Ton's Musical Musings: Sergey and Yulia Charkov

Having visited Central Asia myself two years ago - performing duties as a jury member during the 3rd Sayan Ring Festival in Shushenskoye (Siberia), with a trip to Khakassia and Tuva afterwards - I was extra excited about a recent festival of nomadic music here in Amsterdam, called "Echoes from the Steppes".

For three nights, singers and epic storytellers from Khakassia, Tuva, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, some of whom had never visited Europe before, performed at the intimate stage of the "kleine zaal" (small room) in the Amsterdam Tropentheater. For me, the absolute highlight of the event was the performance by Khakassian vocalist and instrument builder Sergey Charkov, together with his daughter Yulia Charkova.

Sergey is considered to be the best overtone singer in all of Khakassia (a small republic in the south of Siberia), but I was even more impressed with the way Yulia handled the difficult technique of kargyraa, whereby the sound coming from the mouth of the singer is a full octave below the note produced by the vocal chords. Also, her playing on the traditional Khakassian chatkha (zither) revealed a sense of melody reminiscent of the great American dobro player Jerry Douglas (currently a member of Alison Krauss' backing band Union Station).

A copy of Sergey's and Yulia's first collaborative CD is on its way from Khakassia. More about that later. Information about these artists is scarce, but some can be found on www.khoomei.com, a site devoted to harmonic chanting (overtone singing).