Mongolian throat singing not a regular on radio playlist but its guttural
grunts and squawks got an airing on Desert Island Discs courtesy of Rev star  Simon McBurney.

The actor and theatre director, who plays the creepy Archdeacon Robert in
the BBC sitcom, picked the unusual track for the latest edition of the Radio 4
show.

Throat singer Veronica Oucholin’s track I Light The Fire is meant to reflect
the sounds of Arctic Mongolia and its native creatures including wild dogs and
birds.

McBurney, whose father was an archaeologist and academic, is the inspiration
behind the award-winning theatre company Complicite.

He told host Kristy Young: “On the edges of this world I think we can still
hear something of our deep past.

“I understood through my father that in Neolithic times human beings felt
that were part of the world of animals and echoes of that time, the vestiges,
can still be heard today which is whyI’ve chosen this piece which is from the
Chukchi people in the far north-eastern part of Mongolia in the Arctic and
something of the past and of nature is present in the voice of this 12 year-old
girl”.

Throat singing, also known as overtone singing, is thought to have
originated in Mongolia and allows the singer to amplify sounds by changing the
shape of their mouth and throat.

The track is far removed from the more mainstream popular choices on
long-running show which includes favourites like The Lark Ascending by Ralph
Vaughan Williams, Nimrod from Sir Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations and
Beethoven’s Symphony No9 in D minor.

But castaways are given free rein over their choices and do not even have to
pick music, with the infamous “leg over” cricket commentary and ensuing fits of
laughter between commentators Brian Johnston and Jonathan Agnew during a Test
match between England and the West Indies in 1991 one of the more unorthodox
choices.

Other popular non-musical choices included experts from speeches by Winston
Churchil and interview from Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.