Huun Huur Tu and Carmen Rizzo

By ⋅ January 5, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment

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You may have heard Tuvan throat singing, a style that involves a performer vocalizing several notes at once. But YOU probably have never heard Tuvan throat singing like this.

Tuvan electronica — that’s what this is. It’s music from the leaders of the genre, Huun Huur Tu. They hail from the remote Russian region of Tuva. Huun Huur Tu have been around since 1992.

And they’re not opposed to updating traditional Tuvan sounds. After all, this group has worked with Frank Zappa, The Chieftains, and The Kronos Quartet.

Here they team up with ace electronic musician and record producer Carmen Rizzo. Rizzo counts credits with Coldplay, Seal, and Alanis Morrisette. Huun Huur Tu’s album, called Eternal came out last summer.

Now Tuvan throat singing is not what you’d call commercial. But electronica has a way of making traditional music sound fresh.

Electronic master Carmen Rizzo has taken the ensemble and its new sound into night clubs around the globe. Huun Huur Tu will be back on tour next month — MINUS Carmen Rizzo. So they won’t be playing their Tuvan electronica exclusively. But an audience has been built.

And trance music lovers may now consider Tuvan throat singing in a different light.

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2 comments for “Huun Huur Tu and Carmen Rizzo”

  • Bruce Watson

    I saw Hun-Huur-Tu in concert in Minneapolis in the early ’90s. It was great to hear them again and to see how good they sound these days. Anyone interested in adapted throat singing might also find this interesting — it’s a project called Yat-Kha, which puts a Tuvan spin on rock & roll:

    http://www.amazon.com/Tuva-Rock-Yat-Kha/dp/B000093D0W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1262833117&sr=1-1

    Bruce Watson
    Evanston, IL

  • Milhaus

    I would like to point out, that Huun-Huur-Tu music blended with electronica is nothing new. There is at least remix album Spirits of Tuva, which features great guys of Malerija and others. While I like Rizzos work, I may like these versions even more. You can download Malerija remixes freely at:

    http://www.malerija.ru/hht&malerija.zip