Sōmei Satō – TANTRA, 4 Track Music for Tape (1990)

 

Premiere: 1990 Wellington (New Zealand)
Commitioned by Victoria University of Wellington
RD:NEW ALBION/NA-099

Sōmei Satō – MANDARA, Music for Tape (1982)

Sōmei Satō creates a multi-track overtone choir with his own voice and uses vowel overtone singing as an effect. I have heard something similar from Roberto Laneri’s “Two views of the Amazon” from 1981. At the beginning of the 1980s, this probably sounded more like electronic music to most listeners, as overtone singing was still virtually unknown in the West.

Premiere 1982. Tokyo.
Commitioned by Japan Foundation
RD:ALM/AL-26, NEW ALBION/NA-099, NA-016

Sōmei Satō – マントラ MANTRA, Music for Tape (1986)

One of the very early compositions for western overtone singing. At that time overtone singing was hardly known.

23′
World premiere Tokyo 1986.
RD:NEW ALBION/NA-016, NA-099

Singing with Dogs – Mini Wolf Duet 1

 

Sofie, my neighbor’s dog, loves it when I sing with her. She is rhythmic to the yodelling. We want to develop that now. Maybe she’ll learn overtone singing.

Singing film music with a four-part overtone singing – Stuart Hinds and The Andy Griffith Show

Stuart Hinds sings the opening theme of The Andy Griffith Show (1960 – 1968) with four-part overtone singing and duplicates his voice to take over the two-part whistle with two overtones.

The Andy Griffith Show 1960 - 1968 Opening and Closing Theme

Milking Suite with Shoe Art

The “Melksuit” (milking suite) of the Swiss duo Stimmhorn with Christian Zehnder and Balthasar Streiff receives with ” I’ ve seen the night” a very unconventional video clip by video artist Hansjörg Palm. The shoe art video of the Freiburg artist, made in 2004, was awarded the Media Art Prize Upper Rhine in 2007. I like the likeness of humor in music and film.

The HU – Mongolian rock reaches millions of clicks

With millions of clicks, the Mongolian The Hu Band is attracting attention right now. They have been working on their debut album for seven years and have now released two viral videos. They call their style “hunnu rock”, which probably has its roots in the Mongolian word for human, хүн. “It’s not rock music played by Mongolians. It’s Mongolian rock music.” the Metal-Hammer quotes the American music ethnology doctoral student Thalea Stokes. NPR even calls it Havy Metal.

Obviously the group reaches a clientele that doesn’t know throat singing yet and compares it with growling from the metal scene. Those who have been to Mongolia are familiar with the sounds, and you can hear a lot from the traditional Xhöömei music, from instruments, vocal techniques to melodies. The videos are great. The rider warrior with motorbike escort does a good job.

The HU - Wolf Totem (Official Music Video)

Silent Night with Overtone Singing

“Silent Night, Holy Night”, the world’s most famous Christmas song, was sung for the first time on 24.12.1818, exactly 200 years ago. On Christmas Eve 1818 the Arnsdorf village school teacher and organist Franz Xaver Gruber (1787-1863) and the auxiliary priest Joseph Mohr (1792-1848) performed the Christmas carol for the first time in the Schifferkirche St. Nikola in Oberndorf near Salzburg, Austria. (Wikipedia)

For this version for overtone singing, the brilliant pianist Michael Reimann has improvised a piano movement on the electric piano. The notes for overtone singing are suitable for beginners. At one point, however, a small psychoacoustic trick is used, because one of the melody notes is not actually included in the overtone series. Who can find it?

Michael Reimann: https://www.michaelreimann.de/
Video: Ljubljana Christmas Market filmed from the castle.

Doris Kirschhofer – Accordion and Overtones

Doris Kirschhofer: Wassernixe & Wal. Obertongesang, Kehlkopfgesang

Doris Kirschhofer is a lecturer at the University of Sport Salzburg, produces acrobatics shows on a large scale and is a singer whose fine-ironic electro-alpine ethno-pop gets a very individual touch through her overtone and undertone singing.

http://www.kirschhofer.com/

Brahms’ Lullaby – with Stuart Hinds

Stuart Hinds, the master of polyphonic overtone singing, has recorded a beautiful interpretation of Johannes Brahms’ Lullaby and Goodnight. You can download a simpler version of it here in sheet music and practice it yourself.