Award-winning CD combines tradition & innovation

Tanya Tagaq Gillis was in her fourth year of the bachelor of fine arts program at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design when she began to develop the distinctive sound that has garnered the attention of music fans both in Canada and further afield. Missing her home in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, she would listen to the tapes of throat singing her mother had sent to her and began to try to recreate what she heard. What developed was a unique amalgamation, with Tagaq's soft, sweet vocals meshing with the rhythmic sounds of throat singing.

Tagaq's album, Sinaa, which refers to the place where the water meets the edge of the ice, has won her much praise, as well as a few awards. Tagaq was one of the performers at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards held in Toronto at the end of November, and took home the award for Best Female Performer. The CD also won for Best Album Design and Best Producer. Tagaq was featured on Bjork's last album, Medulla, and the Icelandic artist returned the favor, performing alongside Tagaq on the song Ancestors, as well as producing the cut. The Inuit songstress has been busy performing at venues across Canada and Europe and that will continue in 2006 when she starts off the new year by touring with the Kronos Quartet.