Customer Reviews

Tuva / Voices From the Center of Asia

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Very traditional Tuvan throatsinging. A MUST have for anyone interested in xoomei. Pretty Amazing stuff, but this CD has more ethnomusicological content, so you'd be safer getting a Huun Huur Tu CD (their Live #2, for instance, is phenomenal) if you're just looking for something good to listen to.

However, if you are truly interested in throatsinging, this is a must have.

This CD was one of the first to feature the unique musical tradition of Tuva. This CD was recorded in the yurts and natural areas of Tuva, so sometimes the sound quality isn't top notch. This is also more like a sampler. None of the tracks are very long and it moves through the different styles of throatsinging and melodies very fast. It does feature some of the revered masters of the styles though. I think this would be a good introductory disc to throatsinging, so a person can find what they like.

This cd comprises a very good selection of traditional tuvan music, both overtone singing and instrumentation. The recording quality is top-notch, and the melodies are varied and vibrant.

Tuva is a remote area smack in the center of Asia, nestled in the mountains between Siberia and Mongolia. Traditional Tuvan throat-singing is an amazing thing--the singer produces two notes AT THE SAME TIME, a low drone and a higher melody. This Smithsonian/Folkways CD was probably the first Tuvan CD available in the US; it was around when CD co-producer Ted Levin first brought three Tuvan throat-singers on an American tour. Unfortunately, the CD is primarily of ethnomusicological interest. There are brief examples of the various styles of khoomei (the general Tuvan name for throat-singing), but there are few tracks that can really be considered songs, and all but a few of the vocal tracks are a cappella. Only three of the 33 tracks on the CD are more than two minutes long. There is also plenty of jaw harp, animal imitations, a solo for hunting horn, and herders' calls to their flocks. If you're interested in hearing Tuvan MUSIC, you're better off with "Tuva: Voices from the Land of the Eagles", Ellipsis Arts' CD/book "Deep in the Heart of Tuva", or any CD by Huun-Huur-Tu.

I thought I'd look around for some recordings of Tuvan throat singing (and they're not that easy to find) but, thanks to the ability to download .MP3s from Amazon, I thought I'd give this disc a try. I'm not disappointed. I despise recordings of world music that utilize Western instruments and ideas in order to make something more palatable to the closed minded: this recording makes absolutely no attempt to do so and is absolutely fantastic! Yes, this music is extremely different than what most are used to listening to but, just the same, it provides an enthralling glimpse at how other cultures not only make music but also how they produce it using their own voices. For those that are unfamiliar with Tuvan throat singing (which usually feature men as they seem to be able to best produce the unique sounds heard here - due to the manner in which their throats differ from that of women), the music that is produced is extremely unique - those trained in this manner of singing can produce more than one sound at a time with the fundamental (lower) sound predominating but with an much higher sound (overtones) also very evident. Absolutely fascinating!

If you are interested in listening to a very unique form of music (and, no, it's not "funny"), I would recommend this recording to others.

I'm very grateful to have discovered this little gem on Amazon and

This CD presents different styles of Xoomei, or throat singing, from an ethnomusicologist's perspective. It features some of the most incredible sounds on this Planet. It has been recorded in situ, so don't expect studio quality on each and every track. To my taste it's a great listening. Nonetheless, whoever is looking for "easy"-listening music featuring Xoomei, might find it a little dry, and may want to look for some records by Huun Huur Tu, Egschiglen or the like.

If you just want to hear the popularized throat singing then I'd go for one of the Huun Huur Tu disks. This Smithsonian Folkways recording was recorded in Tuva in 1987 and tries to capture some of the range of traditional Tuvan music including throat singing (including a variety of different throat singing techniques), traditional love and animal husbandry songs, animal imitations, and exploration of the native instruments.

It's a sampler of the Tuvan music and makes it clear that there's a lot more than just the throat singing going on in Tuvan music. But the ethnomusicology approach, with field recordings of so-so quality, and an attempt at documenting the music isn't necessarily the best listening music.