Phurpa

Phurpa is a Moscow ensemble led by Alexei Tegin that performs ritual music of the Bon tradition of Tibet. The group sings in the tantric overtone style known as rgyud skad, at low pitch and slow tempo, with Tibetan drums, long horns, bone trumpets, shawms and cymbals. It took its name in 2003 from one of the five tutelary deities of the Father Tantra in Bon. Phurpa grew out of a circle of artists and musicians around Tegin at the Fabrique of Cardinal Art in Moscow in the mid-1990s, who moved away from electroacoustic and industrial music to study ritual music from Egypt, Iran and Tibet.