Khoomei (Tuvan Throat Singing)

Khoomei is the throat-singing tradition of Tuva, in the Siberian borderlands of Mongolia, in which a single singer sustains a low drone fundamental while shaping the mouth and throat to amplify individual overtones into a second, flute-like melody. Practised for centuries by herders imitating the sounds of wind, water and animals across the steppe, it encompasses named techniques from the deep, growling kargyraa to the whistling sygyt. Accompaniment, when present, comes from the igil horsehead fiddle, the doshpuluur lute and jaw harps. Since the 1990s groups such as *Huun-Huur-Tu* and *Yat-Kha* have carried the technique from Tuvan villages to concert stages worldwide.