Sainkho Namtchylak

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Sainkho Namtchylak at Moers Festival 2004, Germany
Sainkho Namtchylak at Moers Festival 2004, Germany

Sainkho Namtchylak (born 1957) is a singer originally from Tuva, a small autonomous Russian republic just north of Mongolia. She is known for her Tuvan throat singing or Khöömei.

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Sainkho Namtchylak is an experimental singer, born in 1957 in a secluded village in the south of Tuva. She has an exceptional voice, spanning seven octaves and proficient in overtone singing; her music encompasses avant-jazz, electronica, modern composition and Tuvan influences. In Tuva, numerous cultural influences collide: the Turkish 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.

[edit] 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.

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.

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

[edit] Discography

  • 1990 - TRI-O Plus Sainkho Namchylak Transformation of Matter, DOCUMENT, vol.V - Leo Records
  • 1991 - Tunguska-guska - Eine Meteoriten-Oper, EFA-Schneeball
  • 1992 - Lost Rivers - FMP
  • 1992 - Kang Tae Hwan and Sainkho Namchylak Live - Free Improvisation Network Record
  • 1993 - Out Of Tuva - Mapping the interim time from 1987 to 1993; some folk, some baroque, some examples of ethno-pop and trans-Siberian songs pertaining to her thesis
  • 1993 - Letters - Experimental voice pieces based on letters sent home to her parents while studying from 1980-1993
  • 1995 - Moscow Composers Orchestra and Sainkho Live at City Garden - U-Sound
  • 1996 - Mars song - Duo with Evan Parker
  • 1996 - "Amulet" - Duo with Ned Rothenberg
  • 1996 - Moscow Composers Orchestra and Sainkho An Italian Love Affair - Leo Records
  • 1997 - Moscow Composers Orchestra and Sainkho Let Peremsky Dream' - Leo Records
  • 1997 - Time Out - A personal album, given only to a handful of fnas, musically detailing the aftermath of the attack
  • 1996 - Moscow Composers Orchestra and Sainkho The Gift - Long Arms Records
  • 1998 - Naked Spirit Amiata Records
  • 1999 - Temenos - Leo Records
  • 2001 - Stepmother City Ponderosa
  • 2001 - Aura Ponderosa
  • 2003 - Who Stole The Sky - the preceding two albums produced while in Vienna, showing a greater tendency towards both multicultural influences and electronica. Naked Spirit features a beautiful duet with Armenian duduk player Djivan Gasparyan; Stepmother City features several songs in English, as well as other Siberian influences- one track features prominent Tungus-style imitational singing, another the Bashkortori kurai; Who Stole The Sky further culturally diversifies with a band incorporating bansuri and kora players.
  • 2005 - ARZHAANA" Asia Records - a fairy tale
  • 2005 - TriO & SAINKHO FORGOTTEN STREETS OF ST.PETERSBURG" Leo Records

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