Yat-Kha

Yat-Kha is a band from Tuva, led by vocalist/guitarist Albert Kuvezin. Their music is a mixture of Tuvan traditional music and rock, featuring Kuvezin's distinctive kargyraa throat singing style, the kanzat kargyraa.

Yat-Kha
Albert Kuvezin leading Yat-Kha in 2016
Background information
Origin	Tuva, Russia
Genres	Folk rock, Tuvan music, overtone singing, ethnic electronica, heavy metal
Years active	1991–present
Members	Albert Kuvezin and others
Past members	Ivan Sokolovsky and many others
Website	http://www.yat-kha.ru/en/

Biography

Yat-Kha was founded in Moscow in 1991, as a collaborative project between Kuvezin and Russian avant-garde, electronic composer Ivan Sokolovsky. The project blended traditional Tuvan folk music with post-modern rhythms and electronic effects. Kuvezin and Sokolovsky toured and played festivals, and eventually took the name "Yat-Kha", after the yatkha (ятха), a Tuvan bridge zither similar to the Mongolian yatga and the Chinese guzheng, which Kuvezin plays in addition to the guitar. In 1993, they released a self-titled album on the General Records label.

Since July 21 2001, they have been performing a live soundtrack to Vsevolod Pudovkin's 1928 silent film Storm Over Asia.^[1]

Their 1995 song "Karangailyg Kara Hovaa (Dyngyldai)" is featured in the Apple iPhone 15 "Titanium" commercial.^[2]

Discography

Yat-Kha in Germany, 2005

Albums:

• Priznak Gryadushchei Byedy (1991)
• Khanparty (1992)
• Yat-Kha (1993)
• Yenisei Punk (1995)
• Tundra's Ghosts (1996/97) - remastered version of Yat-Kha released by Ivan Sokolovsky)
• Dalai Beldiri (1999)
• Aldyn Dashka (2000)
• Bootleg (2001, live)
• tuva.rock (2003)
• Re-Covers (2005)
• Bootleg 2005 (2005, live)
• Poets and Lighthouses (2010)
• We Will Never Die (2021)

Members

Current

• Albert Kuvezin (vocals, Throat singing, Guitar, Bass guitar, Chanzy, Khomus, Yat-Kha)
• Sholban Mongush (igil, vocal)
• "Theodore Scipio" (Bass guitar)

Past

• Evgeny "Zhenya" Tkachov (drums, Percussion)
• Radik Tiuliush (vocals, Throat Singing, Morin Khuur, Igil)
• Sailyk Ommun (vocals, Yat-Kha)
• Makhmud Skripaltschchikov (Bass guitar)
• Aldyn-ool Sevek (vocals, Throat singing, Morin Khuur, Igil)
• Alexei Saaia (vocals, Morin khuur, Bass guitar)
• Ivan Sokolovsky (Synthesizers, Percussion)

Appearing on Poets and Lighthouses with Albert Kuvezin (Voice, Acoustic Guitar)

• Simon Edwards (Acoustic Bass guitar, Double Bass, Marimbula, Mbira, Appalachian Dulcimer)
• Giles Perring (Acoustic Guitar, Piano, Harmonium, Backing Vocals, Drums, Percussion)
• Sarah Homer (Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Recorder)
• Melanie Pappenheim (Backing Vocals)
• Lu Edmonds (Cumbus)
• Neil Cameron (Scottish Small Pipes)

Awards

• 1991 recognized by Brian Eno, one of the international judges at the first Voices of Asia Festival in Almaty, Kazakhstan
• 1995 French RFI "Decouvertes Est" prize for Yenisei Punk
• 1999 German Critic's Prize for Dalai Beldiri
• 2002 BBC Radio 3 "Award for World Music"

External links

• Official Russian site Archived 2014-09-03 at the Wayback Machine
• Yat-Kha discography at Discogs
• Yat-Kha discography at MusicBrainz
• Ivan Sokolovsky Archived 2005-08-30 at the Wayback Machine
• Reality Film: Storm over Asia