Inuit Throat Singing (Katajjaq)

Two women stand nearly mouth to mouth, almost touching, and produce alternating throat and breath sounds — low growls, sucked inhalations, voiced exhalations — in interlocking patterns. There are no instruments. The melodic content is minimal; the music is in the rhythmic puzzle of two voices breathing in and out at opposite times. Performances are not strictly metered; they accelerate, vary, and traditionally end when one singer laughs. Contemporary performer Tanya Tagaq has pushed the form into improvised solo concerts with electronics, departing radically from the traditional dyadic format.

Katajjaq survives among Inuit women in northern Canada, especially in Nunavik (northern Quebec) and around Baffin Island. It is variously described as a way to pass time while men were out hunting, as a game for entertaining children, and as a form of vocal challenge. Christian missionaries in the early 20th century deemed it improper and suppressed it in some communities. The cultural revival from the 1970s brought renewed documentation and transmission, and katajjaq is now an emblem of Indigenous Canadian cultural identity.

Don't listen for melody — listen for the interlock. One singer exhales while the other inhales; together their breath patterns produce a continuous sonic texture neither could make alone. On Tanya Tagaq's 'Animism' (2014) the traditional form is layered with electronics and field recordings, which can serve as a softer way in. After that, traditional unaccompanied recordings reveal the bare mechanism.

Tanya Tagaq's 'Animism' (2014) is the most accessible contemporary entry. For traditional form, the Smithsonian Folkways and Canadian Museum of History archives hold field recordings of katajjaq pairs.

Katajjaq styles vary across the Inuit territories — the Greenlandic and Canadian traditions differ in technique and repertoire. Early European observers in the 19th century recorded their shock at seeing two women apparently 'kissing' while making the sounds.