Inuit Throat Singing

Inuit throat singing, katajjaq in Inuktitut, is a vocal practice of the Inuit of the Canadian Arctic and Nunavik in which two women stand face to face and trade short, rhythmic patterns of voiced and unvoiced breath sounds, imitating geese, seabirds, wind, saws and other sounds of the northern environment. Each singer answers the other in tight canon until one laughs, falters or runs out of breath. Traditionally a game and social pastime rather than ceremonial music, katajjaq has since the 1990s also become a concert art, most visibly through the solo transformations of *Tanya Tagaq*.