new track from the upcoming album from Hanggai to be released early 2014

Hanggai - Hong Galuu

Aa Shuu De Kei-Oo

From the live album "Live at Riddu Riddu", released in 2014.

Namgar Lhasaranova (vocals)
Niillas Holmberg (vocals)
Ole Jørn Myklebust (trumpet, xaphoon, vocals)
Fredrik Ellingsen (guitar, electronics)
Kjetil Dalland (bass)
Herman Rundberg (drums, percussion)
Evgeny Zolotarev (chanza)

Nordic Namgar


08 Mirage

Gereg

Goviin Magtaal

Altan urag - Blue Mark

Yenisei-Punk

Solun Chaagai Sovet Churtum

Downtown Beijing might seem a strange place for a Mongolian folk revival. Yet Hanggai are at the forefront of a musical movement in China that is finding inspiration in native folk traditions, drawing on a repertoire of magical songs that have all but disappeared during China's recent turbulent past. 

http://www.worldmusic.net/store/item/INTRO111
http://www.worldmusic.net/sync-world/beijing-folk-revival-hanggai/

Hanggai is made up of young musicians from Beijing and from the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia. The need of these young musicians to rediscover and express their roots and native language is causing quite a stir in China and seems to indicate some kind of change within their generation. Their interpretations of traditional songs from the grasslands are attracting an ever-increasing following and a cult status as a kind of antidote to Chinese Pop and Western boy bands.

The word 'hanggai' is ancient Mongolian, describing an idealised grassland landscape of mountains, trees, rivers and blue skies. 

The group’s leader, Ilchi, was fronting a punk band until he experienced a conversion after hearing traditional overtone singing. He travelled to his father’s homeland of Inner Mongolia and started to learn the technique – rediscovering the music and repertoire of songs that had faded but not disappeared during China’s turbulent past. There he met Hugejiltu and Bagen, both music students, who joined the group. Hugejiltu plays lead fiddle and Bagen sings deep bass using a technique of overtone singing, producing a note one octave below the note he is singing.

Since the release of their first album, Introducing Hanggai by the World Music Network in 2008, which garnered glowing praise internationally, Hanggai have played some of the best international festivals in the world, including Roskilde, Lowlands, Lotus Festival, the Chicago World Music Festival, Sziget, Wacken open air (Europe’s largest metal festival), FMM festival, Sydney festival, Zwarte Cross and WOMAD festivals in Abu Dhabi, UK, Gran Canarias, Australia and New Zealand. 

The songs on the album are adaptations of traditional songs from the grasslands, sung in Mongolian, many using hoomei, a throat-singing technique that has been handed down over hundreds of years. At the heart of the music are two traditional instruments – the morin khuur – the horse-hair fiddle and the tobshuur – a strummed two-stringed lute.

Some of the arrangements sound very simply traditional and others are more complex. ‘Five Heroes’, a song of vigilantes stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, includes jangly electric guitar, conjuring up cowboy movies – creating a connection between east and west. ‘Wuji’ is predominantly throatsinging, with the strong repetitive sound of the horsehair fiddle pushing the song forward. ‘Lullaby’ (Borulai) is a gorgeous mix of vocal harmonies – the familiar feel of a gentle lullaby with a strong atmosphere of the grasslands.


Hanggai Drinking Song

From The Wind Horse album by Anda Union 2011

Anda Union’s thoroughly addictive combination of Mongolian musical styles is a reflection of their roots. Hailing from differing ethnic nomadic cultures the eight strong band unite tribal and music traditions from all over Inner Mongolia in China. Anda Union bring a wide range of musical instruments and vocal styles together in a fusion that Genghis Khan himself would have been proud of. Formed in 2000 they have influenced a generation of young Mongolians in Inner Mongolia as traditional music flourishes. 

The group describe themselves as music gatherers, digging deep into Mongol traditions and unearthing forgotten music. Anda means a blood brother or sister. For Mongolians an Anda is more important than a birth brother; Anda is a life long blood brother. 

www.andaunion.com


Sumaro

From The Wind Horse album by Anda Union 2011

Anda Union’s thoroughly addictive combination of Mongolian musical styles is a reflection of their roots. Hailing from differing ethnic nomadic cultures the eight strong band unite tribal and music traditions from all over Inner Mongolia in China. Anda Union bring a wide range of musical instruments and vocal styles together in a fusion that Genghis Khan himself would have been proud of. Formed in 2000 they have influenced a generation of young Mongolians in Inner Mongolia as traditional music flourishes. 

The group describe themselves as music gatherers, digging deep into Mongol traditions and unearthing forgotten music. Anda means a blood brother or sister. For Mongolians an Anda is more important than a birth brother; Anda is a life long blood brother. 

www.andaunion.com

Sumaro

andaunion

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