Vancouver Folk Music Festival
July 14 to 16, 2023
Namgar | Buryatia
The heart of the group Namgar, Namgar (which means “white cloud”), Lhasaranova, grew up in the tiny village of Kunkur near the border of Mongolia and the mountainous Russian republic in eastern Siberia called the Buryatia Republic or Buryatia, a stop on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Namgar’s melodic music was passed down to Lhasaranova from her grandparents and father, who sang to her as a child. The inventive arrangements are new, but the stories told in the songs are as old as the indigenous Buryats themselves, with tales and myths of ancient Mongol fighters, champions, horses and famous battles.
The group fuses traditional Buryat and Mongolian music with elements of pop, jazz, folk, ambient soundscapes and art-rock – with Lhasaranova’s impressive vocal range taking centre stage. She can go from playful and childlike to gigantic and soaring within the space of a few minutes. They play traditional Mongolian instruments, including the yatag (a 13-stringed zither), the chanza (a three-stringed lute) and the morin khuur (a two-stringed bowed instrument), along with electric bass and drums to craft their unique, and utterly entrancing, sound.