William Gibson shared this video on his blog. I am not sure what part of the Arctic this is from. The games are held in Canada. So I am imagining this type of singing is from somewhere in the Canadian arctic rather than Greenland. Awesome throat singing in either case and very non-western approach to music which is startling and refreshing to hear.
I expect, or hope Bill Gibson may have some Nunavut tie in to his latest novel via a William T. Vollman tie in? The Rifles was a difficult but compelling read if you haven’t read it.
The story has a multi-threaded approach where the author is trying to approach the Magnetic North Pole to endure the cold at the weather station there. There is also the story of the people of Resolute Island who were forcibly relocated from Inukiajak on the Ungava Peninsula by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the 1950s. This video reminded me of the girls on Resolute Island in the novel. The third thread in the novel is a tie in is how the British expedition led by Franklin failed and then was lost to the ice.
Throat singer, once banned for being sinful has come back in a big way in the last decade or so. Young and old now can be found in most eastern Nunavut and Nunavik communities who know the technique. A few men have tried their skills, but usually get laughed off the stage when they do…