"10am at the Dorm Atschi was the information I had. I'll meet a man who will sing Olonkho, and I should be able to record. this sounds perfect.
Thomas had an appointment that day, so I wouldn't have anyone bring for a translation from russian to german or english. I thought it must be possible, it worked once in Hokkaido too, with the Ainu people, so it should work here as well. I went there by bus and was 5 minutes too early. It was still a bit dark outside and windy. I entered and found a white haired man with glasses who welcome me in russian. Handshake. He looked behind me and was asking something and included the name Thomas. I am sure he was asking for Thomas to translate, I tried to convince him by gestures, mimik and a more broken english than usual that Thomas won't come, but he should not worry. He did. Then a chain reaction was started. He is professor in the University for the cultural belongings of Yakut people, teaching and doing research. He was talking to me, but I couldn't understand but also tried to calm him down, it's only a recording we can understand each other somehow, but he organized the best Olonkho singer, which I got to know later on, and he took a day off, and ... couple more things.
After he gave me an introduction about Olonkho ( I hope I got the meaning of his saying), and some phone calls from him and me to Tuyara, he introduced a men, who was dressed up and started to sing immediately, for the next 30 Minutes. Another man came during this time and was sitting behind me inside the round (tent-shaped room).
The second man started to sing directly after the first Olonkho sinnger stopped. Another 45 minutes. I was holding the microphone and soaked up the sound.
After he finished, the Professor came again with a translator who was organized and skipped working to help out for translating.
How do you know about Olonkho?
Who send you here?
What art are you doing and who is the sponsor?
Where is my camera team?
.......
A lot of questions, all were answered and finally we got together for a final group-pictures. The worries from the beginning were gone. Wonderful singing, the Shaman woman gave me a yakut headband and put her finger on my forehead. I hope she did something good on me.
The rest of day I tried to discover the city while taking bus randomly and found my self in very rural and industrial areas. I boughht some mini-micro screw-drivers in hope to fix one of my microphones.
And exciting day with happy exhausting end at the kitchen with Andre, Rebecca and Sakiko.
