INUVIK
When Kathleen Merritt and Marie Belleau stand face to face, the results are breathtaking.

Kathleen Merritt of the Kuluvak throatsinging duo performs at the Great Northern Arts Festival July 16. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo

The two women form the Kuluvak throatsinging duo. They performed July 16 at the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex to a full house as part of the Great Northern Arts Festival.

While much of their material is focused on a traditional style, they also incorporate some modern forms of music.

"We've been performing together for less than a year, I'd say," said Belleau.

The Iqaluit resident, who has just begun a legal career, said between them they have many years of throatsinging performance experience.

"We've moved to the same town, and since we've both been there, we've been performing together."

Merritt has been the constant in various permutations of Kuluvak, but it looks as if the current incarnation might have some staying power.

"I started this when I moved back home," said Belleau, who was raised in Iqaluit but left to pursue her education in Quebec. "I was there for quite a few years, but when I finished my first undergrad (degree) I moved back home."

"I said I'm here full-time and thought I might as well try to learn. Before that, I never thought I'd be able to throatsing one day. When I was younger and would see it on the rare occasion, it looked difficult and was a little bit intimidating but I thought I can try.

"It was baby steps," Belleau continued. "I would learn through friends and family, and try to develop the sounds and practice my throatsinging voice, and slowly I learned. From there, I've been performing. I'm still learning, and you always learn new things while throatsinging."

Throatsinging wasn't a common activity as she was growing up, Belleau said. She recalled only two people who performed the ancient art.

"They're the only ones I remember, and all across the North, it was getting kind of lost," she said. "It's slowly coming back, and I'm very happy to know it, to teach it, and to sort of be part of a revival of it because it would be such a shame to have it disappear.

"It's quite intimate. Sometimes we do it apart but it doesn't feel right, because it's such a rhythmic art," Belleau continued. "We try to help each other and watch each others rhythm. It almost always ends in a laugh. Originally throatsinging was a competition."

Throatsinging was more a traditional activity in some regions than others, particularly in the Eastern Arctic, Belleau said. It's not as common in the Western Arctic.

"It's more of a central Nunavut and Northern Quebec thing," she said. "We do modify it, though. And sometimes we blend songs together, although the basis is very traditional."

"It's very unique, and sometimes it's hypnotic for us. Sometimes we get lost in the song and I forget what I'm singing and what's she's singing."

On July 17, Nelson Tagoona, a throatsinger from Baker Lake in Nunavut, treated spectators to another version of throatsinging. He called his brand "throat-boxing," which is a mixture of traditional throatsinging techniques merged with beat-boxing.

Merrit, the other half of Kuluvak, performed with him and the result was a marvellous mixture of the old and the new.