FFWD REW

Tagaq – Auk Blood

Jericho Beach

Tagaq is Tanya Gillis a virtuoso Inuit throat singer and experimentalist who received a fair bit of attention for her 2005 debut Sinaa . Since then she’s collaborated with Bjork and toured with the Kronos Quartet. She continues her collaborations on Auk Blood with mixed results. Jesse Zubot’s starkly expressive violin provides an effective counterpoint to Gillis’s otherworldly vocals and there’s a compellingly quiet (though disquieting) urgency to several of the album’s compositions. Other high-profile guests particularly rap auteur Buck 65 seem out of place.

Tagaq does an admirable job of navigating the precarious path between disparate and contradictory elements and never takes the easy way in out or around. Her voice at times elemental and primal and at others pulsing and percussive is occasionally drowned out by the ensuing din. There are plenty of interesting and even arresting moments but overall the album is unfocused. Between the experimentation the ambience and the illustrious guests Tagaq’s virtuosity in this unique and fascinating indigenous musical form seems in danger of falling through the cracks in the ice.

Tags: