Jazz Articles about Yat-Kha

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Yat-Kha: Yenisei-Punk

by AAJ Staff
January 22, 2003

Just when you thought vocal music couldn't sink any lower, Yat-Kha drops one more rung. Quite honestly, Albert Kuvezin's singing on Yenisei-Punk is subterranean. His childhood performances in a youth choir in southern Siberia resulted in early forced--but temporary--retirement. It seemed nobody had much patience for Kuvezin's idiosyncrasies.

And that's precisely the point. Dig this. Kuvezin's approach to song draws from a nearly-extinct style called kanzat. It's deep, dark, and beautiful. Known as “throat singing" outside his home ...