Okna Tsahan Zam
Vladimir Okonovich Karuev (, born 1957), better known by his Kalmyk name Okna Tsahan Zam (, ) is a Kalmyk Mongol folk singer, known for his throat singing and as a performer of the Kalmyk national epic "Jangar". Biography. Okna Tsahan Zam does not have a traditional music education. According to an interview he gave to Tim Cope, an adventure filmmaker and author, he was educated in Moscow as a nuclear engineer and worked at a nuclear power plant. He turned to Kalmyk culture in his twenties and became a performer of the national epic "Jangar". He toured extensively in  Mongolia, as well as in Europe. Okna Tsahan Zam performs in the Khoomei style, a type of Tuvan throat singing, common in Mongolia, Tuva and Siberia. In 2005, he collaborated with Tanya Tagaq, a Canadian Inuit throat singer, and Wimme, a Sami yoiker from Finland, to release the recording "Shaman Voices". According to "The Concise Garland Encyclopedia of World Music", he "intersperses traditional Mongolian stringed and wind instruments and throat-singing styles with natural steppeland sounds and experiments with urban remixes". Okna Tsahan Zam is a recipient of the Mongolian Order of the Polar Star, the highest civilian award Mongolia  can present to a foreign citizen. In 2002, he was awarded the Mongolian "Golden Microphone Award" for his song "Edjin Duun".