mr. Davaasuren thrills listeners with high drones, deep guttural growls and roughed over vocals. The Art of Mongolian Khoomii is packed with songs from the Hunnu era, as with opening track “Magtall Ger,” a tribute to motherhood and mountain songs. “Ih Khaanii Duulul” is a eulogy to Chinggis Khaan” (the Mongolian name for Ghengis Khan.” In addition to singing, Mr. Davaasuren lends his talent to the morin khuur or horse fiddle, the tovshuur or long-necked flute, the yatga or zither and the Jew’s harp as found on the tracks “Hulsan Huur” and “Tumur Huur.”
There is a real beauty on some tracks as with “Minii Eej” with elegant backing instrumentation and the traditional tune “Gurvan Shariin Nuruu Magtaal” in a tribute to the Khanghai Mountains. “Tengeriin Duu” was recorded at the Roman Abby of Noirlac in France and it is startling, as are companion tracks “Tungalag Buyant,” “Buurul Aav” and track “Nariin Saihan Heer,” an apt tribute to the horse.
The Art of Mongolian Khoomii is strangely meditative and begs a careful listen, but the rewards are well worth it.
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Author: TJ Nelson
TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow.
Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.
Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.
