Music I'm Listening to: David Hykes

I have recently been listening to music by David Hykes. I had never heard of him before, but he appears to be well known for his explorations of harmonics. This is haunting stuff. Not the sort of music that can be turned on and used as a sound track to other activities. It demands full concentration. It can be mesmerizing. In turns, it sounds like Gregorian chant, the chanting of sutras by Japanese priests, bombs whistling to the ground, musicians tuning their instruments, doppler effects on the sound of passing vehicles, or whalesong.

In some places it's reminiscent of the Tuvan throat singing I had previously been aware of, and, if I understand correctly, it uses the same phenomenon--the sounding of tones in the throat that are then modified by the singer changing the shape of his mouth and throat cavity, to produce two tones simultaneously. Very interesting. There appear to be several YouTube performances available if you are interested in getting an idea of what this music is like. The CD I've been listening to is pictured (Ocora C. 558607).