Sainkho and Andrei Mongush will perform in Moscow

At the end of May, a grand ethno-rock-festival “Ocean of Compassion” will take place in the capital of Kalmykia. Famous performers of ethnic music from countries and regions of the spread of Tibetan Buddhism, that is, Kalmykia, Buryatia, Tuva, Mongolia and Tibet will participate. After the end of the festival, the participants will give a charity concert in Moscow. On June 2, in the Moscow International House of Music, Tibetan lamas of the Dzongkar Chode monastery who are the experts in the art of ritual dances; the Tuvan singer Sainkho Namtchylak, who has been called “the magic voice of Tuva”; Tibetan vocalist Loten Namling with his experimental project Tibet-Blues, which he created with a French jazz musician, Buryat singer Badma Khanda, Tuvan khoomeizhi Andrei Mongush, group Namgar, orchestra Yoryal from Kalmykia and other musicians, who have dedicated their lives to preservation of the energy of good-will and compassion, which filled the songs of their ancestors, will perform on the same stage for the first time.

The Supreme Lama of Kalmykia, Telo Tulku Rimpoche, will also participate in this concert.

The Tibetan lamas of the Dzongkar Chode monastery have preserved, in the original purity, the ancient art of ritual dance, where every movement and gesture is an offering to the enlightened beings – the Buddhas.

The Tsam Mystery, excerpts of which will be introduced on the Moscow stage for the first time, was up until now performed strictly within the walls of Buddhist monasteries of Mongolia and Tibet. Tsam is a living contact with the world of Buddhist deities, who at other times of the year, motionless, look down from the paintings and temple frescoes. It is a bridge between the invisible world of the of the enlightened deities and the world of people. The lamas performing the roles of leading personages, undergo a prolonged period of preparation, contemplating the deity they are to impersonate in the sacred dance. They address the deity in prayer, repeat the deity’s mantras, visualize themselves in the deity’s image, and strive to absorb the deity’s essential energy and spiritual power, so that, during the dance, dressed in an ancient mask and costume of gold brocade, they actually become the deity, and transmit its blessings to the spectators.

Sainkho Namtchylak is a woman with an exotic name and a mysterious shamanic voice. She is a Tuvan singer who first left Siberia for Moscow, and then became a “citizen of the world”. Her artistic and festival life currently takes place in all the corners of the planet, with more or less prolonged stays in Vienna, Berlin and Moscow. Originally she became famous during the Soviet times as a performer of Tuvan folklore; even at the beginning of her career she was recognized as a brave experimenter and synthetist of musical ideas. When she left USSR in 1991, and had to re-build her career anew in the West, her experiments brought her together with jazz musicians, and led to her reputation as a talented world music performer, as well as an even more courageous title: free jazz singer.

Loten, which means “White Crane” in translation fro Tibetan, is the artist’s pseudonym. His real name is Namling Lobsang Tenzin. A son of Tibetan refugees, he was born in Dharamsala in 1963. When he was 15, his parents gave him a dranyen, a six-string Tibetan lute, which determined his future destiny. Loten has been living in Switzerland since 1989. This is where he recorded his album “Songs of Tibet”, which is a collection of songs of three national traditions – Amdo, U-Tsanga and Kham. His interest in contemporary Western music caused him to start work on a new project Tibet-Blues, together with French musicians. For the first time in the centuries of its existence, Tibetan folk music receives a new jazz interpretation. A delicate mix of multi-instrumental jazz and traditional vocal technique translates ancient Tibetan songs into contemporary reality. This project gives a new meaning to everything that we know of the Buddhist culture of Tibet.

The songs that Badma-Khanda sings are ancient Buryat folk songs, which have been practically forgotten in their native country during the many years of suppression of true national treasures of the Buryats and Buddhism in the USSR. They continued to live in their original form in a small Buryat community on the territory of China. Now Badma-Khanda has gone back to the country of her ancestors and became a real star in Buryatia. Her unique voice and bewitching manner of singing immediately conquers the hearts of her audiences regardless of whether she performs in a tiny club in a Buryat village or in New York. She is universal – she performs national songs or pop music with equal ease and elegance. But her true love is the ancient national songs in authentic rendition, which she sings with the accompaniment of national instruments.

Techung, a famous Tibetan musician who now lives in San Francisco, became famous by performing traditional Tibetan music under his real name, Tashi Dondup Sharzur. In the seventies, he participated in foreign tours with TIBA, and afterwards, having moved to USA, he became one of the founders of Chaksampa, which performs Tibetan dances and opera productions. The group toured actively, and while a part of it, Techung performed with John Lee Hooker, Tracey Chapman, Beastie Boys and U2.

Being one of the main keepers of the Tibetan musical tradition in the world, the artist is known through his solo projects as well as joint projects with other musicians. His first album ‘Yarlung: Tibetan songs of love and freedom” was recorded in 1997 with musician and composer Miquel Fasconi.. It was followed in 2001 by “Heavenly Treasure”, recorded with a jazz musician Keith Walker. He also had two solo albums “Chang She: Tibetan feast songs”(1999) and “Courage” (2002). Techug’s voice and music can be also heard on the soundtracks of the IMAX film “Everest”, film “Wind Horse”, and documentaries “Stranger in his native land”, “Kidnapped child of Tibet” and “Three days in Tibet”.

Namgar sings ancient songs of the nomads, the “long songs” of the steppes, vigorous dancing compositions and uligers (legend-songs, story-songs), telling of the Eastern beauties, the mighty warriors, fast horses and whistling arrows released from war bows. The singer has a unique voice, and combines in her work traditional and contemporary vocal techniques. Her songs represent the centuries of musical culture of Siberia; they are the songs of the mountains and of the Great Steppe. And all this is elegantly interweaved with the traditions of world music. Namgar has been a cult figure for many years, an idol of several generations, not just in Buryatia and Mongolia, but throughout the immense area of Siberia.

In November 2007, Andrei Mongush headed a group of Tuvan musicians who received the honor of performing in front of His Holiness the Dalai-Lama XIV, during the first historical festival of Buddhist culture of Russia and Mongolia in Dharamsala, which united the nations of Buddhist faith not only at the level of religion, but also at the level of art. His song “Men tyva men” (I am a Tuvan), by general recognition, has become an unofficial national anthem of Tuva. Andrei brought it from his ethnographic trips to Mongolia, from Tsengel, where ethnic Tuvans live. He brought it, arranged, and made it into the most beloved song of Tuva. Mongush plays doshpulur, dombra, guitar, igil, byzaanchi, khomus and bayan, and is a master of all the styles of throat singing. He also received the highest title for throat singers, “National Khoomeizhi of Republic Tyva”, as well as the title of Merited Artist of Republic Tyva. The musician traveled through half the world both as a solo performer, and as a member of the internationally famous groups Alash and Huun-Huur-Tu.

Yoryal orchestra was put together by professional musician Baatr Lidzhi-Goryaev out of young kids who wished to perform Kalmyk folk music. Many of them are natives of villages of Kalmykia, who experienced an inborn attraction to traditional national art. The ensemble Yoryal performs Kalmyk national songs and instrumental compositions of Kalmyk, Mongolian and Buryat composers, playing instruments with fairy-tale names like yochn, morin-khur, jinginur, khuchir, yatkha, limba, shanz, tovshur, and Kalmyk dombra. Despite their anachronism, the ancient instruments attract the audience; they are made of unusual materials, and can sound like nature itself, like the world that surrounds us.