Melding With Mountains: A Voice Between Two Worlds
Debut Solo A Cappella Single & MV Release — Out Now!
Released Friday, November 20, 2026
A low, resonant voice emerges, its shifting harmonics suggesting distant thunder rolling through an expansive mountain valley. There are no instruments, no backing vocals, no elaborate arrangements.
Just one voice, and the mountains.
On Melding With Mountains (《与山相融》), Living Mythologies' first solo a cappella music video release, Andy Bauer explores the expressive possibilities of kargyraa, the deeply resonant Tuvan tradition of throat singing. Working with original vocal phrases and unconventional harmonic textures, he creates a contemporary musical work set against the imposing peaks of southwestern Colorado.
The performance is intimate yet expansive, reaching toward familiar human desires for connection, protection, and belonging within a world far greater than ourselves.
Some sounds resist description. Experience the full force and subtlety of Melding With Mountains in the official music video below.
Did you notice certain details in this singing?
THREE MOMENTS THAT REVEAL ANOTHER WORLD OF SOUND:
Some of the most remarkable details in Melding With Mountains pass in seconds. These three moments invite closer listening—not only to what the human voice can produce, but to how Bauer shapes its extraordinary harmonic possibilities.
00:00–00:05 | THE FALL — WHEN THE GROUND DISAPPEARS
Bauer calls it “The Fall.”
Within the first five seconds, the voice plunges into an astonishing depth of resonance while slightly dropping pitch, creating the sensation of falling out of the familiar world and into another sonic dimension.
There is no gradual introduction, no warning, no musical handrail. The sound seems to open beneath you.
For an instant, gravity itself feels negotiable.
00:35–00:38 | THE "SIXTH" HARMONIC — A VOICE HIDDEN IN PLAIN HEARING
Listen closely between 0:35 and 0:38.
Rising from the deep fundamental resonance of kargyraa, what Bauer identifies as the sixth harmonic emerges with striking clarity—a fleeting upper voice seemingly suspended within the lower one.
Early in Bauer's studies, the renowned Tuvan musician Bady-Dorju Ondar encouraged him to explore this harmonic, drawing attention to its use by earlier generations of kargyraa singers. Here, that early encouragement finds expression in just three remarkable seconds.
A sound within a sound. A voice revealing another dimension of itself.
FINAL 10 SECONDS | THE THIRD DIMENSION — AN ECHO OF THE TSUUR
In the closing ten seconds, a new dimension of sound emerges. Through carefully sculpted post-production, mixing artist Chingis Sorju introduces a richly layered harmonic texture that extends the solitary voice beyond its original resonance.
The effect recalls the elusive, interwoven timbres of the tsuur, a traditional Inner Asian flute fashioned from mandalay grass growing along the shores of Kanas Lake, deep in Central Asia. Rather than directly imitating the instrument, Sorju's sound design evokes something of its distinctive tonal complexity, creating an unexpected dialogue between the human voice and an ancient instrumental tradition.
What began as a single unaccompanied voice unfolds into a more intricate sonic architecture, revealing new possibilities in its final moments.
One voice. Multiple harmonic worlds.
Cultural and Musical Backstory
For Bauer, kargyraa has never been merely a matter of vocal technique. His fieldwork in western Tuva (2011–2023) examines how musical knowledge develops through friendship, hospitality, shared journeys, and sustained engagement with the natural world.
His 2026 study, Before Knowledge: Friendship, Hospitality, and Khoomei-Sygyt-Kargyraa in Western Tuva, draws on relationships with the Opei, Khertek, Sevek, and Chambal families. Through kinship, travel, and everyday encounters with mountains, rivers, animals, and sacred places, these experiences reveal how musical traditions remain inseparable from the environments and communities that sustain them.
For the late Andrei Opei, a respected Tuvan musician and longtime friend of Bauer, developing an original voice within the kargyraa tradition is a considerable achievement.
"Andy created his own style of kargyraa, very rich in sound, and that's hard to do."
— Andrei Opei, during a musical exchange in Teeli, Tuva, 2016.
His assessment points to something central to Melding With Mountains: Bauer is not seeking to reproduce an established performer's sound. Instead, years of musical encounters have informed an expressive language recognizably his own.
Before a voice can enter into conversation with the world, someone must learn to listen.
When the Yaks Stopped to Listen
In the remote village of Kyzyl-Khaya, southwestern Tuva, Bauer spent hours with Sevek Artur Takashovich, brother of the late kargyraa master Aldyn-ool Sevek. Surrounded by family photographs, their conversations moved freely between music, herding, hunting, and the surrounding landscape.
Artur recalled that his brother would sing dag kargyraazy, or mountain kargyraa, when approaching yak herds. Another relative had observed that the animals would stop, grow quiet, and appear to listen.
The story was not presented as an extraordinary occurrence. Within the family's understanding of the tradition, music belonged naturally to a world of relationships between people, animals, and the land.
For Bauer, the encounter challenged the idea of kargyraa as simply an exceptional vocal technique. It suggested something more fundamental: a lifetime of listening to the world before attempting to give that experience a voice.
Source: Sevek Artur Takashovich's recollection, paraphrased from Bauer's Before Knowledge (2026).
Some would argue that kargyraa is a language unto itself, with its own syntax and grammar. The greater one's command of these elements, the richer the possibilities for musical expression. Yet kargyraa also has a long tradition of being performed with lyrics, allowing its distinctive vocal techniques to carry both musical meaning and sung poetry.
For his debut solo a cappella release, however, Bauer makes a deliberate choice: to dispense with words entirely, allowing breath, resonance, and the shifting architecture of harmonics to become the composition's expressive language.
His approach finds an intriguing parallel in Artur's recollections, where kargyraa emerges not merely as a vehicle for human language, but as a form of musical expression capable of reaching into the surrounding world of animals and landscapes.
Two Mountain Worlds
Thousands of miles separate western Tuva from Colorado's San Juan Mountains. Melding With Mountains brings these distinct landscapes into an unexpected musical conversation.
Drawing on the recordings of Aldyn-ool Sevek, the artistry of Kaigal-ool Khovalyg, and his own experiences among Tuvan musicians, Bauer develops a contemporary expression rather than attempting to reconstruct a traditional performance.
Without accompaniment, every breath, overtone, and subtle change in resonance becomes part of the composition. The listener hears not only the extraordinary range of the human voice, but also the physical effort and control behind it.
Its power comes not from accumulation, but from subtraction.
Colorado’s San Juan Mountains—a landscape bearing a striking resemblance to the remote Mongun-Taiga region of southwestern Tuva. Photography © Intarsia Media Productions, Inc.
Explore the Tradition from the Inside
Reflecting on the Release of Melding with Mountains
Living Mythologies' debut single, Along the Tarim, brought together musicians, languages, and instruments across cultural boundaries.
Melding With Mountains heads in the opposite direction. Everything is stripped away until a single unaccompanied voice carries the composition.
Together, the two releases reveal an ambitious musical project unconstrained by a single approach to cross-cultural collaboration. Where one builds its sound through collective performance, the other explores what an individual voice can achieve with nothing to support or conceal it.
One voice. No instruments. An entire world of sound.
The TikTok video above features an excerpt of raw, unedited behind-the-scenes footage captured on location during the filming of Melding With Mountains in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains in October 2026.
Beyond the Voice: A Poetic Companion
The questions raised by Melding With Mountains—our relationship with the natural world, our sense of belonging, and the forces that connect us to the earth—find another form of expression in the forthcoming Living Mythologies composition Show Us To Our Mirth.
Presented here in nine languages, its poetry offers a complementary perspective: where Melding With Mountains explores these themes through the unaccompanied human voice, Show Us To Our Mirth gives them words.
Show Us To Our Mirth
Walk us down the path…
Walk us through the valley…
Lead us toward the birth…
Show us to our mirth…
Let all our dreams hold this Earth…
*Lyrics from the forthcoming Living Mythologies composition “Show Us To Our Mirth.”
Full Translations
CHINESE《地之力》
By: Mergen Shi
带我们走在路上……
带我们穿过山谷……
带领我们走向新生……
向我们展示我们的欢乐……
让我们的梦想怀抱着这个地球
JAPANESE 『大地の力』
By: Ji Geer
曲がりくねった小道を、私たちを導いてください……
谷を越えて、私たちを導いてください……
生命の始まりへと、私たちを導いてください……
尽きることのない喜びの源を、私たちに見せてください……
そして、私たちの輝く夢が、この大地を支えますように……
TUVAN «Черниӊ күжү»
By: Мария Кужугет
Кокпа оруктап бисти эрттир…
Хову кежир бисти үде…
Эгезинче бисти чедир…
Эгээртинмес өөрүшкүнүӊ эге дөзүн биске көргүс…
Эчис чырык күзеливис шак бо Черни ээлеп алзын…
UYGHUR «يەرنىڭ كۈچى»
By M.E.
بىزنى ئەگرى-بۈگرى يولدىن باشلاپ ئۆتكىن…
بىزنى ۋادىدىن ئۆتكۈزۈپ يول باشلىغىن…
بىزنى ھاياتنىڭ باشلىنىشىغا يېتەكلە…
بىزگە تۈگىمەس خۇشاللىقنىڭ مەنبەسىنى كۆرسەت…
پارلاق ئارزۇلىرىمىز بۇ زېمىننى تىرەپ تۇرسۇن...
UZBEK «Yerning qudrati»
By: Ji Geer
Bizni egri-bugri so‘qmoqdan boshlab o‘t…
Bizni vodiy bo‘ylab yetakla…
Bizni hayotning boshlanishiga olib bor…
Bizga tuganmas quvonch manbaini ko‘rsat…
Va porloq orzularimiz shu Yerni asrab tursin…
RUSSIAN «Удержание Земли»
By: Prokhor Smashnikov
Проведи нас по тропе...
Чрез долину проведи нас...
Ко рождению веди...
Дай узреть нам источник неиссякаемой радости...
И пускай наши мечты держат эту Землю...
VIETNAMESE (Giữ trái đất này)
By: Tran Nguyen
Đưa chúng tôi đi trên con đường…
Đi cùng chúng tôi qua thung lũng…
Dẫn dắt chúng tôi đến với sự ra đời…
Cho chúng tôi xem tấm gương của chúng tôi…
Hãy để tất cả những giấc mơ của chúng ta nắm giữ Trái đất này…
Thai 《พลังแห่งผืนดิน》
By: Ji Geer
โปรดนำทางเราผ่านเส้นทางอันคดเคี้ยว…
โปรดพาเราข้ามผ่านหุบเขา…
โปรดนำเรากลับไปสู่จุดกำเนิดแห่งชีวิต…
โปรดให้เราได้เห็นต้นธารแห่งความปีติที่ไม่มีวันเหือดแห้ง…
และขอให้ความฝันอันเจิดจ้าของเราค้ำจุนผืนโลกใบนี้ไว้…
Production Credits
Music Video Production
Video Direction: Intarsia Media Productions, Inc.
Music Video Producer: Intarsia Media Productions, Inc.
Directors of Photography: Intarsia Media Productions, Inc.
Camera Operators: Intarsia Media Productions, Inc.
Studio Producer: Intarsia Media Productions, Inc.
Gaffer: Mr. Sun.
Costume Design & Wardrobe: Tran Phuong Nguyen
Makeup: Intarsia Media Productions, Inc.
On-Screen Performers: Andy Bauer, Lam Khanh & Voi Linh
Music Video Post-Production
Video Editing: Intarsia Media Productions, Inc.
Color Grading: Intarsia Media Productions, Inc.
Music Production
Music Producer: Intarsia Media Productions, Inc.
Lead Vocals (Kargyraa): Andy Bauer
Audio Post-Production
Mixing Artist: Chingis Sorju
Mixing Engineer: Misha Oshkanov
Mastering Engineer: Gavin Tempany
Living Mythologies — Melding with Mountains
Debut Solo A Cappella Single & MV Out Now! — Friday, November 20, 2026
Listen on streaming platforms:
Where is the mountain within YOU? ⛰️
#LivingMythologiesUniverse #神话接力宇宙 #LivingMythologies #MeldingWithMountains #AndyBauer #TuvanMusic #Kargyraa #ThroatSinging #与山相融 #图瓦音乐 #神话接力 #低音呼麦
"Natural voices. Connecting all."
Living Mythologies
∞
リビング・ミソロジース
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Дириг Тоолдар
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神话接力
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Живыe Мифологии
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ھايات ئەپسانىلىرى
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