Tanya Gillis Tagak is a young singer from Ikaluktuutiak (Cambridge Bay), in Nunavut. She learned traditional Innuit throat singing at the age of fifteen, but quickly moved to develop an “avant-guarde” style of solo throat singing. Comments that she is the Björk of the Arctic are well deserved. She collaborated with Björk on the 2004 album Medúlla, and toured with her. The duet from that album, “Ancestors”, appears on Sinaa (2005), her first complete studio album. It had a tremendous impact in Canada’s aboriginal cirlces. She has performed with the Kronos Quartet and the eclectic Scottish band Shooglenifty. Like Björk, Tagaq is relentlessly experimental. The casual listener, however, who hasn’t been raised with Innuit throat singing may not be able to distinguish what is traditional from what is innovation.
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