Sublime art that words cannot describe: SAINKHO NAMTCHYLAK

Sainkho Namtchylak is a wanderer between the worlds (as a German idiom would describe it). She was a member of the national ensemble of Tuva, left the remote republic in the south of Siberia and lived in Moscow. There she met jazz musicians and started a new career in the west. She lived in Vienna, Berlin and Moscow, but she never forgot her home country. Every year she invited western musicians to perform in Kyzyl and to learn about her country, her culture and her music.

She has an exceptional voice, proficient in overtone singing; her music encompasses avant-jazz, electronic, 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.

She took the stage on the 11th of September 2209 and we all stood in amazement.

Distinctions:
1987 – Honorable Citizen, MINNEAPOLIS, SUA
1993 – BBC New Comer Award
1993 – Grand Of DAAD, Berlin
2001 – Best Creative People Of Tuva In XX Century
2005 – BBC radio 3 Best Albums of the year for World Music
Selective Discography:
1990 – TRI-O Plus Sainkho Namchylak Transformation of Matter
1991 – Tunguska-guska
1992 – Lost Rivers
1992 – Kang Tae Hwan and Sainkho Namchylak Live – Free Improvisation
1993 – Out Of Tuva
1993 – Letters
1995 – Moscow Composers Orchestra and Sainkho Live at City Garden
1996 – Mars song – Duo with Evan Parker
1996 – “Amulet” – Duo with Ned Rothenberg
1996 – Moscow Composers Orchestra and Sainkho An Italian Love Affair
1996 – Moscow Composers Orchestra and Sainkho The Gift
1997 – Moscow Composers Orchestra and Sainkho Let Peremsky Dream’
1997 – Time Out
1998 – Naked Spirit
1999 – Temenos
2001 – Stepmother City
2001 – Aura
2003 – Who Stole The Sky
2005 – Arzhaana – a fairy tale
2005 – TriO & Sainkho Forgotten Streets of St. Petersburg
2006 – Karmaland
2008 – DVD Freedom Now

Web Resources:
www.sainkho.net
www.myspace.com/sainkhonamchylak