Unlikely as it may sound, it seems that duo Luckychapa are interpreting Tuvan throat singing on their electric guitar and didgeridoo.
Two men, buskers, perhaps in their early twenties. One sitting playing didgeridoo, the other hopping around playing rolling electric guitar. They’re performing on the banks of the Thames, London. They appear immersed, in harmony with their moment and surroundings. Luckychapa are in the Flow, almost as if they can’t contain their music. It’s bouncing around, spilling out from them. It made an impression on me.
Later that night, I find that the three tracks on the Luckychapa Soundcloud page are tagged #TuvanTrance. So, the buskers were interpreting Tuvan Throat Singing – the ancient music of Siberian animal herders – with electric amplified instruments? If the Tuvan influence is true, it may explain why the duo sounded so good at their pitch near London Bridge.
Often, Tuvan Throat Singers “will travel far into the countryside looking for the right river, or will go up to the steppes of the mountainside to create the proper environment” says Wikipedia, their music is bound up with the “spirituality of objects in nature, not just in their shape or location, but in their sound as well”.
Hear Luckychapa play
The band’s Soundcloud recordings are a pale imitation of the band’s live presence.
But they’re all I’ve got. So here they are:
Update, October 2013:
Edward Cubitt tells me that Chapa of Luckychapa, is a young Japanese man called Chapa Ou (pictured above)… “I know his visa was due to expire towards the end of the summer, so it is very possible he has gone back to Japan.”
See also
Meeting Broadcast
More music: Extrageographic on Soundcloud
Tuvan throat singing
Wikipedia
Photo: Tuvan Steppe in Erzin, Tuva, Siberia, Russia By onesecbeforethedub