Formed in 2002, Altan Urag is a folk-rock and ethnic band that fuses traditional Mongolian sound with a contemporary influence.
The name Altan Urag can be loosely translated to Khan’s Kin or Golden Blood Line, referring to Chinggis Khan and his ancestors. The band’s vision is to promote Mongolian culture to the world and introduce traditional music to the young people of the Mongolia.
The band has seven members whose skills lie in playing the morin khuur (horse head fiddle), ih khuur (grand horse head fiddle), percussion, bishguur (traditional horn) and yaichin. The vocalists are throat singers and long song singers and all were trained in traditional and classical Mongolian music.
The band has released two albums, Foals’ Been Born an ethnic contemporary album (2004), and Made in Altan Urag, a folk-rock album (Sonor Records 2006). Four new albums will be released in early 2009, marking a culmination in a prolific phase in Altan Urag’s work. Blood (folk rock), Hypnotism (contemporary), Once Upon a Time in Mongolia (ethnic) and Nation (traditional folk) use the artists’ incredible skills to explore different genres of Altan Urag’s music and demonstrate their powerful and soulful sound.
The band has produced music videos for Surf (Foals’ Been Born, Desoft Studio), Mother Mongolia (Made in Altan Urag, Zaya’sh Studio) and Abroad (Made in Altan Urag, Khasui Entertainment). Abroad featured guitarist Andrew Colwell on the track and video. Recent music videos are Requiem, Wave, The Blue Marked Nation, Rah2 and the Beast.
Altan Urag’s first international tour was to Russia in 2004. Since then they have visited several countries for tours, festivals, special concerts and for recording purposes including Vietnam, Thailand, Uzbekistan and the USA. In 2008 Altan Urag played at the Biennale Bern Arts Festival of Switzerland, Riddu Riddu National Music Festival of Norway and the 18th Macau International Arts Festival. They also featured in the Euroasia film awards in Kazakastan for the closing ceremony, performing Ochigdor l the official soundtrack from Mongol.
Altan Urag has produced the soundtrack for two international movies. The first soundtrack Mother Mongolia was produced for the movie Khadak (2006) directed by Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth and the second was Blue Marked Nation for the movie Mongol (2008) directed by Sergei Bodrov.
Khadak and Mother Mongolia have been nominated and won several film awards including the Luigi De Laurentiis Award at the Venice Film Festival (2006), Silver Medal at the Spirit of Fire Russian International Film Festival and awards at Bratislava, Flanders, Oslo and Washington DC (Environmental Film) festivals.
Mother Mongolia won Best Music at the 2007 Cyprus International Film Festival and Khadak is currently nominated at the following places and festivals: Sao Paulo, Thessaloniki, Mar del Plata, Leeds, Hong Kong, Jerusalem, Bangkok, Moscow (German Film Event), Vilnius, Warsaw, Istanbul, Innsbruck and Rome (Desert Nights).
Mongol was released in 2008 and has been nominated for several awards including best foreign language film for the 2007 Academy Awards. Mongol swept the Nika awards (2008) with six awards, won Best Sound Design at the Golden Eagle Awards (Russia), the Best Foreign Language Film at the National Board of Review (USA) was nominated at the European Film Awards (2008) and Image Awards (2009).
Of Altan Urag’s music Sergei Bodrov says “… their distinctive vocal rhythms lend a sense of otherworldly strength to several scenes … I just fell in love with them. They have an amazing energy.” (Bodrov, www.mongolmovie.com)
Altan Urag featured on the official soundtrack, and music was in collaboration with Finnish composer Tuomas Kantelinen. The recording of this soundtrack took place in St. Petersburg, Russia along with the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra.
Altan Urag intends to promote their four new albums in 2009 and has ambitions for future tours internationally. Altan Urag can be seen at their permanent gig at Ikh Mongol and continues to live and work in Ulaan Baatar, the capital of Mongolia to expose young people to the beauty and majesty of Mongolian music.
Biennale Bern Arts Festival of Switzerland
14 - 15 September 2008
Riddu Riddu National Music Festival of Norway
12 July 2008
Tour New York and Washington D.C, USA
12-17 June 2008
18th Macau International Arts Festival, Republic of China
18-19 May 2008
Ethnic music festival in Ulan-Ude, Russia
14-16 April 2008
International music festival “Shark Taronalary” in Uzbekistan
12 August 2007
Tour Ulan-Ude, Russia, 25 May 2007
Euroasia Film Awards closing ceremony in Kazakastan, performing Ochigdor l, the official soundtrack from Mongol.
Tour of Hanoi, Vietnam and Bangkok, Thailand
January 18th, 2006 - 10 February 2006
St-Petersburg, Russia
15 October 2005 and December 2005
Russia’s culture and science centre
December, 18th 2004.
Roaring Hooves International Music Festival, Mongolia
May 2003
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Rhythm Festival 2009
21-23 August
Twinwood Arena, Clapham, Beds, MK41 6AB
The Proclaimers, Alabama 3, Gandalf Murphy & The Slambovian Circus of Dreams, The Beat, Terry Reid, Glenn Tilbrook & The Fluffers, James Hunter, Alvin Youngblood Hart, The Blow Monkeys, Pentangle, The Strawbs, Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash and LOADS more...
http://www.rhythmfestival.net
I belief in artgeneering...the artist is only a medium,connected to the spirits around him-translating vibes into symbolic shapes to reinitialize the ancient wayof using language... the way of light and color... without the disguise of words,right through the passage of our eyes... to reach hearts and souls without taking the intelectual loop way... natural formulas in an unnatural world...pure and uncensored... awakening the visiual awareness, the centre of our inner universe... to let it shine in the way it has allways been before these annoying times, that keep us away from our natural mission... to stay connected with our great mother earth and her deep spirit of freedom and peace... we have to regain our nearly lost nativeness, to stop this wheel of opression and iniquity that haunts our world and our hearts...it's time for the rainbow warriors :-)
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