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// Okna Tsahan Zam 
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« Shaman Voices »
There are some albums that are spiritual and physical voyages into another timespace and dimension. “Shaman voices” is a point in case. It offers listeners this musical duality by intertwining overtone höömii chanting, the dhombra lute and impeccably recorded sounds of nature: birds, grasshoppers, barking dogs, a train and, especially, horses. Horses galloping, neighing, breathing hard as they transport the handsome and robust plain dwellers across the Russia’s Kalmykia steppes situated between the Black and Caspian Seas.
Leading us into this odyssee recorded in Kalmykia, Mongolia and France is Okna Tsahan Zam. The 47-year-old is a master of the höömii chanting characteristic of the region’s Mongol people. This singing technique consists of simultaneously emitting a fundamental drone and a high-pitch tone that can often lead the listener into a transe-like state. It has been commonly linked to the shamanic world: “Sounds make the connection between space and the souls of our ancestors,” explains Zam. “It’s an accumulation of energy and the revelation of our consciousness”.
But what makes “Shaman voices” more unusual than albums by other throat-singers like Huun-Huur-Tu is the combination with electronic guitars, digeridoos, jaw harps and electronic elements. While sometimes sounding a little too polished, it is constantly brought back to the high grasslands of Central Asia by Zam’s accomplished playing of the dhombra, or his fellow musicians handling of the djinguenuur (cymbalum), limba (flute), and other Kalmyk instruments. Zam admits to being a fan of Pink Floyd and French producer Claude Samard has pandered to his musical tastes by enhancing the electronic elements and providing topclass percussion-playing from Steve Shehan.
But what dominates above all else is the symbiosis between the omnipresent horse Zam rides and the voice he malaxes.
Daniel Brown
// ALSO
- Yat-Kha
- « Hommage à Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan »
- Pomol
- The Music of Central Asia, The Music of Central Asia
- World Audio Foundation, Sacred sounds
- Khaled, Liberté
- BASS Festival Birmingham June 2010
- New Awards for World Music
- Busi Mhlongo – Urban Zulu & Queen of Maskanda 1947 -2010
// ALL OKNA TSAHAN ZAM'S REVIEWS
« Shaman Voices »
10/03/2004
// DISCOGRAPHY
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Shaman voices. A journey in the steppe (Album)
Musiques du Monde au Théâtre de la Ville (Album)// LINKS
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REPORTS
// CONTACT
Claude Samard (Producteur)
Tel : 01.44.96.75.30/06.14.62.98.10
FRA
Send an email
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