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Introducing Hanggai
MP3 | 256 Kbps | 60 Mb
Genre: World, Folk, Ethnic | 2008

Hanggai is made up of young musicians from Beijing and from the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia and their interpretations of traditional songs from the grasslands have attracted quite a following over the last few years. The word ‘hanggai’ is ancient Mongolian, describing an idealised grassland landscape of mountains, trees, rivers and blue skies.

Hanggai’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 the 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.

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.

1. My Banjo And I
2. Yekul Song
3. Zhaoderen Nana
4. Five Heroes
5. Flowers
6. Haar Hu
7. Wuji
8. Lullaby (Borulai)
9. Drinking Song
10. Four Seasons