Sainkho Namtchylak Albums (12)
What The Critics Say
Sainkho Namtchylak celebrated her 50th anniversary in 2007 and, for the occasion, the avant-garde jazz/free improvisation label Leo Records did what probably no one else would have done: release a career-encompassing compilation album. You see, Namtchylak is a highly versatile artist, with activities ranging from extremely abstract experimental music to more straightforward jazz and soothing world music. The woman is well known on the world music circuit for her throat singing, and also respected in free improvisation circles for her use of extended techniques and her collaborations with Evan Parker and the Moscow Composers Orchestra. And most fans of one facet of her work are unaware of her other activities. Nomad brings it all together for a portrait that is still incomplete and imperfect, yet broader and much more representative than anything else on the market. Her worldbeat-type work is represented by three selections from Arzhaana (an album bordering on new age music) and another from the recent release Who Stole the Sky Her jazzier side is highlighted by a marvelous piece from her Leo release Letters and a previously unreleased performance with Daniel Klemmer, Karl Seyer and Uli Soyka. Excerpts from Aura cover her free improvisation activities, here featured in interaction with Peter Kowald, Vladimir Tarasov and Vladimir Volkov. Finally, peppered throughout the track list are short voice solos highlighting her phenomenal vocal technique and range. These are unclassifiable, as they belong as much to traditional Tuvan throat singing than to pure experimental soundmaking. All tracks have been edited into a smoothly flowing, cross-fading suite that makes this aural journey particularly easy to follow and appreciate. A must have for fans curious to know what is happening on the other side of Namtchylak's fence -- and the obligatory starting point for newcomers. ~ François Couture, All Music Guide
'Tuva: Irish Live Music Project'
Release Date 3/19/2007
Tracks 10
Label Leo
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
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. Both those strengths are on display here, along with her feeling for the music and the throat singing of her native land (very notably on the title cut and "Ohm Suhaa"). She can take a traditional piece like "Kaar Deerge" and turn it into something resembling a Celtic ballad, stripped and completely gorgeous. Then she can turn around and make something rhythmically compelling like "Runnin' Tapes" or strange like "Digital Mutation." By exercising the different facets of her personality, Namtchylak builds her typical unusual album with Who Stole the Sky, running from the contemporary to the past easily and naturally, and even venturing into almost jazzy territory on "Electric City." She embraces the idea of taking chances, of using odd juxtapositions and instruments (such as ghaita), and of singing that ranges from the lush to the elemental. 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
What The Critics Say
For decades now, Tuvan vocalist Sainkho Namtchylak has walked a tightrope between the folk traditions of her native country and the vanguard strains of free improvisation and free jazz of her adopted Europe. Until now, she has never attempted to record an album with "accessible" material on it, nor, in this writer's memory, has she ever sung in English. On Stepmother City, one of the most deeply and pervasive spiritual recordings in Namtchylak's catalog (the liner notes are by a Buddhist monk from the fifth century BC), she makes use not only of Western language and song forms, but the adornments of electronica, alongside double basses, hand percussion, shakuhachi flutes, and duduks. The album begins with a droning modal keyboard and flute line, whereupon Namtchylak enters in true overtone style, reaching deep into her heart for wordless sounds that convey the sacred nature of the proceedings. "Dance of the Eagle" straddles a double bass, hand percussion on dumbeks, and a soprano saxophone (played by Ned Rothenberg) with an open-tuned guitar playing a slide rhythm as she chants in Tuvan scale. Her backing vocalists engage the overtones as well, creating a drone choir. Other tracks, such as "Let the Sunshine," are full of loops and reggae rhythms, as the vocalist states her case plainly to the English-speaking world. "Ritual Virtuality," "Tuva Blues," and "Old Melodie" all juxtapose the old, the very old, and the strikingly new against each other to establish tension and release while engaging one another in a discussion of interplay and collaborative synthesis. And while improvisation certainly plays a role here, these are the tightest pieces Namtchylak has ever recorded. The album ends with "Boomerang," a song that features the singer in a high voice, cresting a wave created by a jungle rhythm and the gorgeous double-bass playing of Paolina Dalla Porta. In sum, this is a wonderfully compelling synthesis of styles, voices, musics, and articulations. Hence it is proof that despite her long career, Namtchylak is still moving forward, sifting through the ambiences and textures of music around the world, looking for illumination in the sonic heart of the dharma she practices. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
While Sainkho is a vocalist from Tuva, she does not sing solely in the distinctive throat singing that has popularized the name of that postage stamp nation, although there are sufficient examples here. Sainkho incorporates the bovine canter rhythms, as in "Badjirgal's Wish," breathy vocalizations, and Oriental, upper-register expression. Through accompanying her own samples and multi-tracking, production of Naked Spirit allows Sainkho to create an entire universe of sound with her voice. The tracks are often repeated variations on a single verse of three lines. While these stanzas bear haiku-like poetry, it is the rich arrangement and intricate harmonies that add beautiful mystery to these chant-like pieces. As such, Sainkho is the avant-garde, experimental face of the contemporary Tuvan folk scene. Her wondrously adept and entrancing vocalese places Sainkho in the regency of shrinking world vocal jazz. Clearly inspired by the whole of nature and a life outdoors (there is even a song about the Inuit), Sainkho conjures into her pieces many sonic allusions. In "Valley of Shadows," tablas recreate rainfall and she utters a flock of birds. Sainkho's unforgettable improvisations -- summoning for the mind an arena of the boundless steppes -- are here accompanied by mouth harps, varied ethnic percussion, and more, including master of the apricot-wood flute known as the dudu, Djivan Gasparyan, on the title track. Liner notes are in English and Italian. ~ Tom Schulte, All Music Guide
'Live'
Release Date 1/1/1993
Tracks 5
Label Free Improvisation Network
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What The Critics Say
This live duo improvisation will test the mettle of all but the fairly ardent free noise fan. Korean alto saxophonist Kang Tae Hwan had worked with numerous members of the Japanese avant-garde (including Otomo Yoshihide and Sachiko M.) and several Americans such as Ned Rothenberg, while Tuvan free vocalist Sainkho Namchylak had collaborated with a great number of musicians from across the spectrum. The first piece is actually a subdued and even meditative number, with Hwan's alto evoking shakuhachi-like textures and Namchylak tending toward soft, percussive sounds. Each musician has a solo spot, the vocalist's one of nasal grunts and sputters, the saxophonist's a long series of split and held tones very reminiscent of some of Roscoe Mitchell's early work. The concluding piece, with screeching alto work and Namchylak imitating some especially irritating avian life, is tough sledding, but the commitment and imagination displayed over the course of the disc makes this a potentially rewarding listen for adherents of the further reaches of free improvisation. ~ Brian Olewnick, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Tuvan vocalist Sainkho Namtchylak is a singer among singers. In her sound world, the human voice is the container for all the sounds in the universe and also their interpreter. This collection of 13 pieces, many of them improvisations, is an attempt by Namtchylak to let the listener in to witness how she organizes that world. From growling, bleating, gurgling, screaming, whispering, cooing, singing, clucking, roaring, and whooping, patterns emerge of interactions of the animate with the inanimate world, all of it in the context of the spiritual. This is singing as it probably was at the beginning of human existence, and yet, it is obvious that it has never been anywhere but in Namtchylak's present. As her entire body moves into the heat of "song," the listener realizes that, on Namtchylak's part, there is no attempt to imitate anything, but instead to integrate, prioritize, and then deconstruct sounds, thus imbuing them with meanings that they might not otherwise be assigned. This isn't merely throat singing, this is vocal shamanism. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
