Sainkho Namtchylak
Out Of Tuva

Patty Pravo is a first-rate musician, and her CD "Ideograms" is a splendid thought. Who else could have the good taste to import a This Mortal Coil track for the Italians, making it her own to the point of re-signing it? Paris is well worth a mass, and "Inch blue" was well worth a plagiarism lawsuit.

To succeed in life, you don't need to be able to do everything: you just need to know where to find what you need and take it already done. The ineffable doll of Italian song will not be denounced by Sainkho, from whom our Imperial Tyrant (one of the meanings, in Chinese, of "Patty") transcribed - crazy idea - the beautiful melody of the first track of this album.

The original of "Esiste una storia", titled "Tanola nomads", is a traditional aria from Tuva. Like all the material presented on this album, it is dressed as pop music to circumvent Societ censorship. For a couple of tracks, Crammed Discs requested a backing from Hector Zazou. The strong and clear voice of Sainkho, a character in search of an author, thus found itself in a situation opposite to Brian and David's in "My life in the bush of ghosts". In a test-window with Sainkho, Lene Lovich's vocal range appears seriously limited. And even Björk, whose ability to express the surprise of living has won our childlike hearts, well, Björk's emotional range is decidedly prepubescent in comparison.

At the top of her lungs on the shamans' trail, imperatively on typically exclamatory Russian rhythms, or ascending the vaguely pentatonic scales of traditional ritual songs, "Out of Tuva" offers the most immediate access point to Sainkho's vocal extravagances.