Yat-Kha
Yat-Kha | |
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Yat-Kha playing live in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, October 13, 2005 | |
Background information | |
Origin | Tuva (Russia) |
Genres | rock, tuvan music, overtone singing, ethnic electronica, indie |
Years active | 1991–present |
Website | http://www.yat-kha.ru/en/ |
Members | Albert Kuvezin and others |
Past members | Ivan Sokolovsky and many others |
Yat-Kha is a band from Tuva, led by vocalist/guitarist Albert Kuvezin. Their music is a mixture of Tuvan traditional music and rock, featuring Kuvezin's distinctive kargyraa throat singing style, the kanzat kargyraa.
Biography
Yat-Kha was founded in Moscow in 1991, as a collaborative project between Kuvezin and Russian avant-garde, electronic composer Ivan Sokolovsky. The project blended traditional Tuvan folk music with post-modern rhythms and electronic effects. Kuvezin and Sokolovsky toured and played festivals, and eventually took the name “Yat-Kha,” which refers to a type of small, Central Asian zither similar to the Mongolian yatga and the Chinese guzheng, which Kuvezin plays in addition to the guitar. In 1993, they released a self-titled album on the General Records label.
After the release of Yat-Kha, Kuvezin and Sokolovsky parted creative ways and Kuvezin went on to release five other albums under the name Yat-Kha with other musicians (and less of an emphasis on electronics), beginning with Yenisei Punk in 1995, with morin khuur player Alexei Saaia (produced by Lu Edmonds). Sokolovsky issued a remastered version of the Yat-Kha album, with additional tracks, under the title Tundra's Ghosts in 1996/97.
Since 2001, they have been performing a live soundtrack to Vsevolod Pudovkin's 1928 silent film Storm Over Asia. They may release a DVD of this version of the film with Reality Film.
In 2010, the project released a new album, Poets and Lighthouses, recorded on the Scottish island of Jura with producer Giles Perring. It reached Number 1 on the World Music Charts Europe (WMCE) in January 2011.
Discography
Albums:
- Priznak Gryadushchei Byedy (1991)
- Khanparty (1992)
- Yat-Kha (1993)
- Yenisei Punk (1995)
- Tundra's Ghosts (1996/97) - remastered version of Yat-Kha released by Ivan Sokolovsky)
- Dalai Beldiri (1999)
- Aldyn Dashka (2000)
- Bootleg (2001, live)
- tuva.rock (2003)
- Re-Covers (2005)
- Bootleg 2005 (2005, live)
- Poets and Lighthouses (2010)
Members
Current
- Albert Kuvezin (vocals, Throat Singing, Guitar, Bass Guitar, Chanzy, Khomus, Yat-Kha)
- Evgeny "Zhenya" Tkachov (drums, Percussion)
- "Theodore Scipio" (Bass Guitar)
Past
- Radik Tiuliush (vocals, Throat Singing, Morin Khuur, Igil)
- Sailyk Ommun (vocals, Yat-Kha)
- Makhmud Skripaltschchikov (Bass Guitar)
- Aldyn-ool Sevek (vocals, Throat Singing, Morin Khuur, Igil)
- Alexei Saaia (vocals, Morin khuur, Bass Guitar)
- Aias-ool Danzyryn (vocals, Chanzy)
- Ivan Sokolovsky (Synthesizers, Percussion)
Appearing on Poets and Lighthouses with Albert Kuvezin (Voice, Acoustic Guitar)
- Simon Edwards (Acoustic Bass Guitar, Double Bass, Marimbula, Mbira, Appalachian Dulcimer)
- Giles Perring (Acoustic Guitar, Piano, Harmonium, Backing Vocals, Drums, Percussion)
- Sarah Homer (Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Recorder)
- Melanie Pappenheim (Backing Vocals)
- Lu Edmonds (Cumbus)
- Neil Cameron (Scottish Small Pipes)
Awards
- 1991 recognized by Brian Eno, one of the international judges at the first Voices of Asia Festival in Almaty, Kazakhstan
- 1995 French RFI "Decouvertes Est" prize for Yenisei Punk
- 1999 German Critic's Prize for Dalai Beldiri
- 2002 BBC Radio 3 "Award for World Music"
External links
- Official Russian site
- Yat-Kha discography at Discogs
- Yat-Kha discography at MusicBrainz
- Ivan Sokolovsky
- Reality Film: Storm over Asia
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