Huun-Huur-Tu

In the Communist era, folk music and folk dance in Russia was a state-sponsored cultural endeavour, often involving large touring ensembles. Since its fall, many of these ensembles similarly folded. Sasha Bapa, Sayan Bapa and Kaigal-ool Khovalyg were veterans of one such ensemble and instead of leaving music, like many of their former peers, decided in the early '90's to form their own group. Huun-Huur-Tu come from Tuva, on the border of Mongolia and Russia. The four-piece play traditional folk instruments of the region and employ an other-worldly technique known as throat-singing, in which a drone note and as many as two separate melody notes are produced simultaneously by one human voice. They have collaborated with the likes of Frank Zappa, Johnny 'Guitar' Watson, the Kodo drummers, The Moscow Art Trio, the Kronos Quartet, Trilok Gurtu, Ry Cooder, The Chieftains and Bulgarian women's singing group Angelite and in more recent years have added electronic elements and modern instruments such as electric guitar to their sound.