Tuvan Throat Singing - Huun Hur Tuu (Tuva, Mongolia)

Throat singing (or overtone singing) is designed to integrate the sounds of nature (birdsong, water running, hoofbeats, etc.) into vocals. The goal of overtone singing is to generate two (or more) tones simultaneously as you sing...one is usually a drone and the others are high-pitched tones, mimicking the sounds of nature. 

Tuva (just outside of Mongolia) is "well known" (as well known as throat singing can be in modern culture) as the centre of throat singing, although other Mongolian (and Inuit in Canada) cultures also practice variations on the form.

Huun Hur Tu are one of the best practitioners of this form of music. The other best know group is Yat Kha, who have even recorded Western songs in the Tuva style (including Love Will Tear Us Apart originally by Joy Division).

Personally, I love this kind of music although for many it is an acquired taste. 

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu (Australia)

Aboriginal musician astonishes Australian audiences
By Tim Johnston

SYDNEY: Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu doesn't speak much, but when he takes up his guitar, he sings, literally and figuratively. He sings of growing up in an Aboriginal community on a remote island off the north coast of Australia; he sings of coming to terms with being born blind; and he sings the creation stories of his Yolngu people.

This year, Yunupingu, 37, released his first solo album - "Gurrumul" - and it looks set to become a rare phenomenon: a recording by an Aboriginal artist that has broken out into the mainstream. "Gurrumul" jumped to No. 1 on the iTunes Australia roots music chart (it is currently No. 3), but, more significantly, it is running strong in the mainstream iTunes music chart, above such international heavy hitters as Mariah Carey.

The album is a mixture of traditional songs and new compositions, and its success is all the more remarkable because all but two of the songs are sung in Yolngu.

On "Gurrumul," Yunupingu combines a precise guitar style with a clarity of voice that sounds powerful and fragile at the same time. The only backing instrument is an occasional double bass, played by his friend and producer Michael Hohnen, and the result is a clean, approachable sound that haunts long after the last note has faded. "There is a purity to all these songs. They grab hold of you," said Iain Shedden, music critic of The Australian newspaper. "There is an incredible aura to him."

In a recent interview in Sydney, Yunupingu remained largely silent. He is acutely shy, and English is not his first language. He left most of the talking to Hohnen, although he did speak occasionally to affirm what Hohnen said. "We tried just to make a really beautiful record, not a fashionable record, not a record that chases the world market: just an honest, beautiful record," said Hohnen, a classically trained musician who had some success with a rock band when he was younger.

Yunupingu is from the Gumatj clan of the Yolngu on Elcho Island, off the north coast of Australia some 560 kilometers, or 350 miles, from Darwin, the nearest big city on the mainland. His childhood exposed him to traditional culture, and it is a culture that reserves a particularly important place for music, both traditional and more modern.

Because of his blindness, Hohnen said, "He was stuck with the family more than a normal rebellious kid: stuck going to the church and learning all the gospel songs, stuck playing a toy piano his mother gave him, and being given a guitar and being told, 'Play this.' "

Yunupingu plays the guitar upside down, a legacy of the days when he was left-handed boy with access only to a guitar strung for right-handers. He was an adventurous child, and the people of Elcho Island encouraged him. "There are some great stories about him being taught how to play basketball, and how to ride a push-bike," Hohnen said. "They would call out from the houses as he rode past, telling him 'this way,' or 'this way.' He memorized how many bumps there were between his house and wherever he was going."

Yunupingu is largely self-taught. He left school when he was 12 and never mastered Braille. Hohnen ascribes Yunupingu's striking ability - he has played keyboards and drums on other recordings - to natural talent and practice.

The Yolngu people have given Australia some of its most successful bands. Yothu Yindi was founded by one of Yunupingu's relatives, Mandawuy Yunupingu. George Burarrwanga, the lead singer of the other great breakthrough group, the Warumpi Band, also came from Elcho Island. Yunupingu spent seven years playing and touring with Yothu Yindi, but his blindness made the constant travel even more tiring, Hohnen said. Yunupingu does not have a guide dog and seldom uses a walking stick.

Thirteen years ago, he left Yothu Yindi and returned to live full-time on Elcho Island. "Yothu Yindi was not him," said Hohnen, who has known him for more than a decade. "I think it has taken a long time for him to then say, 'I am ready to do my own thing.' " He founded Saltwater Band, which has released two albums that were well-received by critics but did not break into the broader music market. The band has another album coming out this year. 

Yunupingu says his favorite groups are older, guitar-led rock bands like the Eagles and Dire Straits, along with singers like Elvis Presley and Neil Diamond. But he has forged a distinctive sound of his own, with songs that make the musical traditions of his people modern and accessible to a general audience, while retaining the depth and heft of works polished by well-loved familiarity.

During the hourlong interview, Yunupingu sat smiling but saying little, occasionally offering monosyllabic interjections if he thought Hohnen had missed something. But when he took up his guitar, he was transformed. He raised his head, and the elegance of his long fingers suddenly became apparent. As he played the opening chords, there was a coiled stillness in his playing - no tapping feet or nodding - and then his voice broke like a keening wind into the first mournful bars of a song called "Bapa."

His music has astonished audiences in Australia. One reviewer said he "blew listeners away" when he closed the inaugural Song Summit in Sydney recently. A headline in The Sydney Morning Herald read, "Aboriginal music gets an angelic new voice."

His appeal extends to people who do not generally listen to Aboriginal artists. "It reached No. 8 in the mainstream iTunes charts. I don't really understand how that is because you are competing with Delta and Moby," said Hohnen, who co-owns Yunupingu's Skinny fish Music label, referring to Delta Goodrem, a popular Australian singer-songwriter. Hohnen added that "Gurrumul" had outsold any other album the label had released by 20 to 1.

One thing that distinguishes Yunupingu from bands like Yothu Yindi and Warumpi is that he has no political agenda. "He's not an activist or a social commentator," Hohnen said. "He says it is just his role to tell these stories, and reorganize and recreate them as his own songs. This is not angry record or an in-your-face record."

Meanwhile, Yunupingu remains rooted in his culture, adhering to the Aboriginal tradition of sharing good fortune. Asked what he would do if his album made money, he thought for a bit, then said, "Give it to my mum and my aunties."

Welcome

Welcome to Roots to Branches. My goal here is to explore the roots of popular music and share my passion with like-minded music fans. I will be posting folk, jazz, blues, classical music, African and other world music, anything that illustrates the journey that music has taken us on over decades and centuries. As well, I hope to show that music is a great uniter of cultures and humanity and brings us all great joy.

Sit back, relax and strap on the headphones...it's going to be a wonderful ride!

Please feel free to comment and say hi, let me know what you're interested in and any improvements you think I can make.

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Cheers, Andy.