Yat-Kha
Yat-Kha is a band from Tuva, led by vocalist/guitarist Albert Kuvezin. Their music is a mixture of Tuvinian traditional music and rock, featuring Kuvezin's distinctive kargyraa throat singing style, the kanzat kargyraa.
Biography
Yat-Kha was founded in Moscow in 1991, as a collaborative project between Kuvezin and Russian avant-garde, electronic composer Ivan Sokolovsky. The project blended traditional Tuvan folk music with post-modern rhythms and electronic effects. Kuvezin and Sokolovsky toured and played festivals, and eventually took the name “Yat-Kha,” which refers to a type of small, Central Asian zither similar to a Chinese Guzheng that Kuvezin plays in addition to the guitar. In 1993, they released a self-titled album on the General Records label.
After the release of Yat-Kha, Kuvezin and Sokolovsky parted creative ways and Kuvezin went on to release five other albums under the name Yat-Kha with other musicians (and less of an emphasis on electronics), beginning with Yenisei Punk in 1995, with morin khuur player Alexei Saaia (produced by Lu Edmonds). Sokolovsky issued a remastered version of the Yat-Kha album, with additional tracks, under the title Tundra's Ghosts in 1996/97.
Since 2001, they have been performing a live soundtrack to Vsevolod Pudovkin's 1928 silent film Storm over Asia. They may release a DVD of this version of the film with Reality Film.
Discography
Albums:
- Priznak Greyushii Byedi (1991)
- Khanparty (1992)
- Yat-Kha (1993)
- Yenisei Punk (1995)
- Tundra's Ghosts (1996/97) - remastered version of Yat-Kha released by Ivan Sokolovsky)
- Dalai Beldiri (1999)
- Aldyn Dashka (2000)
- Bootleg (2001, live)
- tuva.rock (2003)
- Re-Covers (2005)
- Bootleg 2005 (2005, live)
Members
Current
- Albert Kuvezin (Vocals, Throat Singing, Guitar, Bass Guitar, Chanzy, Khomus, Yat-Kha)
- Evgeny "Zhenya" Tkachov (Drums, Percussion)
- "Scipio" (Bass Guitar)
Past
- Radik Tiuliush (Vocals, Throat Singing, Morin Khuur, Igil)
- Sailyk Ommun (Vocals, Yat-Kha)
- Makhmud Skripaltschchikov (Bass Guitar)
- Aldyn-ool Sevek (Vocals, Throat Singing, Morin Khuur, Igil)
- Alexei Saaia (Vocals, Morin khuur, Bass Guitar)
- Aias-ool Danzyryn (Vocals, Chanzy)
- Ivan Sokolovsky (Synthesizers, Percussion)
Awards
- 1991 recognized by Brian Eno, one of the international judges at the first Voices of Asia Festival in Almaty, Kazakhstan
- 1995 French RFI "Decouvertes Est" prize for Yenisei Punk
- 1999 German Critic's Prize for Dalai Beldiri
- 2002 BBC Radio 3 "Award for World Music"