Thursday, April 24, 2008

ties to tradition, dust clouds and fire

One of the things that I appreciate about Mongolian culture is its ties to the past. They don't seem in a hurry to adopt every new bit of global culture that comes along. This music video is an example of how modern music is being made without neglecting instruments and vocal styles that have been central to Mongolia for centuries.


I don't have the article at hand right now, but last night, I read that the dust clouds from Mongolia have now invaded Alaska. I understand that this is not all that uncommon, but that this is the fourth-dustiest/windiest spring on record in Mongolia. This morning I read that strong dust storms are still ahead, i.e. 30 to 40 miles per hour storms. Officials fear that new steppe and forest fires will be added to the 75 that have already caught this year. Granted, some of these fires are originating in Russia and then spreading across Russia's southern border.

4 comments:

Matthew S said...

Cool video. I actually really liked the music. Maybe not that singing at the end, but the music is nice.

Voice of Mongolia said...

Greetings from Mongolia! Thanks for dropping in our blogsite. Great to hear that God is calling people to partner with Him here in Mongolia. Probably, we will see meet you guys here.

Anonymous said...

I would like go there just for holidays! hehe Nice video!

d-wain said...

Okay, this music is effing AWESOME! I have to admit that I really dig the throatsinging at the end. I remember buying a CD of Tuvan throatsinging when I was in middle school and being utterly enthralled by it. There's an interesting documentary about a black blues musician who learned how to do it and entered in a "native" contest.

Thor bless Google: I typed in "black blind throat singing" and came up with Genghis Blues. Interesting docu.