Sainkho Namtchylak will mesmerize Petersburgers with
her Tuvinian throat singing this week.
It is easier to hear Tuvinian throat singing in the West than in St Petersburg, but the city's TaMtAm Club will be filled with their unique sounds this Thursday.
Kham-Dyt, a project of Tuvinian musicians and singers which combine their people's folklore with contemporary improvised music, will be on stage at the TaMtAm from 8 pm that night.
The Tuvinian style of singing is so unique that when ailing avant-garde rock genius Frank Zappa heard a group called Tuva on the radio while they were touring the US, he found the energy to contact them and organize a jam session, with the addition of some American musicians and an African percussionist. Those recordings are yet to be released.
Tuva is a Russian autonomous republic in Eastern Siberia, which lies right in the geographical center of Asia, bordering on Mongolia. Occupying 170,500 square kilometers (68,200 sq miles), it is a land of mountains and steppes populated by 270,000 people. It was the last republic absorbed by the USSR in 1944.
Currently fashionable in the West, thanks mostly to the late '80s world music craze, Tuvinian ethnic music is performed at the most prestigious halls in Europe and the US, making it Russia's hottest musical export.
But Tuvinian music remains largely overlooked by Russia itself, which probably explains why two of Kham-Dyt's three concerts in St Petersburg are being held at underground clubs.
"Russia is always lagging behind," said Otkun Dostai, a member of Kham-Dyt. He mentioned Boris Grebenshchikov from local rock band Aquarium as being among the few Russian musicians who are interested in their style of music. Muscovite Ivan Sokolovsky, who plays electronic instruments in a duo with Tuvinian vocalist Albert Kuveizin, is another.
Dostai contrasted the Russian music world's apathy toward the Tuvinian sound with that in the West, mentioning the "Friends of Tuva" society in Los Angeles which include 2,000 members and a similarly named society in Tokyo, Japan.
The Kham-Dyt project which will perform in St Petersburg features Sainkho, a Tuvinian female singer of something approaching legendary status.
Sainkho's full name is Sainkho Namtchylak. Having released 17 CDs internationally, she tours extensively and also teaches Tuvinian singing techniques in Vienna, Austria, where she has lived since 1991.
In addition to her command of Tuvinian singing techniques, Sainkho was classically trained as a vocalist at Moscow's Gnesinsky Institute.
She studied Siberian ethnic music in the early and mid-1980s and became involved in improvised music in 1989, having performed with many renowned free jazz musicians, both Russian and international.
On Thursday Sainkho will be backed by Tuvinian performers Dostai, and Alexander Chavynchak, as well as American percussionist Jason Kahn.