DigitalSandbox

I don’t know about you, but I have a pretty wide variety of music that I like. My tastes range from rock to classical and I can usually find something in every genre that I like. I also enjoy finding really cool new music and styles. Well, if you are like that (even a little) then you need to check this out. My Digital Audio Recording teacher played this for us earlier this semester and it is really cool. It is a mix of a couple of very seemingly dissparate styles that form something really interesting.

Tuva Groove-Back Tuva Future-Ondar

First off, you have the foundation of the piece—Tuvan throat singing. I first heard of Tuvan throat singing on Frasier (though they called it Mongolian throat singing). Tuva is a small country between Mongolia and Russia. Tuvan thraot singing is basically a style of singing where the singer is able to create multiple notes simultaneously in their throat. There is basically a low drone that at first sounds kind of like a digiridoo (sp?) and then you hear these almost flute-like notes over the top of that. The singer is able to combine both the fundamental frequency of his vocal chords (the low drone) and two or three harmonics (the flute-like notes).

Next the producer throws in some old tracks of Richard Feynman—yes, that Richard Feynman—playing the bongos. Apparently, Feynman had a penchant for bongo playing and singing nonsensical lyrics. The producer did this because Feynman became very interested in Tuvan culture when he saw some stamps (another hobby of his) from Tuva in very odd shapes. Unfortunately, he was never able to visit the country as it was, at that time, part of the USSR.

Finally, it is all mixed with a country dance beat. The final recording is actually really cool sounding and when you think about what you are hearing it is very impressive stuff. So if you just can’t “hit” Britney “one more time”, try a little Tuva Groove. I think you might enjoy it.

For a good documentary on Tuvan throat singing check out Geghis Blues. (soundtrack available on iTunes)