Altering The Timeline, the debut EP from PIQSIQ (pronounced “pilk-silk”), is a haunting collection of otherworldly melodies built on ancient Inuit throat songs. True to throat singing’s traditional form, each track is an improvised plethora inspired by the soundscapes around us and infused with the guttural emotions that deliver the human experience in all it’s pain and glory.
With a style perpetually galvanized by darkness and haunting northern beauty, Tiffany Ayalik (of JUNO-winning duo Quantum Tangle) and Kayley Mackay join forces with Ruby Singh and his arsenal of eclectic rhythms and beats. Together they create an experience that leaves the listener enthralled with the infinity of possible answers to the question “what is the meaning of life.”
The direction for the album sparked during a spontaneous jam session next to the Bow River at the Calgary Folk Music Festival in the summer of 2018. As the sisters throat sang, Ruby beat-boxed and with this first collaboration ideas began to flow. Two short months later the trio found their way back together and converged at Vancouver’s Afterlife Studio. It was here that they began putting together the sounds that would become Altering the Timeline.
The album opens with the ethereal composition, “Akuglugu,” roughly translated from Inuktitut as “then you stir”. With rhythmic throat singing, soaring vocals and Rup’s entrancing beats, tracks “Kuugarjuk,” or in English, “Creek,” and “Ahiani” (“Elsewhere”), bring the sounds of nature to life with a jolt of modernization that inspires the body to move. “Tuktu Strut” is a fast-paced track that defies time, and shows off the sisters’ masterful throat singing skill. Altering The Timeline concludes with “Nuna to Qilak” (“Land to Sky”), an epic track that carries the listener to parts unknown and alters perceptions of possibility and genre.
Out January 11, 2019 Digital Only