Altering The Timeline, the debut release from PIQSIQ (pronounced “pilk-silk”), is a haunting five-song 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.
Altering The Timeline is available now on Bandcamp, and will be officially released January 25 on Coax Records.
With a style perpetually galvanized by darkness and haunting northern beauty, Tiffany Ayalik (of JUNO-winning duo Quantum Tangle) and her sister Kayley Mackay join forces with Ruby Singh and his arsenal of eclectic rhythms and beats to form PIQSIQ. Together they create an experience that leaves the listener enthralled with the infinite possible answers to the question “what is the meaning of life?”
The project was sparked during a spontaneous jam session next to the Bow River at 2018 the Calgary Folk Music Festival. As the sisters throat sang, Ruby beat-boxed and ideas began to flow from there. Two short months later, the trio converged at Vancouver’s Afterlife Studio where they put together the sounds that would became Altering the Timeline.
Opening track “Akuglugu” — roughly translated from Inuktitut as “then you stir” — can be heard now at Roots Music Canada, and watch the album trailer below.