Daiqing Tana & Quansheng - Silent Sky

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About Daiqing Tana:
Daichin Tana is an ethnic Mongol singer-songwriter from Qinghai, China. She is the lead singer of the band HAYA.
Daichin Tana's mother was well known locally as a Mongol folk musician; she supported Daichin Tana's interest in music from a young age. Daichin Tana studied vocal performance at Minzu University of China in Beijing.
Daichin Tana joined the band HAYA in 2006. The band produces world music, using Mongolian folk music as its basis.
Daichin Tana provided the lead vocals for HAYA's first album, Wolf Totem, released in 2008. Their second album Silent Sky was released in 2009 with the label Wind Music. A special edition LP vinyl was released in 2015. In 2011, Daichin Tana released another album with HAYA, titled Migration. HAYA released another album in 2014 called Crazy Horse.

About Quansheng:
Zhang Quansheng retains vivid memories of the Mongolian grasslands where he grew up with his nomadic grandparents nearly three decades ago. There was no television or other modern forms of entertainment then, just folk songs and stories passed down from one generation to the next. It is this early life that helped shape his distinctive style, says the singer with a deep love of Mongolian culture.
"I lived on the grasslands till the age of 8, staying in a yurt in spring and summer and spending winters back in a village," says Zhang, now based in Beijing. "I can recall the smell of the animals, the food and the air, which are so different from the smells of a city."
His daily interactions with Mongolian children helped him pick up the local musical instruments, he says, adding he enjoyed watching elderly folk play them.
Zhang moved to downtown Hohhot, capital of Inner Mongolia autonomous region, with his parents when he was 8. There he studied Putonghua, listened to modern music, and was put through violin training. But the formal music school to which he applied had no violin department. They only offered classes in matouqin, or horse-headed fiddle, a typical Mongolian bowed stringed instrument.
So young Zhang began his formal training on an instrument he was already very familiar with.
The versatile singer-songwriter, regarded as the nation's best player of the horse-headed fiddle, graduated from the music department of the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing in 1991, where he was instrumental in introducing a new major in the study of the horse-headed fiddle.
He also brought the traditional Mongolian instrument to world notice with his group, Haya, which he founded in 2006.
"I love the unrestrained sound produced by the fiddle. It reminds me of a wild horse running on the grasslands," he says. "But I have been influenced by other genres such as rock and classical, as well."
Haya's other members also come from Inner Mongolia. There's the percussionist Bao Yin who is also adept at hoomii, the distinctive Mongolian "throat singing", guitarist Xi Bo, and leading vocalist Daiqing Tana, all of whom have made Haya a unique music group in China.
Every song features ancient ritualistic chanting, rooted in the rich and profound musical heritage of Mongolia. The lyrics are suffused with imagery from nature, and tell stories about the place and the songwriter's reflections on life.
The band's music is complemented by its members' exotic appearance - in their ethnic clothing, braids and accessories.