Enjoy khomus (Yakut Jew’s harp) music and images of Yakutia in the amazing video slideshow created by Marianna Leontieva in 2008. The author lives in Moscow and she called the video “Khomus… A Yakutian’s Nostalgia…” Think, no additional info is required.

By the way, Yakutsk will host the 7th International Jew’s Harp Society Congress on June 23-26, 2011. It will be held right before the Yasyakh national holiday celebration in the area of Ys Khatyn near Yakutsk. My god, my fingers are crossed, don’t want to miss this must-be-awesome event.

Download the Congress Program (pdf, 525 Kb).

I had a sort of schedule… of what and when to publish… but Vitaly Toko ruined everything. He regreted that he didn’t make it to Yakutia’s Kolyma this autumn. He worked here for many, many, many years. Actually, he spent all his best years in Yakutia and he’s got a lot of photographs of the biggest Siberian region.

Two days ago Vitalya created a video slideshow using his pictures of Yakutia and Vyacheslav Butusov’s song “Moya Zvezda” (My Star). Why does he love this remote Northern area? What does he feel to it? Everything can be seen in that video.

Hope he will come the next year and we’ll have a drink together

Further find my rough translation of V. Butusov’s song lyric into English.

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Saina, Yakutsk-based Siberian ethno singer, will give her first big solo concert in Moscow on Dec. 18th, 2010. The event will be hosted in the “DOM” concert hall. More show info, think, might be got directly from her through her facebook profile Saina Singer. By the way, she is a fan of the eYakutia – English Yakutia fb page as well.

Who is Saina?

As I said in my previous post Saina, the singer of Yakutia’s Northern nations, Saina is pretty much able to present herself. Listen to her introduction (click on the title to play the audio):

Saina’s audio self presentation

Listen also to her amazing songs (full versions). Read the rest of this entry…

David McAlmont and Michael Nyman perform ‘The Coldest Place on Earth’, a new song written specially for Paul Morley’s Showing off…

“So here we have That Instrumental from the movie The Piano (you know the one) overlain with David McAlmont’s new, exquisitely sung lyrics inspired by the extremely chilly Siberian city of Yakutsk. Genuinely lovely.” That’s what I found at Metro.co.uk together with the last rumours about Lady Gaga. Fantastic! Read the rest of this entry…

Kounney. 2010 Etigen Khomus Music Award. Photo by LARA.

The last Sunday in Yakutsk was remarkable with 2010 Etigen Khomus Music Award Ceremony. Etigen Khomus is Yakutia’s annual award granted to singers (variety performers) for their achievements in the course of the past year. This time for 2009.

The Etigen Khomus Award Ceremony is held at the end of February or in the beginning of March. It is always a big event. The fantastic show arranged and organized by the Yakutsk Radio Station “Viktoria.” It’s very hard to get entrance tickets.

Take a look at LARA’s award ceremony pictures. Read the rest of this entry…

Saina, a Yakutsk-based ethno singer

Think no need to present Saina. She can do it herself. Listen to her audio presentation track with different songs. I can say only that she started as a Yakutsk-based pop singer. Now she prefers to sing songs of northern peoples living in Siberia’s Yakutia. That’s really great. Read the rest of this entry…

A Black Crane is a new Sakha Theater play premiered on Feb. 20, 2010. Director is Ivan Gogolev. By the courtesy of the Sakha Theater administration. Read the rest of this entry…

Hannes, many thanks for sharing with the slideshow video, and it’s really great to hear that you liked the the journey to Oymyakon, the Pole of Cold.

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Famous Yakut singers and musicians, Legentej, Klavdia and Guerman Khatylaevs, Albina Degtyareva, Ayarkhaan and others, decided to support the Olympic Games movement. They performed Scorpions’ hit “We are the champions!” in the Yakut (Sakha) language. The video was shot in the ice tunnel “The Kingdom of Everlasting Permafrost” in Yakutsk, Yakutia/Siberia in January 2010.

Hope YouTube Read the rest of this entry…

I have an US-based friend on Facebook. His name is Sid Korn. A few days ago he informed me that he created the slideshow using my pictures of the recent road trip to Oymyakon, the Pole of Cold. Here it is. Read the rest of this entry…