HUUN HUUR TU / Tuwa

Music & Discourse
HUUN-HUUR-TU - 30th anniversary tour
Preliminary program: Film about TUVA

How is that possible? A person sings with two voices? We think we recognize one of them, while the other rises into the air like an arrow, a whistle, or shakes the ground with a rumbling, rolling sound. In the geographical center of Asia, in Tuva, a very primitive way of singing (throat or overtone singing) has been preserved. This is not vocal artistry for the sake of beauty. This music has a deep relationship to the spiritual cosmos as well as to the nature in which it originated and still originates today. Huun-Huur-Tu's songs, instrumental pieces and dances are an expression of the centuries-old nomadic life of shepherds and herdsmen in the solitude of the steppe and remote mountain valleys. They accompany their singing with various instruments, including the typical horse-head fiddle. There is hardly a better ensemble that cultivates Central Asian overtone singing. Their virtuosity even fascinates heavy metal adepts! The evening opens with a film introducing Tuvan culture and music.

In 1992, Sasha Bapa, his brother Sayan, Kaigal-ool Khovalyg and Albert Kuvezin founded the group KUNGURTUK to focus on the presentation of old and forgotten songs from their homeland. On the one hand, they are committed to preserving these songs, while on the other, their concerts demonstrate the importance of combining tradition and innovation. Later, the musicians of the ensemble decided to rename it HUUN-HUUR-TU.

Kaigal-ool Khovalyg Vocals (Khöömei, Sygyt, Kargyraa), Igyl

Radik Tyulyush Vocals (Barbang-Nadyr), Byzaanchi, Khomuz (jew's harp)

Alexej Saryglar Vocals (Sygyt), Tuyug (horse hooves), Tungur (shaman-drum), Igyl

Sayan Bapa Vocals (Kargyraa & Khöömei), Toschpulur, Guitar, Igyl

Tuvan throat and overtone singing is one of the most fascinating vocal techniques in the world, and HUUN-HUUR-TU are masters of its various varieties. There is an unmistakable ritual character to this music, but HUUN-HUUR-TU contrast all meditative tendencies with a strong rhythmic orientation. This fascinating overtone singing, which can produce up to 3 melodies simultaneously, remains deeply mysterious. Traditionally, Tuvan music was mostly performed by soloists, and musicians specialized in a particular genre or style. These genres and styles in turn have their origins in certain social occasions. HUUN-HUUR-TU's eclectic performances of old songs and melodies as a group and accompanied by instruments thus move between all elements of Tuvan musical life. To Western ears, they sound fascinatingly strange, but at the same time contemporary and modern.

Concert tours have taken them around the world for more than 20 years. Joint projects with The Bulgarian Voices Angelite and Moscow Art Trio have taken them to the world's largest concert halls.

In 2009, HHT played with a symphony orchestra from Taiwan for the first time and were invited there for the second time in 2010. The world premiere of the project "Children of the otter" with compositions by Vladimir Martynov took place at the end of 2009. These are recordings for overtone ensemble, chamber orchestra and choir. They have performed in the USA, France, Germany, Taiwan, Hungary, Poland, Serbia, Spain, China, Japan, Mexico, Colombia, China, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Austria and England, in addition to numerous festivals in their home country of Russia.

They have had a hit on YouTube with a Berkelee session recorded in the USA, with more than 6.5 million people having seen the video. A new young audience is discovering this fascinating group.

In the fall of 2017, the legendary recording of "60 Horses in My Herd" was released on vinyl for the first time. In 2018, the band released " CHILDREN OF THE OTTER ", a completely different production with chamber orchestra and choir conducted by Russia's most important contemporary composer Vladimir Martinov. This was followed by the re-release of the LP "The Orphans Lament" on vinyl in 2019.

The longing for peace and nature far away from the hectic pace of the mechanized world shed a new light on the ensemble's music and gave it a renaissance.

IN AUTUMN 2020, despite Corona, the first book in German/English about Tuva, Huun-Huur-Tu and the culture from this forgotten part of the world was published. "Terra Incognita-Tuva " A photo book with the history of the band and one of its musicians including a live CD, recorded in Ireland in 2019 and a TV documentary from the 90s produced by W. Hamm for 3 SAT (as DVD). Despite the pandemic, the book received outstanding reviews worldwide and the German Record Critics' Award, Quarterly List.

In the concert program 2023, a 30-minute film about Tuva and the book Terra Incognita will be shown in the first part of the concert, followed by the concert of Huun-Huur-Tu after a short break. The war in Ukraine has made it extremely difficult for Russian artists to travel at all. The band stands for peace and war, but as they (want to) continue to live with their families in Russia / Tuva, they are only allowed to express themselves very cautiously.

In summer 23, the legendary CD with The Bulgarian Voices Angelite "Fly Fly My Sadness" was finally released on audiophile vinyl.

Huun-Huur-Tu are repeatedly asked for their opinion on the war in Ukraine.

They emphasize that they are against any kind of war and violence. Only their religion, Buddhism, demands this.

Please understand that the band cannot take a direct stand, as they risk losing the opportunity to perform at all and disappearing into prison for years.