Altan Urag
Altan Urag (; Mongolian: Алтан Ураг, [ˈaɬtʰəɴ ˈʊɾəq]; lit. "Golden Lineage") is a Mongolian folk rock band. Formed in 2002, the band's musical style combines traditional Mongolian and contemporary influences. They're considered to be the pioneers of Mongolian folk-rock.
Their music has featured in the 2006 film Khadak, the 2007 film Mongol and the Netflix television series Marco Polo.
The members of the band have all been trained in classical Mongolian music. Their performances typically include the morin khuur (horse head fiddle), ikh khuur (grand horse head fiddle), bishguur (traditional horn) and yoochin (a type of hammered dulcimer), khöömii (throat singing) and long song vocals. The band's horsehead fiddles were custom made for the band, and the heads were made to resemble goats, as the band's members believe that the goat is the symbolic "mother of rock music".
Although they make use of electrified instruments, some are explicitly acoustic to maintain what they consider the folk sound, such as the bishguur. Besides alluding to the "basic pitches, melodic structures and timbre" of Mongolian music tradition, they also integrate traditional themes, such as paternal love, the natural landscape, and horses into their songs.
Lhagvasuren Bavuu, is credited as the father of Altan Urag, for supporting them with free studio space at the National Puppet Theatre, as well as advising them to use the monster head design of their morin khuur; different from the traditional style, but Mongolian in origin, as Inderma is fiddle-playing monster from legend.
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