A review by Bhuchung D Sonam
Grammy-nominated Tibetan musician, Tenzin Choegyal’s new album, Whispering Sky is delightful and elegant with each song skilfully crafted. This is a result of his collaborations with musicians from the US, Japan, Australia and Canada. Choegyal’s signature voice and his unique dranyen, a three-stringed instrument he has fashioned himself, which he calls Metok, are the centre piece in his other albums. I am enthralled by the song titled Jhala I Fly to You, which his inimitable interpretation and rephrasing of Like a Movie by Tendor from his album Madro (Don’t Go). For this song, which expresses a longing to be reunited with loved ones, Choegyal worked with Morley Shanti Kamen and Chris Bruce from US. In tune with times that we are living, the collaboration took place online with files digitally shared and ideas remotely exchanged.
Choegyal’s musical journey had been long and often tough. From a nomad boy in Tibet, he was taken to, and grew up, in a refugee school in India and then he became a self-taught musician busking in Australia. However, his decades of perseverance and consistency as an artiste is handsomely rewarded. He has performed to packed audiences in the Carnegie Hall and Sydney Opera House and has worked with many renowned artistes such as Philip Glass and Laurie Anderson. He is, perhaps, one of the best-known exiled Tibetan musicians today.
In terms of financial security and comfortable living, he could have done much better had he chosen to purely chant comforting Buddhist mantras and churn out New Age collections catering to a select elite clientele. However, he has remained true to his roots, writing music to reflect his lived experience and cultural background. Choegyal’s singing emerges from deep within his exiled self, with a voice that is simultaneously haunting and comforting, devastating yet enthralling.
My favourite track from Whispering Sky is Keyma The Roof is Leaking, which is a collaborative work with Linsey Pollak, an innovative Australian musician, instrument maker and composer. Linsey’s soundscape and whale calls, according to Choegyal inspires in us “a closer connection with our natural world”. This deeply moving song transports me beneath the blue ocean and lifts me to the summit of snow mountains.
If you need a respite from social media overload and loud, vapid pop music, Whispering Sky is a appealing alternative.
The author is a poet, writer and co-founder of TibetWrites, a Tibetan writers’ circle that publishes and promotes the creative work of Tibetans. He is the author of four books, including Yak Horns: Notes on Contemporary Tibetan Writing, Music, Film & Politics and Songs of the Arrow. He lives in Dharamshala, a small town in northern India.
4 Responses
His art is his unique expression, and great in his own way. Incomparable, to any other artists, Tibetans or otherwise. Incomparable because, there is no need for a comparison; every sincere artist is unique in his/her own way, and therefore great, provided that you relate or connect to his expression, be it his music, appearance, instrument, story, etc. This greatness need not have to do with littleness of some other artist.
I find his wordless Tibetan anthem moving, people forget that Tibet is under the boot of the Chinese Leviathan, if people believe that China will be different from the last empire think again.
He looks like a Native American. Has he done his DNA checks? There used to be land bridge between Asia and America through Siberia many years ago, and many Tibetans migrated to America before Ice Age. His ancestry might be one of those migrants.
Native America musics such as flutes or even group dance rituals are bit similar, not to mention facial similarities.
This piece is more of the artist’s short biography than the indepth review of the album.
The writer has picked up one of the songs and commented on it. I was expecting more than that.
I have been listening to the whole album. His music in general and particularly this album evokes a sense of depth and vastness because of the ambient and atmospheric composition with his sparse unique Tibetan lute and inimitable deep and soaring voice influenced by Tibetan folk and Hindustani elements, which sets him apart from other contemporary Tibetan artists like Techung, who like him, has collaborated with other other artists, but Techung’s singing and playing the Tibetan lute is not experimental as Choegyal’s.
The album is available on Spotify.