With Tanya Tagaq, ancient meets modern in provocative, powerful ways. This spellbinding performance features the Inuit throat singer accompanying a screening of Nanook of the North (1922) with a live score. Her mixed-media performance reclaims the controversial classic — considered the first feature-length documentary — capturing the sense of the sound of the Arctic spaces shown in the film and adding tremendous feeling and depth to the complex mix of beautiful representations and racially charged clichés.

Tagaq’s music is unnerving and exquisite, rooted in Inuit throat singing, but also influenced by electronica, industrial, and metal. It is a style that she has perfected through collaborations with Björk and that invokes Meredith Monk’s vocal innovations. Winner of the 2014 Polaris Prize for “Album of the Year” (she beat out Drake and Arcade Fire), Tanya Tagaq makes her UMS debut in this one-night only event after acclaimed appearances at the Bonnaroo and SXSW festivals. “Nobody, anywhere, sounds like she does.” (Globe and Mail)