Voices of Tuva(2)

Tuvan musician Sayan Bapa founded his band in 1992 with his friend Kaigalool Khovalyg. The quartet Huun-Huur-Tu tours China this month.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Huun-Huur-Tu's four musicians are all masters of different styles of khoomei, for which Tuva is famous. Tulush will perform the solo-style sygyt, which is characterized by high-pitched whistle melodies. Khovalyg and Bapa will sing in the kargyraa style, which means low and deep tones.

"We learn traditional Tuvan songs and khoomei from our families and friends, who are not professional singers but sing very well. We are grateful that our ancestors gave this powerful gift to us," says Bapa.

Born to a Tuvan father and Russian mother in the industrial town of Ak-Dovurakthe in Tuva, Bapa founded his band in 1992 along with his friend Kaigal-ool Khovalyg. They named it Huun-Huur-Tu, which means "sunshine" in Tuvinian.

Before Bapa formed the band, he was trained as a bass guitar player in a Russian jazz-rock band. But in the early 1990s, he returned to Tuva to study traditional Tuvan musical instruments and khoomei.

Huun-Huur-Tu released its first album, 60 Horses in My Herd, in 1993, and the same year, the band made its American debut that enabled the musicians to become musical ambassadors of Tuva.

Nobel Prize winner in physics Richard Feynman dreamed about going to Tuva, Bapa says. Feynman also gave ethnomusicologist Ted Levin recordings of Tuvan khoomei. Overwhelmed by the mysterious sound, Levin then went to Tuva in 1987, when he met the four musicians who would become Huun-Huur-Tu.

Since then, the band has toured parts of the world and worked with musicians across genres, such as collaborations with American string quartet Kronos Quartet in 1997, and a DJ remix, Spirits From Tuva, in 2003. In 2004, the group was nominated for the BBC World Music Award, considered the most prestigious in the world of ethnic music.

"For me, some of the collaborations have been interesting. We were trying to find where we all have common ground in music. We don't just try to mix for the sake of mixing. We are trying to find where all the sounds work well together," Bapa says.

Radik Tyulyush, 40, soloist of the ensemble, says: "Tuvan music is organic and natural. It mixes well with all traditional musical cultures as well as with contemporary music, such as electronic and rock. I believe that Tuvan music has no limits."

Tyulyush studied folk Tuvan music since childhood and learned khoomei from his grandfather. Before he joined the band in 2005, like many young people in Tuva, he listened to the music of Huun-Huur-Tu and attended all its concerts, and "absorbed the art".

"Listeners should come to a concert with an open heart. Both the listener and the performer will then be connected emotionally," he says.

IF YOU GO

9 pm, Dec 17. Yugong Yishan, 3-2 Zhangzizhong Lu, Dongcheng district, Beijing. 010-6404-2711