Guttural grace: Tuvan throat singers Alash discuss their rural roots and global influences ahead of Fusion concert

Music lovers have a rare opportunity this month to experience Tuvan throat singing, one of the world’s most incredible vocal traditions. The members of Alash, a musical trio from the Republic of Tuva in southern Russia, have mastered the ability to sing multiple pitches at the same time, creating complex harmonies that mimic the sounds of the natural world.

Alash will perform live at Fusion on Friday, March 13.

The Journal interviewed Alash over email with the assistance of Sean Quirk, the band’s manager, who also serves as their interpreter. They chose to answer collectively, with Quirk compiling their responses.

Tuvan throat singing was developed by ancient nomadic herdsmen — “the cowboys of the East,” as they are sometimes called — and singing cowboys still exist in Tuva. The members of Alash grew up with one foot in these traditions and one foot in the modern, globalized world.

“Tuva in the ’90s was very interesting. Our lives were a mix of very traditional life — helping family with the livestock at their villages and herding camps, for instance, post-Soviet life — going to school at the arts school in Kyzyl and learning about Western music and composers — and new things that were coming into Russia at the time, such as blue jeans, Indian soap operas, and ‘Ninja Turtles,’” they said. “Even though economically things weren’t great, we feel very lucky to be connected to our ancestors’ traditional way of life — which is still practiced in Tuva — but also familiar with all of the new things the 21st century has brought.”

Not only did Tuvan music develop among rural herdsmen, but the sounds themselves are inspired by nature.

“Some sounds, like ‘damyrak borbangnadyr,’ are directly imitative of nature — in this case, the sound of the water bubbling in a small stream,” they said. “Some sounds are more about what that particular place in nature evokes in you — like the difference between the deep and profound mountain style of kargyraa versus the longer, steadier style of steppe kargyraa.”

“Kargryaa” refers to a low-pitched style of throat singing with a growling undertone, which is meant to evoke the howling of winter winds or the cries of a mother camel after losing her calf.

“When you sing, it’s really important to have a vision or feeling of the landscape in your mind,” they said. “It connects us to Tuva even when we are not there.”

Ideally, they said, audiences will get a sense of that peaceful, bucolic environment through the music.

“We really hope people can get that same vision of Tuva that we feel every time we perform,” they said.

All three members of Alash began practicing throat singing as children. Bady-Dorzhu Ondar began when he was 4, Ayaan-ool Sam when he was in first grade and Ayan Shirizhik around fifth grade.

“Usually in Tuva, even now, kids just start experimenting by themselves because they have heard it from recordings or older singers,” they said. “For Bady-Dorzhu and Ayan-ool, their primary teacher was the legendary singer Kongar-ol Ondar, and Ayan studied under Andrei Mongush, who still performs as an important composer and musician in the Tuvan National Orchestra.”

Audiences are often amazed by the singers’ ability to produce multiple pitches at the same time, although producing the maximum number of overtones is never their primary goal.

“We don’t really think about ‘how many notes’ we are producing. It’s cool for people to listen to and think about it from that perspective, but for us it’s more about creating a particular timbre — each style has its own unique sound, related to its natural inspiration,” they said. “So, we’re not sitting there counting the notes. But we’ve been told that people can hear four different notes at once in some styles.”

They said it’s not difficult to produce overtones.

“Everyone does it when they sing or speak, it’s a natural part of sound,” they said. “The hard part is manipulating the sound so a listener can hear those overtones distinctly from one another.”

Over the years, Alash has collaborated with renowned musicians across a range of genres, from country to classical to hip-hop, including an early, fruitful partnership with the legendary Afrofuturist jazz group Sun Ra Arkestra.

“We first met them back in 2001 at a festival in Switzerland. We weren’t really jazz fans beforehand, so it was kind of a leap to suddenly meet these avant-garde guys. But we respected them greatly as musicians and kind of adopted them as honorary uncles, inviting them to Tuva for several visits,” they said. “Musically it was very unique working with them and sometimes chaotic, but often times we were able to produce some very unique music. Since we were both open to improvisation, we were definitely able to find a common language that way even though our English wasn’t so good back then.”

Although Alash’s music remains deeply rooted in tradition, global influences have seeped into their music over the years by way of these collaborations.

“We’ve definitely been exposed to a ton more music and have allowed that to subtly blend into our arrangements, especially finding inspiration from our friends Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, as well as really digging a lot of the desert blues type of music that we’ve enjoyed over the years,” they said. “We’re probably a little more rhythmically adventurous and compositional than when we started, when we were just basically doing our own arrangements of folk tunes.”

Having performed all over the world, they believe in the power of music to transcend national, cultural and linguistic divisions.

“We want to bring some peace, healing and inspiration into everybody’s life,” they said. “We strongly feel that music is something that no border can stop, and we hope everyone across all borders can come away from our concerts a little more refreshed and inspired. We’ve seen a lot of people who walk into a concert having no idea what to expect and then leaving having had a transformative experience.”

Logan Royce Beitmen is an arts writer for the Albuquerque Journal. He covers visual art, music, fashion, theater and more. Reach him at lbeitmen@abqjournal.com or on Instagram at @loganroycebeitmen.