Canasta savors Mongolian music trek as ‘indie-rock ambassadors’ - Chicago Sun-Times: "Somewhere in the vacation slides of Canasta’s trip to Mongolia, there’s a small epiphany.
The six-piece Chicago group — a celebrated stalwart of “orchestral pop,” meaning big ideas in small packages, often produced with a lot of gear — landed the unusual gig via the Arts Envoy Program from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (and part of a wider initiative to celebrate 20 years of U.S.-Mongol relations). The weeklong tour began Feb. 3 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital, and continued to the highland towns of Sainshand and Dalanzadgad.
Mongolia. In February.
“It was freezing,” recalls Canasta’s singer-violinist Elizabeth Lindau, adding for emphasis, “freezing.” She knows freezing. She once spent a season working at a research station in Antarctica. Mongolia, she says, was colder."
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