DAY 21 - Olonkho recordings

The temperature is getting warmer, we arrived the -25°C and from the originally planed 4 layer system of clothes, we only use two anymore. I can't believe we are still in Sibiria. But today we have the appointment with one Olonkho singer Vladimir Dimitriewitch Danilov and Iwan Alexandrowitch Egorov. We met them both in the Dorm Atchi the day before and told them that I want to record the Olonkho singing.

Epos of Yakut people, is sang by a men like storytelling. It was used also for entertaining the family when the Yakutians lived more noth and the days were short. This singing can take hours. A special quality which seperates the singers is the way of telling the story and breathing.

So we went to their home, very close to our dormitory and were friendly welcome by both of them. Iwan showed us video recordings from the Ysyakh festivals from the last years, switched to recordings when he was fighting for Yakut people's right in front of Jelzin and switched again to Ysakh, switched to him as a young man explaining the yakut-culture. We got dizzy but it was very interesting to see this man and how he fought for the yakutian rights. Finally he founded the Yakut society and also worked on the creation of this "Dorm Atschi" a cultural meeting point to celebrate customs. While Iwan was explaining (always changing the cassettes by taking one after the other) Vladimir dressed up his Yakut Olonkho singers dress.

We need to please the the god of the room and of Olonkho by singing and starting a little fire in direction east. Vladimir did it at the oven in the kitchen, afterwards we went back to the living room and he was singing one of his famous alliteration poems - the letter "T", then he started to sing very passionate the Olonkho singing. For at least 2 hours with explainations in between.
Before we left he gave both of us a book about his alliterations and sang the one with the first letter "S".

It was amazing to hear all this sound, if I were a kid sitting at the fireplace before going to bed, and grandpa would come for singing the story about the upper, the middle and the under world, with all heros. I would be probably caught. We can't understand Yakut, so we joined the sound and let work our imagination.


Tuyara gave me a call for the next Olonkho appointment the next day at 10 in the morning in the "Dorm Atschi", Thomas can't join for translation, so I will do it like usual. Fingers, Hands, moving hips and waving eye-bows. We'll see.