Tanya Tagaq

Tanya Tagaq’s music isn’t like anything you’ve heard before. Unnerving and exquisite, Tagaq’s unique vocal expression may be rooted in Inuit throat singing but her music has as much to do with electronica, industrial and metal influences as it does with traditional culture. Tagaq employs exquisite improvisations with traditional roots—a style she has perfected over a decade of performances on major stages worldwide—as well as through collaborations with Björk, Mike Patton, and many others. With this project, Tagaq reclaims the controversial 1922 silent film Nanook of the North. Nanook of the North is considered the world’s first major work of non-fiction filmmaking, yet it is rife with contradictions. The film portrays the lives of an Inuk family in Arctic Canada. Its director, Robert Flaherty, lived and worked with Inuit for years, but still included staged scenes of buffoonery and feigned Inuit ignorance of modern accoutrements. Drawing on her childhood on Nunavut’s Victoria Island, and on her mother’s memories of forced relocation from the film’s Northern Quebec location, Tagaq’s sense of the sound of the Arctic spaces shown in the film transforms the images, adding tremendous feeling and depth to what is a complex mix of beautiful representations and racially charged clichés. THURSDAY November 10, 7:30PM, Hering Auditorium Tickets may be purchased online at fairbanksconcert.org, in person at Grassroots Guitar, or at the door the night of the concert. For more information please call 474-8081 or email info@fairbanksconcert.org