Listen:
Land of the Khakass
Khayjilar
Song of Youth

Notes form the record company:
The Khakass Republic of the Russian Federation ­ located at the headwaters of the great Yenisei River which flows from the mountains near the northwestern corner of Mongolia and empties into the Arctic Sea ­ is populated by Turkic-speaking steppe tribes whose nomadic culture has been heavily influenced by Mongolia. The representative musical instrument of the Khakass people is the chatkhan, a long zither (related to the Japanese koto or the Korean kayagum) with 7-9 strings. Khakass vocal music is characterized by a special kind of throat / overtone singing called khay, a style in which one vocalist produces multiple tones. The songs consist mostly of heroic epic tales intended as entertainment for the living and for the dead.

Along with the khay song and the chatkhan zither, this CD features the khomis (2-stringed lute), yykh (2-stringed fiddle), siilass (end blown flute), timir khomis (metal Jew’s harp) and various takhpakh folk songs.