Recording: Tanya Tagaq

Artist: Tanya Tagaq

Song: "Colonizer" [excerpt from an improvisation]

Recorded at Lula Lounge (Bridges #4), April 17, 2014.

Tanya Tagaq - Colonizer

Full review to follow. The special guest at the final instalment of Lido Pimenta's "Bridges" series of shows, throat-singer Tanya Tagaq perfectly captured the spirit of the event. Despite her outward modesty (even asking the audience not to take pictures of her), her music is simultaneously traditional and experimental, representing Inuit culture while sending out boundary-crossing ripples. Often sounding like two singers jousting in one body, she gave an a capella demonstration that ranged from diva-eque croons to beatbox blasts to ghostly howls before being joined by some of Lido Pimienta's backing musicians for this segment, which built up from inchoate verbalisations to howling swoops of "Colonizer!" — bringing another unity to the night as she celebrated the struggle represented in a giant, beautifully-detailed onstage mural ("¡Mesoamérica Resiste!") by the Beehive Collective.