Customer Reviews

Eternal

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A new album born from the collaborative work of Huun Huur Tu, a band best known for their re-interpretation of Tuva's musical classics, and electronic musician/producer Carmen Rizzo, as well as expert composer and arranger Mark Governor, Eternal blends the rhythms of a traditional Mongolian culture with the latest sound studio electric re-imagining. The result is a captivating meld of old and new, creative in its application of melody and sure to excite listeners interested in experiencing a unique audio sensation. Highly recommended especially for public library collections international music album shelves. The tracks are Ancestors Call (5:47), Mother Taiga (6:49), Saryglarlar Maidens (5:46), Saryglarlar Reprise (1:12), Dogee Mountain (Interlude) (8:21), In Search of a Lost Past (4:59), Orphaned Child (5:10), and Tuvan Prayer (2:21).

I had read a prerelease article about this and so was anxious to hear it - I teach yoga and often use this in my classes. very well done, honors the art and elevates it as well.

Tuvan music is one of the most unusual sounds on earth, but it's flat out amazing. Since the music has an alien quality because of the throat singing and how two notes are done at the same time, I think the music has a more of an impact with an electronica background to fully take you to another world. It's almost like Tuvan music itself is from the past and you enjoy taking a trip listening to the lyrics. I can close my eyes and feel like I'm with them in Tuva.

In a way, this reminds me a lot of Spirits From Tuva - Huun-Huur-Tu, but instead of a Trance sample, Carmen Rizzo (who has done work for a lot of musicians), treats the music as something sacred and special.

Overall the album is a success, not only due to the difficulty it takes to mix two distinct styles, but how well it's done. This is a great World music album, and if you're up for trying something new - you can't go wrong with this stunning combination.

1) The Time Magazine:
"Rizzo has worked with the likes of Coldplay, k.d. lang, Alanis Morissette and Paul Oakenfold, and brings to the project all the consummate, knob-twiddling expertise that you would expect of a two-time Grammy nominee. Huun Huur Tu's sparse, ethereal songs -- where simple lutes like the doshpuluur and two-stringed fiddles like the igil form the typical accompaniment -- are fleshed out with drum loops, cello, keyboard and guitar, but they are not overwhelmed. In haunting paeans like "Mother Taiga" or "Ancestors Call" the romance of the Tuvan steppe is potently concentrated." [...]

2) Global Noize (Six Degrees label's blog):
"Lush electronics, beautiful string arrangements and those incredible voices that defy any notions that you might have of what a human voice SHOULD be capable of. This is fusion music at it's most creative- one of those rare projects where different cultures beautifully collide, forming something totally new and dazzling. Check out the free track that Carmen has generously let us share with you today and then make sure to make this gem a part of your collection." - Global Noize [...]

3) I-Tunes:
Tuvan band Huun Huur Tu have always functioned perfectly well by themselves, so pairing them with electronic musician Carmen Rizzo was a daring experiment -- what could he bring to the party? Quite a lot, it appears... Rizzo proves to be the perfect sympathetic foil for Huun Huur Tu, taking what they do and heightening and shading it, as with "Ancestors Call," where the shamanic side of Tuva stands to the fore. But the centerpiece, quite literally, of the album is "Dogee Mountain (Interlude)," an eight-minute piece that verges more on modern classical than anything to do with folk, world, or electronic music."

4) All Music Guide:
"Daring experiment... Although never overbearing, Carmen Rizzo uses instruments, synths, beats (and some strings and brass) to make the group even more shamanic and emotional, as on the utterly breathtaking "Orphaned Child," where the voices seem to be calling from the wilderness into the void...Eternal marks a great departure for Huun Huur Tu, sending the group very firmly into new, wide open spaces and marking Rizzo as the ideal partner in crime." - All Music Guide [...]

5) Huffington Post:
"It is a phenomenal album, something I've personally been waiting for since I first heard this band nearly ten years ago: throat singing tempered by electronica. Don't think four-on-the-floor dance cuts; instead, envision powerful and tasteful low-end, percussively intelligent, moving and sweeping in the landscape while strings and voices grace the surface. There is something inspired in their vocals; with traditional instrumentation, it is an extremely powerful live experience. I've just never heard anything that captures the style so well on record.." -The Huffington Post [...]

I wish I could tell you what, exactly, throat singing is. I make no claims at knowing much about "world" music (though I do have a boxed set that features some unaccompanied throat singing) but you'll know it when you hear it and will be mesmerized.

Sometimes "world music" is tossed into an electronic stew and the result is mediocre at best, an attempt by an electronic artist to show his cool by the samples he uses. This is not the case with this album.

The electronic music and the music from Huun Huur Tu enhance one another. You will be entranced by the music but Rizzo keeps the electronic as a buoy to elevate Huun Huur Tu's music and allow it to shine on its own.

An essential album.

In other reviews, I've written that anything by Huun Huur Tu is worth listening to if you like Tuvaan overtone singing, but this CD challenges that statement. Many of the songs on this CD will be familiar to those that have listened to their earlier, and superior, CDs such as Orphans Lament.

Unfortunately in this volume, these songs are obscured by the overlay of rather pointless modern music by Carmen Rizzo. The resulting aural mess does not display either Rizzo's or Huun Huur Tu's music to good advantage.