Tanya Tagaq Gillis
Biography
Throat-singing
Tanya Tagaq Gillis performs at Womex 2007 and tours Scotland with Shooglenifty in November.
Tanya Tagaq Gillis brings the ancient Inuit vocal art of throat-singing to the experimental music scene. She has worked with internationally acclaimed musicians such as Bjork and the Kronos Quartet, and recently with Scottish band Shooglenifty.
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Tagaq grew up in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, but had little exposure to the centuries-old art form of throat-singing. In her final year of art school in Halifax however, she began to emulate tapes of throat-singing her mother had sent from home as a cure for homesickness. |
Throat-singing is traditionally performed by pairs of women, but because she had no-one to learn and practice with, Tagaq developed a unique solo style.
Her career began with her first public performance at a Cambridge Bay talent contest with an old friend, which was broadcast on radio and heard by Yellowknife’s Folk on the Rocks festival organisers, who invited the duo to perform, and other festival invitations followed. In 2000, Tagaq attended the Great Northern Arts Festival to exhibit paintings. The organisers of the festival discovered they were short of performers so Tagaq agreed to sing, but as her partner wasn’t there, she performed solo with other performers backing her up. Two friends of Bjork’s were filming the show and through this a link was made which resulted in Tagaq joining Bjork’s Vespertine tour the following year, and appearing on two of Bjork’s subsequent recordings, Medulla and the film soundtrack Drawing Restraint 9.
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Another major collaboration began in 2002, when a recording of one of Tagaq’s songs appeared on a fRoots magazine compilation CD was heard by a member of the Kronos Quartet. The resulting collaboration led to a performance at Carnegie Hall, and two Leo Awards nominations. |
She toured Europe in 2003 as part of Canada Council for the Arts’ Sonic Weave tour, and more recently toured the UK as part of the Shaman Voices Tour with Mongolian throat singer Okna Tsahan Zam and Finnish yoiker, Wimme. She has performed at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, and has won three of these awards, including Best Female Artist.
In November 2007, Tagaq will tour Scotland with Shooglenifty as part of the Scottish Arts Council’s 2007/08 Tune Up programme, launched on 18 October. The link between the Scottish band and Tagaq happened around a campfire one night at a festival in the Yukon, when Tanya and her singing partner sat on either side of fiddle-player Angus Grant and sang into each ear. Tagaq later recorded with Shooglenifty for their Troots album and they played a Celtic Connections gig in January 2007. Details of their tour in November can be found on the Tune Up website.
Tagaq’s solo style of throat singing expresses primitive instincts and pushes the boundaries of emotion. Her new CD, Sinaa, illustrates her style through a collection of original improvisations and three traditional Inuk throat songs. Mostly her voice is the only instrument, displaying an array of sounds – grunts, growls, gasps, wails, sometimes over additional beds of moans and sighs. Tagaq’s voice is joined on four of the tracks by Basque percussion provided by her partner Filipe Ugarte and his duo Ugarte Anaiak. In Ancestrors, a duet with Bjork, the Icelandic singer's sweet shrill vocalizations intertwine with Tagaq’s provocative throat sounds.
Traditionally, Inuit throat-singing is done by pairs of women standing face to face, creating rhythms out of the sounds made with their breath and vocal chords. One leads and the other fills in gaps in the rhythm until one gives in to laughter or runs out of breath. The sounds produced in the traditional form are similar to Tagaq’s work, often emulating sounds from nature, such as animals or the wind.
Inuit throat-singing can be viewed as vocal games or breathing games, using both the throat and the regular voice. These games were played by women to amuse the children during long winter nights while the men were away hunting. The music was previously forbidden by Christian culture, but is now undergoing a revival.
Throat-singing is found in Xhosa culture in South Africa, areas around Tibet, Mongola and Tuva, as well as parts of Sibera and Northern Japan. In these traditions, a singer produces two or more notes simultaneously, or unusual textures through a particular type of vocalisation or resonance of the throat. In the North American Inuit throat-singing tradition, the singer doesn’t produce the extra notes.
| For more information visit Tanya Tagaq Gillis's website. | |