An emerging act at world music festivals across the U.S., (including a sold-out concert at NYC’s Lincoln Center last season) Tuvergen Band (“galloping” in Mongolian) is a Chicago-based folk-fusion trio founded in 2020 by Tamir Hargana (lead vocals, folk lutes, morin khuur), Naizal Hargana (morin khuur, vocals), and Brent Roman (percussion, didgeridoo, vocals). Hailing from Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia, Tamir and Naizal are both virtuosos on the two-stringed, cello-like morin khuur, colloquially called a horse-head fiddle and one of Mongolia’s most iconic instruments. Tamir is also an internationally renowned specialist in Mongolian and Tuvan khoomei – a unique style of polyphonic throat singing – and plays a variety of folk lutes, such as the three-stringed, banjo-like Tuvan doshpuluur and West Mongolian tovshuur. An ethnomusicologist who has studied Asian percussion his entire career, Roman augments these sounds with a custom hybrid drum kit of twenty global percussion instruments and didgeridoo, the latter’s overtone-rich timbre paralleling khoomii. Tuvergen Band uses this vibrant instrumental palette to reinterpret Mongolian and Tuvan folk songs on subjects as varied as horse culture, nature, and everyday life in the steppes. Through the incorporation of bluegrass, blues, and rock styles, the band brings audiences what they call “modern nomadic music.”
