Ulaan Enji
- 1Zuud04:33
- 2Taivshral03:07
- 3Duulnaa03:02
- 4Temeen Deerees Naran Oirhon03:42
- 5Vogl04:20
- 6Ulaan03:30
- 7Libelle02:38
- 8Picture / Three Shadows05:21
- 9Encanto01:33
- 10Uzegdel04:25
Info for Ulaan
Boundary-busting vocalist combines traditional Mongolian singing, global rhythms and deep jazz infusions on second album of singular world-spanning cross-fertilisations.
Following up on her amazing 2021 album Ursgal, Mongolian singer Enji Erkhem dives further inward on her latest offering on Squama Recordings. Filled with spoken monologues, soaring melodies, melancholic dreams, and personal stories, Ulaan is a deeply introspective journey through Enji’s past, present, and future lives as she forges a singular musical path far from home. “I have to remember who I am,” she says, explaining her choice of spoken monologue in the album’s opening moments. “It empowers me.”
Enji’s journey so far has been characterized by change. Born in Ulaanbaatar to a working-class family, she originally intended to become a music teacher before a chance audition for the Goethe Institute led her to a career as a jazz soloist. After moving to Munich, a connection with Squama Recordings’ Martin Brugger sent her down another path into composition and writing. “I never write music. I can’t do it,” she had originally said to Brugger. On her latest full-length album Ulaan, Enji continues her seemingly exponential growth as she steps into a bandleader position, bringing together an international quintet featuring her original trio along with two renowned Brazilian musicians: jazz drummer Mariá Portugal and experimental clarinet player Joana Queiroz.
The sound of the group is both otherworldly and familiar. Mongolian folk melodies meet subtle Latin rhythms. Virtuosic clarinet weaves through delicate beds of jazz harmony. Khalkha spoken word dances over bowed string bass. With no exaggeration, the music is quite unlike anything we’ve heard before and seems to be exploring uncharted territory — a sort of borderless contemporary jazz with deep roots in traditional music.
Enkhjargal Erkhembayar, vocals
Mariá Portugal, drums
Joana Queiroz, clarinet, bass clarinet
Paul Brändle, guitar
Munguntovch Tsolmonbayar, bass
Matthias Lindermayr, trumpet (track 2)
Enkhjargal Erkhembayar
was born in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. Although none of her family members were musicians, she learned the traditions of Mongolian folk song and dance from a young age and later also the art of the more than thousand-year-old traditional "Urtiin Duu" (Long Song), which she still regards as an important part of her cultural heritage considered.
After a successful bachelor's degree in music education at the State University of Mongolia (SUIS), she was accepted into the "Goethe-Musiklabor Ulan Bator" (GMUB) project in 2014, which is the very first project for jazz music in her homeland and originated from an excellence project of the Goethe Institute and was founded by Professor h.c. Martin Zenker is headed. Through the project, she got to know jazz music and the opportunity to meet and learn from well-known teachers from all over the world. She fell in love with this music from then on and found her own voice in jazz, such a soulful beauty of music that comes naturally from the heart.
In 2015, Enkhjargal made his debut in the first big band tour in Mongolia's history, together with the GMUB Big Band led by the renowned big band leader Michael Lutzeier.
In 2016 she recorded her first album 'ENJI - Mongolian Song' in Munich, together with drum legend Billy Hart, Professor Johannes Enders on saxophone, Paul Kirby on piano and Martin Zenker on bass. She worked intensively on the music of the Mongolian composer Gonchigsumlaa Sembe. The album was released on ENJA Records in 2017.
In 2016 she was invited with her band to the renowned Koktebel Jazz Festival, where she delighted the audience.
Enkhjargal has been studying at the Munich University of Music and Theater since 2018. She completed her master's degree in jazz singing in February 2020 with top marks.
During her studies, she was involved in numerous engagements, including to South Korea, where she was a guest on behalf of the Goethe Institute, or to South Africa, where she performed with Kevin Gibson and Professor Andrew Lilley, among others. With her own band she played on numerous stages in Europe and abroad.
She currently leads her own band as a singer, composer and arranger, with which she also received the Jazz Promotion Prize 2020 from the Konzertgesellschaft München e.V. In addition, together with the two Mongolian singers, she leads her vocal ensemble Enji's Sisters, which also recorded its debut album in Ulaanbaatar in February 2020.
In the summer semester of 2020, Enkhjargal began her second master’s degree at the HMT Munich in jazz pedagogy, because teaching music is a matter close to her heart. During this time she also supervises the exchange program between the HMT Munich and the State Conservatory of Mongolia as a tutor, which is funded by the DAAD as part of the ISAP partnership.
This album contains no booklet.