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Tanya Tagaq’s Tongues is reimagined in her first remix collection, Tongues North Star Remixes, which was released on July 22, 2022. With avant, classical, electronic and experimental selections, the album expands Tagaq’s fearsome and futuristic musical universe into new dimensions.
Tongues North Star Remixes spans remixes by Tagaq’s many stage, studio and video collaborators including Kronos Quartet, Ash Koosha, Daedelus, The Halluci Nation, Chad Van Gaalen and July Talk (directors of the most recent video for “Colonizer,” from Tongues). The project also features first-time collaborators Backxwash and Dave Parley.
Tagaq introduces the collection with two songs out today. Start with Daedelus’ jittery braindance remix of title track “Tongues,” which channels the original’s fury in a hypnotic, Newton’s Cradle exchange. Tagaq and Daedelus are currently collaborating on a new piece for 360° immersive video project ARCTIC XR, which will be shown at La Biennale di Venezia and Nuit Blanche in 2022.
Paola Prestini’s “In Me” is a sinuous piece performed with Jeffrey Zeigler on solo cello and San Francisco’s New Century Chamber Orchestra. Intertwined strings echo and respond to Tagaq’s vocals, a sonic expression of cultural sovereignty. “In Me” is the result of a long and careful process, and is the two composers’ explicit statement against cultural appropriation in classical and avant music.
Tongues, recently Polaris Music Prize Long Listed alongside albums by remix contributors The Halluci Nation and Backxwash, was produced by Saul Williams and Gonjasufi and released in January to widespread acclaim. With passages and poems drawn from Tagaq’s bestselling novel Split Tooth, recently recommended by Elliot Page in Esquire as “one of the best things I’ve ever read,” Tongues is Tagaq at her most direct and specific.
