Huun-Huur-Tu

As Guest Artists

Tuva, Among the Spirits

Sound, Music and Nature in Sakha and Tuva. Released in January 1999 by Smithsonian/Folkways Recordings (40452, audio clips and online ordering available). Produced and recorded by Ted Levin and Joel Gordon.

— "An Animist View of the World" —
Among the Spirits is a sonic journey through a landscape and soundscape whose inhabitants preserve what is arguably one of the world's oldest forms of music-making... Among the herder-hunters of the Siberian regions of Tuva and Sakha, sound mimesis both reproduces and interacts with the ambient sounds of the natural world: the calls of wild and domestic animals, the reverberant echo of cliffs and jazz-like syncopated rhythms of stream water burbling over stones, the multiphonic howling of wind blowing across open steppe...
...For the Siberian herder-hunters, nature is the locus of spiritual power.That is, they typically ascribe spiritual power to natural phenomena and pray to the spirits, literally "owners" or "hosts" of mountains, rivers, and caves, as well to the spirits of wild animals such as bear, elk, and certain birds...

— Ted Levin

1. A Reverberant Valley
2. Sakha Animal Imitation (German Khatilaev, Klavdia Khatilaeva, of Tos-Khol)
3. Tuvan Round-Up
4. Fantasy on the Igil (Khovalyg, free-form improvisation. The igil is well suited to imitate the sounds of horses, while through throat-singing Kaigal-ool creates a stylized imitation of birds, and also demonstrates the style known as ezenggileer — an imitation of the sound of boots clicking in stirrups)
5. Birds and Bird Imitations (Khovalyg, Kuular, Saryglar, imitating the sound of the owl, black kite, common cuckoo bird, and carrion crow. Mar-ool Sat on amirga, hunting horn)
6. Xöömei on Horseback (Kuulaar and Khovalyg)
7. Borbangnadyr with Stream Water (Anatoli Kuular finds the rhythmic, melodic and timbral groove of a stream)
8. Xomuz (jew's harp) Imitating Water (Kuular)
9. Home on the (Mountain) Range
10. Imitation of Wild and Domestic Animals (Albert Saspik-ool)
11. Ang-meng mal-magan öttüneri (reprise, Alexander Chambal-oglu Tülüsh)
12. Harmonics in the Wind (Bapa, Khovalyg, holding up igil and doshpuluur in the wind to create harmonics)
13. Sonic Landscape (Grigori Mongush)
14. The Legacy of Ancestors (Tos-Khol)
15. Cave Spirits (Bapa, singing kargyraa in a cave)
16. Kyzyl Taiga (Khovalyg performs this "long song", so called because of its long reverberation time, in the traditional fashion, with the reverb provided by a cliff. The cliff forms the north bank of the river Kaa-Xem, and Kaigal-ool stood on the south bank and sang across the river, his voice reflected by both the cliff and the water.)
17. Talking Xomuz (Kuular. The xomuz is used to imitate not only natural sounds but human speech. Many stories and legends tell of confidential messages encoded in the playing of the xomuz and subsequently decoded by listeners sensitive to the instrument's phonetics.)
18. Chiraa-Xor (Khovalyg, Kuular and Bapa, song of the "yellow trotter")
19. Epilogue

(notes by Ted Levin, copyright Smithsonian/Folkways)

Audio clips of the first 5 tracks at

Reviewed in Rootsworld by John Cho, and in The Miami New Times Online. (Scroll down past the Van Morrison review)

Tuva: Echoes from the Spirit World

The Tuva Ensemble from Kyzyl. PAN 2013, 1994.
Tuva: Echoes from the Spirit World Kaigal-ool Khovalyg, Anatoli Kuular join Gennadi Tumat, Kongar-ol Ondar, Damba-Dorzhu Sat, Stanislav Danmaa, Sergei Ondar, Ivan Saryglar, Boris Kherlii, Radomir Mongush and Maryam Sat in a traditional Tuvan repertoire.

Audio clips at

Geronimo: An American Legend

Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Ry Cooder. Released by Sony Music, 1993.
Kaigal-ool Khovalyg, Anatoli Kuular, and Sayan Bapa sing and play on six of the seventeen tracks. The Tuvans make a significant contribution to the soundtrack and share writing credits on some songs.

Audio clips of tracks 2 to 5 at

Kronos Quartet: Night Prayers

Elektra Nonesuch CD 2 79346 1994, Distributed by Warner Music.
One track on this CD, "Kongerei", features Kaigal-ool Khovalyg, Anatoli Kuular, and Kongar-ool Ondar singing along to the accompaniment of the Quartet.

Audio clip of "Kongerei" at

Frank Zappa, Civilization Phaze III

Released January 1995. One of the recordings comprising Frank Zappa's master work. Kaigal-ool Khovalyg's throat-singing is featured in the track "Dio Fa".

Audio clips at

Volkov Trio, Much Better

Volkov Trio - Much Better GreenWave International Records, 1998. Produced by Vladimir Volkov. Executive producer Alexander Cheparukhin. Volkov Trio: Slava Kurashov, guitar; Vladimir Volkov, double bass, percussion; Denis Sladkevich, drums, percussion. Guest artists: Sergei Starostin, vocal, cow horns, kaliuka, clarinet; Arkady Shilkloper, french horn, flugelhorn, alphorn; Igor Butman, tenor saxophone; Kaigal-ool Khovalyg, vocal, doshpuluur, igil; Mola Sylla, voice, kongoma; Olivier Ker-Ourio, harmonica.

Vershki da Koreshki, Real Life of Plants

Long Arms Records & GreenWave International & IMA-press publishers 1996, Shanachie (SHA-64099), 1997. Produced by Nick Dmitriev and Alexander Cheparukhin.
Vershki da Koreshki (Roots and Leaves), until 1998, comprised of Mola Sylla (Senegal), vocal, kongoma, xalam, kalimba; Kaigal-ool Khovalyg (Tuva), vocal, khöömei, igil, khomyss, khomouz, amyrga; Alexei Levin (Russia), accordion, prepared accordion, piano, khomuss, doudka, sheng; and Vladimir Volkov (Russia), double bass.
This multi-cultural project resulted in a release in which individual traditional music blends with jazz, classical and contemporary influences.
Audio clips at , Avantart.com and the VeDaKi website.

Vershki da Koreshki

AL SUR/MEDIA 7, France, ALCD 204
The debut album of Vershki da Koreshki.
Mola Sylla, Kaigal-ool Khovalyg, Alexei Levin, Vladimir Volkov, Paco Diedhiou. Recorded in Amsterdam in March 1996, mixed in France with Al Sur and distributed worldwide by MEDIA 7, France.
Audio clips at the VeDaKi website.

Tuva: Voices from the Land of the Eagles

Pan Records CD 2005CD, P.O. Box 155, 2300 AD Leiden, Netherlands.
Audio clips at
11 tracks, 46'46, khomus, tyzani, igil, amirga, doshpuluur. Features Kongar-ool Ondar, Kaigal-ool Khovalyg, Gennadi Tumat, all soloists of the folk ensemble Tuva. Recorded February 23, 1991. Excellent liner notes.

Tuva: Voices from the Center of Asia

Released in 1990 by Smithsonian/Folkways Recordings (40017, audio clips and online ordering available). Produced by Eduard Alexeev, Zoya Kirgiz, and Ted Levin from their original digital field recordings. Also available from Friends of Tuva.
Anatoli Kuular performs on the tracks 'Sigit with Igil' ,and 'Borbannadir'.

Audio clips at