Music Review: "To Where Tengger Leads Me " from Nature Ganganbaigal

Prepare yourselves for the magical and unique sound that is Nature Ganganbaigal
! With music described as belonging to genres such as Mongolian folk and electronic, I can honestly say that I was pleasantly surprised with this album (and I know you will be too!).

Firstly though, a little about the artist: Nature Ganganbaigal is a MTV-featured film composer, as well as the songwriter of Mongolian Folk Metal band Tengger Cavalry. The talented musician has tightly-held beliefs in Tibetan Buddhism and shamanism, which "provide a deeper source for the positive message behind his music" (Noisey).

Despite his focus on traditional Mongolian music, Nature was born in China. He is also well-known for incorporating the horsehead fiddle, an ancient Mongolian string instrument, into his music to give it a completely unique oriental sound.

Based in New York, the musician has even recently completed his Masters in Music at New York University with a concentration in Scoring for Film and Multimedia, plus he's had his acclaimed film work shown in several American film festivals. Talk about multi-talented!

Now, to the album (and what an album it is!). The sounds of traditional Mongolian wind instruments teamed with a modern electronic style makes this album upbeat and energetic, yet spiritual at the same time. Despite 11 of the 12 songs containing very little to no vocals, you can still connect with Nature's music on a deep level.

This is the kind of music you will want to accompany you on an epic journey, and the spiritual, yet modern sound is enough to fill your heart with that wonderful feeling of wanderlust.

From the titles of some of the songs ("Legend On Horseback", "Galloping Steeds", "My Horse, Far In The Distance"), you can sense that Nature has a beautiful affinity with his horse. Many of the tracks start slow and soft, before gradually building in tempo, and you cannot help but imagine a horse galloping across the vast Mongolian landscape.

The song "Golden Horde" is perhaps the most fun and upbeat-sounding song, however my all-time favourite would have to be "My Horse, Far In The Distance", as it heavily features those dreamy and spiritual sounds of wind instruments.

I also love "The Ritual" for its several, distinct and intricate parts, plus it is quite different to the songs before it. The song reaches a climactic point towards the end of the song with a dramatic, drum-like rhythm, only to slow down into a beautiful, soft flute tune.

"Homeland Song (ft. NanDin)" would have to be another favourite of mine, as it is the only song on the album which features vocals with female singer NanDin, as well as accompanying male vocals. It contains paired-back acoustic sounds and overall just has a very 'pretty' sound about it (for lack of a better word!)

All in all, this is one album you need to listen to, so please head to Nature's Bandcamp link to stream it for free, or you can also check out the musician's official website and Facebook page.

.

- By Melanie D

- This review is part of our ongoing Music Review series where Whim is introduced to an array of artists from Independent Music Promotions.