Tanya Tagaq

The Inuk throat singer, avant-garde composer, actor, and bestselling author Tanya Tagaq is renowned as one of Canada’s most original and celebrated artists. Hailing from Cambridge Bay (Ikaluktutiak), Nunavut, Tanya Tagaq carves the traditional practice of throat singing into a form of ancestral resonance wherein improvisation, electronic experimentation, and the immediacy of visual and performance art form a new ritual: part confrontation, part survival. Across mediums, her work is a channel for urgency, healing while insisting upon transformation.

Recognized with major awards, national honors, and critical acclaim, Tagaq has also become a formidable voice in literature and on the screen. Her written works includes 2018’s »Split Tooth«, a genre-blending novel mixing memoir, poetry, myth, and Inuit folklore with vivid depictions of growing up in Nunavut. She is also the author of the picture books »It Bears Repeating« and »I Would Give You My Tail«. Across the pages, landscapes of resistance and renewal bear witness to colonial erasure, ecological crisis, and the endurance of Indigenous life. Tagaq also co-directed and wrote the documentary 2022’s »Ever Deadly«, a portrait of her life and art. A member of the Order of Canada, Polaris Music Prize and JUNO Award winner and recipient of multiple honorary doctorates, Tagaq is an original disruptor, a world-changing figure advocating for seismic social, political and environmental change.

For this concert she will perform her new album Saputjiji (release date 6 March via Six Shooter Records) in a trio formation, featuring Jean Martin on drums and Jeffery Zeigler on cello. Jean Martin is a drummer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and runs Barnyard Records, one of the most vital labels for contemporary music in North America. He has performed and recorded with David Murray, Evan Parker, William Parker, Veryan Weston, Phil Minton, Craig Tayborn to name a few. The body of work of cellist and multidisciplinary artist Jeffrey Zeigler spans across different genres, themes, and formats, from solo to opera to chamber and interdisciplinary collaborations. He was a member of the renowned Kronos Quartet from 2005-2013, and has worked with artists such as Laurie Anderson, Bryce Dessner of The National, Philip Glass, Yo-Yo Ma, and John Zorn.

The night opens with the Berlin-based duo of Ilia Gorovitz and Asja Skrinik aka PΞB. A raw annihilation to the lunar plexus, their sound is a relentless fusion of industrial, punk, noise rock and metal, crafted with the precision of a sonic weapon. Gorovitz’s ruthless drumming anchors Skrinik’s shrieks and guttural vocalisations, riding on dissonant layers of droning soundscapes, mechanical hums, and shattered metallic crashes and alternating between fierce outbreaks and moments of eerie, atmospheric build-ups. As a live act PΞB thrives on intensity, blending elements of Grand Guignol horror, spoken word poetry, and metal-inspired vocal performance to create a viciously throbbing experience both musical and theatrical.