Send your story ideas, press releases, review copies and invitations to press@globaltimes.com.cn or call 52937880

Acclaimed Mongolian folk band Hanggai wrapped up their 2009 world tour with a performance at Mao Live on Friday last week. Beginning this past September and including 21 dates in total, a handful of shows on the tour were held in the US while a majority of the band's time was spent in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Introducing Hanggai, the band's 40-minute debut album, was released in mid- 2008 by London-based label World Music Network and has since been singled out and praised by the likes of the BBC, the Guardian and the popular music website pitchfork.com in the US.

Album producer Matteo Schumaci on his website (matteoscumaci.co.uk) refers to Hanggai's music as "Chinagrass" in an apparent homage to the now-traditional form of music that flourished in the US during the mid-20th century. This "new musical movement," he says, has "one foot in the past and one in the future..."

In an interview with the Global Times just minutes before their Mao gig, band founder Ilich Qimude said that Hanggai is a Mongolian word that refers to a nomad's ideal home: blue skies, white clouds, vast grassy plains, rivers, mountains, forests and running horses.

Almost all of the songs found on Hanggai's debut are adapted from traditional Mongolian songs that can be heard on Inner Mongolia's grassy plains, where nomadic tribesmen call out to herds at the top of their lungs and sing songs expressing strength and sentiments for open and quiet places.

Two members of Hanggai are from Xinjiang and another three are from Inner Mongolia. When performing, the members of Hanggai dress in traditional Mongolian attire.

The band hit Mao's stage at 9 pm, and as they began their set the venue's capacity slowly swelled to its limit. Ilich said that when they performed on October 30 in Copenhagen, they were surprised at the turnout. "People kept coming in and almost no one left. We were moved to be so appreciated at our most important show in Europe."

In their song "Five Heroes," the band sadly drones in a cool ambient soundscape before returning to take turns praising the exploits of "five armed heroes, five heroes who maraud the rich!" The song paints a picture of bards telling a story in song around a boisterous campfire.

But Hanggai's arrangement of a Mongolian drinking tune, "Drinking Song," is among their most joyous. "Let our song never end, let our fortunes never decline," a voice sings on the song's recording, leading what sounds like a roomful of "strong and fragrant wine"-drinking grasslands cowboys in a local tavern. Featuring a verse that increases in tempo as it repeats, the song is easily one of the band's best when played live.

Their show at Mao Live saw Qimude switching between three or so traditional instru-ments, at one point playing what looked like a Mongolian version of a banjo, at other times playing a two-stringed guitar-like lute. He sang and chanted in perfect unison with the group.

Hanggai's drummer sat behind a drum kit missing several standard components, the high-hat substituted for a string of bells tied to the top of a foot pedal and the snare replaced with a woodblock-tambourine combination.

The group's lead vocalist, who soulfully crooned during the band's more sensitive moments, alternated between playing an acoustic and electric guitar, which he played upside-down without missing a note. Typically, left-handed guitarists will restring the instrument so that the lowest-tuned string remains the first hit when a chord is strummed, but each of his guitars had been kept in the tuning of a right-handed player. Wearing a pointed cap, the singer-guitarist added interesting effects when playing his electric guitar.

Qimude added that Hanggai has plans to release a new album next year and are now focusing on their live show. "We hope to perform bigger shows and let more people recognize us worldwide."