Piqsiq - Quviasugvik: In Search of Harmony (2019)

PIQSIQ's first Christmas album, Quviasugvik: In Search of Harmony, is a haunting collection of carols sung to the beat of katajjaq, traditional Inuit throat singing. Each track is an eerie and mournful tribute to the complicated relationship many Indigenous Peoples have with the tradition of Christmas. With their dark and ethereal style, PIQSIQ carves out a place to sit in this vast colonial landscape and listen as traditional roots pierce through.
For sisters Kayley Inuksuk Mackay and Tiffany Kuliktana Ayalik, Christmas comes wrapped in a confusing package of joy and pain. Raised with somber Christian contexts and taught to sing carols and hymns, they were also immersed in the absolute elation of attending Christmas Games, a joyously celebrated tradition among many Inuit communities filled with two wondrous weeks of music, dancing, feasting and hilarity.
Weighted down by the histories of Inuit experiences with colonization and the ravaging of Inuit culture, language and spiritualism by an aggressive Church and Crown, the sisters shifted in adulthood towards celebrating the Winter Solstice in place of modern Christmas traditions. When children of their own entered their lives, Christmas took on an extra layer of complication once more, causing them to dip their toes back into their complicated pasts and begin to reconcile the extreme contexts within. Quviasugvik: In Search of Harmony is the PIQSIQ sisters' attempt to stitch together these contrasting experiences and create harmony out of difficulty and struggle. The entirely lyric-less album highlights the haunting melodies of their most beloved carols, allowing them to be explored and enjoyed apart from the cutting Christian contexts that tear at their unabiding souls.
The album opens with Carol of the Bells, the actualization of a dream the sisters have envisioned for many years, brought to life with full choral arrangements and a solid throat singing beat. What Child Is This is a chilling arrangement inspired by the sisters' painful longing to comfort the children who were stolen away to experience their first Christmas in Residential Schools across the Arctic. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen travels through interesting harmonic soundscapes, grounded with the highs and lows of tonal throat singing and a melody gently steeped in an air of Arctic lore. Qimuksiq: Dogsled Ride is an entirely new composition by PIQSIQ and an anthem to the joy that ensues when Inuit gather together for celebration. The album concludes with Carol of the Bells: Remix, which combines PIQSIQ's ethereal quality with beats that are sure to spark movement and joy.
01. Piqsiq - Carol of the Bells (2:52)
02. Piqsiq - What Child Is This (3:17)
03. Piqsiq - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (3:36)
04. Piqsiq - Qimuksiq: Dogsled Ride (3:22)
05. Piqsiq - Carol of the Bells (Remix) (2:51)
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