Sibérie 3: Kolyma – Songs of Nature and Animals

Chukchi folk music is the traditional music of the Chukchi (Luoravetlan) people from the Chukotka Peninsula in the Russian Far East. It is an oral, community-centered art that binds ritual, storytelling, dance, and everyday work into a single musical continuum. The sound world emphasizes strong, steady pulse from a large frame drum, unison or lightly heterophonic group singing, and narrow-range melodies shaped by iterative phrases and vocables. Songs often imitate natural sounds and animals, reflect seacoast and tundra lifeways, and address spirits, ancestors, and the environment. Performance typically combines song, drum, and dance in a shared space (traditionally a yaranga tent), with stamping steps and gesture motifs closely tied to the text and narrative.