I’ve heard my share of throat singing from traditional world music to pop covers. But I do not think I’ve heard anything like Arjopa. First, she may be the first female throat-singer I’ve heard. Second, her music is neither strictly traditional or pop. Her website calls it “Shamanic Folk Pop” yet it has elements of the traditional, psychedelic, and even punk. The four tracks on This is Arjopa are vocals with sensitive acoustic backing. Her vocals tend to alternate between straight singing and the more esoteric throat-singing, leaving the listener a bit teetering in both worlds. I believe that is the result this artist is looking for. Her songs and vocals reminds me heavily of P. J. Harvey and to a lesser extent, Marianne Faithful. I really like this album and recommend it to anyone who like a taste of the unusual mixed with the known.

This is Arjopa can be found at the Free Music Archive and is from the suRRism-Phonoethics netlabel.

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Martyn St-Michael is a guitar and flute player who uses “California Throatsinger” as his moniker for his Tuvan throat singing experiments. Throat singing is a difficult, precise way of using one’s vocal chords and mouth to create resonating overtones that blend together for an alien sound that hardly sounds like a human voice at all. This untitled album collects 10 of St-Michael’s improvisations in throat singing, sometimes a capella and sometimes with instrumental accompaniment. On “Oil Wars”, he sounds like a more extreme version of Captain Beefheart. Appropriately, “Energy” is the most aggressive track. Try “Overtoning” for a quick overview of what throat-singing is all about. Fascinating.

Downloads from the page below are in 128kbps MP3.

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