Mongolian Music Alive and Rocking
Talking to a student at the University of Humanities today, it is easy to see the influence of Western styles on the Mongolian youth. Yet it is even easier to notice their pride in Mongolian culture everywhere.
Of course, today did happen to be graduation for many students. ture developments.
Whilst the boys strolled down the steps in their black suits looking for all the world like James Bond in his Asian element, the girls’ well tailored and sumptuous outfits in iridescent blues, reds and purples showed all the signs of a Mongolian heritage to be proud of as they posed in Sukhbaatar Sq, standing tall despite the shivering cold.
But is it in music that Mongolia has excelled at combining its ancient and glorious heritage with Western influences. Alongside famous bands such as The Lemons, Lguards, Fire or Khulan, Altan Urag is celebrated in Mongolia by all age groups as a beautiful fusion of ancient and contemporary.
In a recent interview, their drummer Bolordoi Bolortungalag expounded on this style. ‘In the beginning when Altan Urag created our first album, Horse is Born, it was an ethnic album and it was aimed at foreigners…For our first album we played traditional instruments and brought these to the studio.
We mixed it up with guitars and effects and liked the sound so we decided that we must create this kind of music. After much hard work we made our folk rock sound and then in 2006 our second album, Made in Altan Urag, was born- the first folk rock album in Mongolia’.
The band says that their vision is to promote Mongolian culture to the world and introduce traditional music to the young people of their country. You could easily be fooled into the naivete of this statement- getting the youth of today on board for any project involving their ancestry can often be too arduous an undertaking.
It would not have surprised me if this were the case in Mongolia, especially after a performance of Altan Urag’s in a local pub Ikh Mongol, where the faces scattered in the audience were mainly those of adult Mongolian men with the occasional Westerner sat behind their liter jugs of beer.
But today a young journalist student stood in front of a class and described her love of the band as proof of the importance and excellence of Mongolian culture and music.
No doubt this must please the band- ‘Usually we make our music for young people’, described Tungaa, as she likes to be called.
‘All the music is written by us- though sometimes we took traditional songs whose composers have been long forgotten and we change the style.
We would like to present it to young people so they can listen to and understand traditional music’
Formed in 2002, the band has been rising with acclaimed success for the last nine years and shows no signs of stopping as it approaches its tenth anniversary.
‘In 2011, together with Up Productions, we will play 3 concerts. The first will be on the 10th June and we will perform with pop and rock singers and their hit songs. We will show them how to play hip hop and rock with traditional instruments. We are also writing music which we will play at this concert’
Altan Urag play every Thursday and Sunday at Ikh Mongol. Look out for their future developments.
Of course, today did happen to be graduation for many students. ture developments.
Whilst the boys strolled down the steps in their black suits looking for all the world like James Bond in his Asian element, the girls’ well tailored and sumptuous outfits in iridescent blues, reds and purples showed all the signs of a Mongolian heritage to be proud of as they posed in Sukhbaatar Sq, standing tall despite the shivering cold.
But is it in music that Mongolia has excelled at combining its ancient and glorious heritage with Western influences. Alongside famous bands such as The Lemons, Lguards, Fire or Khulan, Altan Urag is celebrated in Mongolia by all age groups as a beautiful fusion of ancient and contemporary.
In a recent interview, their drummer Bolordoi Bolortungalag expounded on this style. ‘In the beginning when Altan Urag created our first album, Horse is Born, it was an ethnic album and it was aimed at foreigners…For our first album we played traditional instruments and brought these to the studio.
We mixed it up with guitars and effects and liked the sound so we decided that we must create this kind of music. After much hard work we made our folk rock sound and then in 2006 our second album, Made in Altan Urag, was born- the first folk rock album in Mongolia’.
The band says that their vision is to promote Mongolian culture to the world and introduce traditional music to the young people of their country. You could easily be fooled into the naivete of this statement- getting the youth of today on board for any project involving their ancestry can often be too arduous an undertaking.
It would not have surprised me if this were the case in Mongolia, especially after a performance of Altan Urag’s in a local pub Ikh Mongol, where the faces scattered in the audience were mainly those of adult Mongolian men with the occasional Westerner sat behind their liter jugs of beer.
But today a young journalist student stood in front of a class and described her love of the band as proof of the importance and excellence of Mongolian culture and music.
No doubt this must please the band- ‘Usually we make our music for young people’, described Tungaa, as she likes to be called.
‘All the music is written by us- though sometimes we took traditional songs whose composers have been long forgotten and we change the style.
We would like to present it to young people so they can listen to and understand traditional music’
Formed in 2002, the band has been rising with acclaimed success for the last nine years and shows no signs of stopping as it approaches its tenth anniversary.
‘In 2011, together with Up Productions, we will play 3 concerts. The first will be on the 10th June and we will perform with pop and rock singers and their hit songs. We will show them how to play hip hop and rock with traditional instruments. We are also writing music which we will play at this concert’
Altan Urag play every Thursday and Sunday at Ikh Mongol. Look out for their future developments.
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