
Gendos (Siberia, Russia)
Gennady Tchamzyryn Gendos is Siberian musician and shaman (for three generations), vocalist and instrumentalist, who's familiar with exotic instruments, such as chadegan, homus or dosphuloore. Besides, Gennady has mastered all kinds of guttural singing – from „sygyt” to „kargyra”. Four years of concerting allowed Gendos and his formation Gen-DOS to become one of the most important bands in the musical world of Tuwa, next to other stars of Tuwian music scene, like Huun Huur Tu or Yat-Kha.
Shamanic rituals before concerts are a characteristic element of Siberian band's culture. Ritual is initiated by a short meditation, at first with small bell and later with „arysz”, burned on the special spoon. The smoke from it was believed in Tuwa to be purgatory. The ritual's function is to put the listener into the good mood. Also the place, where the concert is played, is supposed to emit positive energy. This kind of shamanic traditions comes from really old times and practically up to this day they're still practised in the area of Tuwa – it is similar to the situation in Polesie, where traditions of „Dziady” (poor wanderers) are still strong. The guttural singing „khoomei”, perfected by Gendos, allows to sing even four sounds simultaneously. First of them is basic sound – it has solid and very low frequency. The rest of them are high harmonic sounds. Operating voice organs in larynx has been perfected by the Tuwians. They model the frequency of soundwaves, which creates an impression of using the throat as a natural synthesizer. This technique is currently known and practised on workshops, also in Europe – as an overtone or harmonic singing – and some bands use this way of singing in their own compositions – nonetheless the Siberians remains the true masters of this technique.
Night of 29/30.07.2005, 12:00 AM (midnight), Rotunda