With the last stretch of the year upon us, we’re already eagerly looking forward to 2022 with the recent announcement of a new album from Tanya Tagaq. She released an EP, Toothsayer, in 2019, but the new album is her first full-length since 2016’s Retribution, which was one of our 15 Picks of the 2016 and remains an active favourite. Entitled Tongues, Tagaq’s new album arrives on March 11th through Six Shooter Records and was produced by Saul Williams and mixed by Gonjasufi. As with previous efforts, the immensely talented Inuit throat singer and composer taps on environmental and human rights issues, specificialy the struggle for Aboriginal rights in Canada. Featuring excerpts from her book Split Tooth, the album “speaks not to horrors and crisis”, as the label describes, “but directly of these things.” It adds that Tongues “is the soundtrack of righteous taking-back of personhood and power. It is a triumph of strength and intelligence that invites the listener to join her in a personal victory over colonization, over those who take without consent.”

The powerful and poignant title track serves as a phenomenal taste of what Tagaq has in store for us. The track is offered with a video directed by Caitlin Veitch and with 3D Animation by Omar Rivero (Driftnote).