Mongolian fusion band ensures beat goes on

"It felt like going back to our younger days. We slept in yurts, cooked together and played music until midnight. It was great," says Baolude, another of Hanggai's founding members and khun tovshuur player, adding that the band members live in different parts of the country, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Qinghai province and Inner Mongolia, which made the experience of living together very special.

They recorded some materials, which will be used in the band's upcoming album, according to Ilchi, who adds that the album will be recorded this year and released next year.

"In the past, we tried to highlight in our music ethnic Mongolian elements, but this time we focus on portraying human emotions, which is very important and meaningful, especially after the pandemic," says Baolude, who was born and raised in a nomadic family on the Ordos grassland. His family members all play ethnic Mongolian musical instruments, sing and dance, including his father, who is a professional dancer in a local art troupe.

As a teenager, Baolude fell in love with rock music and founded his own band in high school. Later, he came to Beijing and met Ilchi. Together, they founded Hanggai in 2004. The band's name in Mongolian refers to a scenic place with beautiful pastures, mountains and rivers. To add more colors to their sounds, Ilchi, Baolude and the band went to study khoomei (a throat-singing technique), with Odsuren — an ethnic Mongolian master of the art form, who launched a training program in Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia. Khoomei is a style of singing in which a single performer produces a diversified harmony of multiple voice parts.

A year later, Baolude left the band and pursued his own music ideas. In 2018, Ilchi called his old friend Baolude, inviting him to join in the band's sixth studio album, Big Band Brass, which marked the return of Baolude. The album featured 12 songs, including two written by Baolude — Dinjid Bay and Achnatherum Splendens in the North, based on popular folk songs in Ordos, portraying the beauty of the landscape there.