The seal represents the balance of health and sickness or sadness in the world. The narrator’s relationship with the Northern Lights is explicitly contrasted with her relationship with Christianity, as unlike the prudish colonial Christianity which was involved in the colonization of the Arctic, the narrator’s relationship with the Northern Lights is explicitly sexual and magical. The lights are therefore a major spiritual force which causes the narrator’s pregnancy, an ultimately magical one as her children are shapeshifters who represent the forces of health and sickness, or happiness and sadness, in the world.

The lights are a sexual partner for the narrator as well as a revelatory force, since during the narrator’s night on the tundra she witnesses her ancestors in the lights. With passages and poems drawn from Tagaq’s bestselling novel Split Tooth, recently recommended by Elliot Page in Esquire as “one of the best things I’ve ever read,” Tongues is Tagaq at her most direct and specific.The Northern Lights symbolize Indigenous spiritual power in the novel.

Tongues, recently Polaris Music Prize Long Listed alongside albums by remix contributors The Halluci Nation and Backxwash, was produced by Saul Williams and Gonjasufi and released in January to widespread acclaim. “In Me” is the result of a long and careful process, and is the two composers’ explicit statement against cultural appropriation in classical and avant music. Veering back and forth between the grittiest features of a small arctic town, the electrifying proximity of the world of animals, and ravishing world of myth, Tanya Tagaq explores a world where the distinctions between good and evil, animal and human, victim and transgressor, real and imagined lose their meaning, but the guiding power of love. Intertwined strings echo and respond to Tagaq’s vocals, a sonic expression of cultural sovereignty. Paola Prestini’s “In Me” is a sinuous piece performed with Jeffrey Zeigler on solo cello and San Francisco’s New Century Chamber Orchestra. Tagaq and Daedelus are currently collaborating on a new piece for 360° immersive video project ARCTIC XR, which will be shown at La Biennale di Venezia and Nuit Blanche in 2022. Start with Daedelus’ jittery braindance remix of title track “Tongues,” which channels the original’s fury in a hypnotic, Newton’s Cradle exchange. Tagaq introduces the collection with two songs out today. The project also features first-time collaborators Backxwash and Dave Parley. Tongues North Star Remixes spans remixes by Tagaq’s many stage, studio and video collaborators including Kronos Quartet, Ash Koosha, Daedelus, The Halluci Nation, Chad Van Gaalen and July Talk (directors of the most recent video for “ Colonizer,” from Tongues). With avant, classical, electronic and experimental selections, the album expands Tagaq’s fearsome and futuristic musical universe into new dimensions. Tanya Tagaq’s Tongues is reimagined in her first remix collection, Tongues North Star Remixes, which was released on July 22, 2022.

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