KHEM
KHEM starts to play.

KHEM combines Komutian throat singing with traditional Finnish music.
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KHEM tunes up.

Distant Komutia was the cradle of music. Already thousands of years ago the Komuts were playing instruments that still sound modern and eternal. The basic principle behind Komutian music still is, that there exists no separate songs, instead the musicians enter the world of music (known as Santamaki) and act as mediators, bringing the sounds and voices from the world of music to our everyday existence.

Komuts were an ancient people who lived as nomads in Asia. Some tribes wandered trough Siberia to Finland in about 1000 BC. They were our ancestors and we are proud in continuing the everlasting Komutian tradition.

KHEM a.k.a. KHETA HOTEM is:

  • Khem-Jo Virtan, throaty voices, mandolin.
  • Phree Trhoo, throaty voices, percussion.
  • Jeahmo Saar-Te, percussion & other voices.
  • Han-Nuh Pelkoin, percussion & other voices.
  • Te-Ro Niemin, didjeridoo & snake flute.
  • An-Szi Kukoi, synthetized voices.
Listen to a Khem song.

Some videoclips.

More pictures.

CD "The Swans are Leaving" (2003) can be  ordered here.

First_CD

CD "transcience: live at ilokivi" (2006) can be  ordered here.

KHEM means a lot of things:

  • In Tuva 'Khem' means a river.
  • In Malaysian 'Song Khem' means hope.
  • Khem was Egyptian god of reproduction and (human) fertility, as well as the Egyptian father-god. In the Bible he is called "Ham", Book of Genesis 9 and 10, the youngest son of Noah, and the progenitor of the Egyptians, Nubians and Canaanites, and the Greeks called him as Pan. His sacred animal was a white bull. 
  • Khem was also the native name for Egypt. It means "black (land)" and referred to the fertile, black soil of the Nile valley.
  • From the original meaning 'black' was derived meaning 'black art' which was practiced by the learned men of Egypt. This became known through Islam as the Black Art al Khem. Then, the mysteries of these achievements spread to the western world as Alkhemy and finally as alchemy.
  • In India Khem refers to the knowledge of a musician. Two ragas, Hem Kalyan and Khem Kalyan are closely allied ragas whose distinction is so difficult to see, that only a master can produce that indisputable characteristic which separates the two ragas.
  • In Finnish Khem (köhöm) is the written representation of the sound of hawking, a noisy clearing of the throat. According to the Komutian Etymological Dictionary (5th edition published in Vati, the capital of Komutia, in 1987, p. 277) the English phrase 'hem and haw' ('to hesitate in speaking or in making a decision') originates from the same family of words (Khem > Hem): A story tells that centuries ago in Komutia, during serious thinking before making a decision, it was recommended to ask advice from ancestors. The contact with ancestors was made by throat singing. People from other cultures could not understand the meaning of this singing and humming, and it was considered to be an expression of hesitation.
Uptaded 30.4.2006