From the Mongolian grasslands to cosmopolitan 21st Century Beijing, Ajinai bridges ancient traditions with seriously modern attitude.

Their not-to-be-missed Toronto debut will showcase a unique, powerful mix that finds common ground between the traditions of the ancient past and the sounds of contemporary music producing something at once timeless yet forward-looking. It is a sound that has seen the band rise through the ranks of China’s music scene, performing at major venues, events and festivals across the country, as well as to opportunities that have seen them criss-cross Asia, Europe and North America. In 2014, the band released its second full-length album ‘Synthesis’ celebrated with their current international tour.

Formed in Beijing in 2009 and comprised of members culled from across China, Ajinai use instruments such as the morin khuur, or horse-head fiddle, a symbol of the Mongolian people, and khoomei, the overtone-singing tradition that features the simultaneous sound of several pitches emanating from one voice. Both developed out of a desire to mimic the sounds of nature.

Thus does Ajinai’s music transport listeners to the wide-open plains of the grasslands, and to a time long before the electric guitar. But the band members’ experience in the rock scene of China’s bustling capital, Beijing, lends a modern element to the music; the rhythm is propelled by equal parts horse-charging and rock and roll’s four-on-the-floor; the melodies punctuated by the fiddle’s mournful bowing and the power chords of the electric guitar.