arts

12 THE MONGOL MESSENGER

No.06-07 (1231, 1232) 700 tug. Friday, February 13, 2015

ARTS COUNCIL OF MONGOLIA

First Swiss-Mongolian
music album released

Members of the Swiss-Mongolian Bileg Ethno Jazz Band and the Heinrich Kaenzig Quintet band

he Arts Council of Mongolia

is proud to co-present the first
Swiss-Mongolian joint music
album AGULA, featuring Arga
Bileg Ethno Jazz Band and
Heinrich Kaenzig Quintet in
cooperation with the Swiss Agency for
Development and Cooperation in Mongolia
and Musiques Suisses.
The name AGULA is derived from the
old Mongolian word for mountain. The A
stands for the Swiss Alps and Mongolias
Altai Mountain Range. AGULA is part of
a larger music project that celebrates the
50th anniversary of the establishment of
diplomatic relations between Switzerland
and Mongolia and the 10th anniversary of
the Swiss Cooperation Office in Ulaanbaatar.
The project aims to promote cultural
exchange, cross-cultural understanding,
and greater partnership between the two

countries, their people and artists, and

to continue the half-century tradition of
cooperation and bilateral relations.
Relations between Switzerland and
Mongolia date back to the second half of
the 1950s, when the first Swiss companies
established trade relations. Switzerland
was Mongolias first non-socialist trading
partner. They officially recognized the
Democratic Republic of Mongolia on May
20, 1964, although contacts between Bern
and Ulaanbaatar remained modest until the
end of the socialist era. In the last decade,
through the work of the Swiss Development
Cooperation
Agency
in
Mongolia,
Switzerland has invested in arts and culture
in Mongolia by supporting such projects as
the theatrical production Mermaid by the
Puppet Theater of Mongolia and the Trash
is not Trash environmental education
project of Arts Council of Mongolia.
AGULA includes ten new compositions
by two leading music talents, Heinrich
Kaenzig and Purevsukh Tyeliman, performed
by two leading groups from each country: the
Heinrich Kaenzig Quintet from Switzerland
and the Arga Bileg Ethno Jazz Band from
Mongolia. The two music groups joined
forces to create a new musical production
and held two concerts at the State Opera and
Ballet Theatre on May 29 and 30, 2014. The
lead artists then jointly recorded AGULA
at the White Arch Studios in Ulaanbaatar.
The album is being released in partnership
with the Swiss label, Musiques Suisses, and
was recently launched at a joint concert at
Moods Jazz Club in Zurich. The launch

will be followed by a tour of five cities in

Switzerland.
According to Arga Bileg band leader

arts
council
of mongolia
GANTULGA Ganbat, AGULA is a true
musical collaboration of Mongolian and
Swiss musicians coming together and
contributing equally from both sides.
The album is dedicated to our half
century of relations that we carried out through
cross cultural exchange and understanding.
I devoted my new composition Agula to
this partnership and I wanted to express
the intellectual and the artistic similarities
and yet the difference between Mongolia
and Switzerland. Because both countries
share similar geographical features of high
mountains, the Altai Mountains and the
Alps, and both draw artistic inspiration from
these natural features. We are different in
many other ways and yet we were able to
establish a strong friendship. My admiration
of this bond can be heard from the music
of Friends and Air Train. In addition,
Heinrich Kaenzig and I have exchanged preexisting work of ours and rearranged them
for this album. In the two new arrangements,
I wanted to enrich the music that Heinrich
created with Mongolian melody, expression,
and ways that our music can be interwoven
with each other, he said.
The artistic exchange celebrates five
decades of cooperation between the two
countries in development, economics,
education, and culture. Arts Council of
Mongolia believes the album will greatly
contribute to the promotion of our cultures
and our music throughout the world. We hope
you will enjoy these musical masterpieces
that have been inspired by our mountains,
our cultures, our people, and our traditions.

The music groups joined forces and held two concerts at the State Opera and Ballet Theater in 2014

Mongolian
Artist-inResidence
In January 2015, the Arts Council of
Mongolia (ACM) and the Foundation for
SustainableDevelopment in Mountain Regions
(FDDM) announced the SMArt (Sustainable
Mountain Art)artist-in-residence program targeting
professional photographers and media artists.
The SMArtprogram was established with the
goal of strengthening understanding of global
issues inmountain regions among decision
makers and promoting intercultural exchange and
dialoguebetween artists and audiences around the
challenges of mountain regions. ACM received
14applications in total, and the selection jury
consisted of delegates from FDDM, SMArt
andAssociation Artbelward.
After considering all candidates, the jury
has selected MaralguaBadarch as the artist-inresidence to reside in Canton Valais, an alpine
region of Switzerland,from March-May, 2015.
Maralgua is a talented Mongolian artist whose
diverse and powerful work touches on clear
linksbetween nature and people.
The jury believes that Maralgua is capable of
producing creativelycharged works which have
the ability to raise awareness of global climate issues andchallenges. Maralgua will share her experiences upon
returning to Mongolia.

Mongolian participant
of SMARt- photographer
Maralgua.B

Arts Council of Mongolia, Delta Foundation Center, IV floor, Tourists Street-38, Chingeltei District Tel/Fax: 976-11-319015 E-mail: education@artscouncil.mn Web: www.artscouncil.mn
The Mongol Messenger is operated by the government news agency MONTSAME and is printed by the MONTSAME. Home Page: www.mongolmessenger.mn; E-mail: mongolmessenger@yahoo.com (ISSN 1684-1883)