An outsized polar bear skull marks the centre of the stage, around which Tanya Tagaq’s new stage production, Split Tooth: Saputjiji, entwines, entropies and envelopes. Bear witness. Futurism, ritual, land and voice fuse in this unprecedented live presentation that redefines performance art with its elements of experimental theatre, concert and symbolistic staging. Sourced in Tagaq’s award-winning novel, Split Tooth, songs from her newest album, Saputjiji, and imagery from deep in her psyche, Split Tooth: Saputjiji is a  boundary-dissolving amalgam of choreography and improvisation that has never been done before (or again).

Less an adaptation than an expansion of Tagaq’s creative universe, on stage Split Tooth: Saputjiji is a rich and raw conversation between forms. Listen up. In this Inuit Matrix, Tagaq builds a dream world where the Txalaparte speaks Inuktitut, the centuries between traditional (qilaat, katajjaq) and avant (cello, percussion) dissolve; human and animal bones correspond on a cellular level. Set in the High Arctic with mesmerizing circumpolar landscapes, Split Tooth: Saputjiji’s multi-media, heavy metal approach to stage production is visceral and cyclonic.

The cast of Split Tooth: Saputjiji, led by renowned vocalist/composer/author Tanya Tagaq, also showcases a circle of close collaborators including Inuit and Greenlandic singers Celina Kalluk, Nancy Mike and VARNA GL, innovative cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, award-winning percussionist Jean Martin, and Txalaparta masters Felipe and Naia Ugarte.

"Tongues is unflinching in its attacks on the top-down racism that First Nations people contend with, with tracks like “Colonizer” and “Teeth Agape” forcing non-indigenous audiences to face the realities of repression and subjugation over countless generations."

Bandcamp

Biography:

• Tanya Tagaq Bio (.docx)

Technical Rider:

• Tanya Tagaq - Tech Rider (PDF)

The Inuk experimental musician joins landscape, culture and resistance.” Pitchfork

"She taps into humanity's most naked emotions and forces them into the spotlight... the best musical performance any of us had ever seen." Vice Music

"Tagaq goes to places in her music that few others dare to tread." Pitchfork

Selected Press:

"Tagaq projects sounds that carry the imprint of the body’s secret contours and recesses, delving far beyond personal utterance, out beyond human identity, to summon voices from the flesh cavity haunts of animal spirits and primal energies."

The Wire

"Her voice flickers like a sonic candle, rising and fading with the music. It becomes guttural as Tagaq drops to her knees, and she chitters high and desperate as she flutters her hands about her face. She sings no discernible words - it's as if she were speaking in tongues... Her work is her way of probing that interconnectedness and providing her viewers with the relief of communion."

The Los Angeles Times

"To witness Tanya Tagaq perform live is to experience a species of primal/visceral/guttural channeling-cum-exorcism... an altogether new form."

The Toronto Star

"Fiercely contemporary... Recalling animal noises and various other nature sounds, she was a dynamo, delivering a sort of gothic sound art while she stalked the small basement stage with feral energy."

The New York Times

“The heart of Tagaq's power as an artist is in her voice, and not just due to her mastery of vocal variation. Her enunciation of concise poetry over understated rhythms is an aural experience which transcends the craft of spoken word. As she speaks her truth, she does so without stuttering, hesitating only to come up — deftly and deliberately — for air.”

Exclaim!