Hanggai
杭盖
China is a country of nations: Fifty-five different minority groups inhabit
a wide range of the country’s geography. For many of these groups, music
is the way in which their cultural survival is ensured. While China’s
capital may seem like a strange place for a Mongolian folk revival, Hanggai,
a five-piece folk outfit composed of ethnic Mongolians, is captivating
Beijing’s rock-heavy music scene with their brand of traditional Mongolian
music with a contemporary feel.
Traditional Mongolian music is based in the rhythms and sounds of horseback
riding, wherein lie the roots of its culture. Hanggai combines primarily
traditional instruments – the morin khuur, or horse-head fiddle, and the
tobshuur (two-stringed lute) – with a throat singing technique (hoomei)
that has been handed down over the course of more than two millennia and
elicits the rolling plains of the Mongolian grasslands. Indeed, the band’s
name is an ancient word that refers to a heavenly combination of the best
of the Mongolian landscape – big blue skies, mountains, rivers, trees.
A tasteful addition of modern flavour is the result of the group’s time
in Beijing’s rock underground in a variety of bands and is balanced by
their commitment to preserving the traditions of Mongolian music through
regular musical pilgrimages to Inner Mongolia.
Hanggai has been called “one of the more soulful groups in town” by one
of Beijing’s major media outlets, and is leading the charge of a small
collection of folk musicians bringing traditional music into the urban
scene. The band has performed to audiences of thousands at the massive
Gegentala Inner Mongolian Rock Festival (Aug 05) and at Beijing’s Midi
Music Festival (Oct 05); in support of (and in jam sessions with) Norwegian
group Poing and Nettwerk Records folk artist Abigail Washburn’s November
2005 tour of China; and in venues around the country. The group’s self-produced
and self-distributed release is a surprising listen: Recorded primarily
with one microphone, its sales – only off the stage at Hanggai shows –
represent a desire on behalf of Beijing audiences for a return to the
roots.
For more information, visit hanggaiband.com (Chinese) or contact Jon
Campbell at jon@ygtwo.com |
