After seeing close to the end of Patrick Watson, I rushed over to Scène Rogers to witness Tanya Tagaq, the Inuk throat singer. As I approached the stage, Tagaq’s band – a cellist with some pedals and a drummer with MIDI pads and chimes were laying down some ethereal soundscapes as she made a plethora of sounds: clicks, wails, screams, into the microphone.
My friend, who was there since the start of the set, informed me Tagaq’s performance was entirely improvised. I did want to hear some of the actual songs from albums like Tongues, but instead, I got something that sounded like a never-ending sequence from a horror movie.
Tagaq has a commanding presence, going full Yoko Ono with her babbling and screams, and at moments, the atmosphere became very tense—as if she were summoning a Wendigo, a demonic entity from Indigenous folklore, with her hypnotic throat singing. It wasn’t a set I was expecting, and the strange vibe definitely turned some people off, but it will easily be a memmoroabel moment from JazzFest 2026.
