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MIDDLETOWN — Rare is the festival that can bring together Mongolian culture and the vocal stylings of "The Simpsons," but Middfest has done it this year.

One of the more unusual sounds visitors will hear at the festival, starting today, Oct. 3, is throat singing, a vocal style that makes a it sound like a crooner is singing two notes at the same time.

Steve Sklar, a Minneapolis-based performer who specializes in this art, will be giving throat singing demonstrations throughout Middfest weekend, and let people try their own vocal chords at it in the music center inside the city building.

Sklar likened throat singing to the work of voice-over actors. For instance, when Dan Castellanata puts a rasp in his voice to play Krusty the Clown on "The Simpsons," he's using his vocal chords similarly to throat singers, Sklar said.

"There is a pretty sharp learning curve. Some people pick it up pretty quickly and have a knack for it. Some people get better with practice. And some people aren't going to get it," said Sklar. "You don't have to be Mongolian to be able to do it."

One local person who learned how to do it is Jay Brunner, the frontman of the band Johnny B. and the Gravediggers. He sings in a different style than Mongolians do, but the overall effect is the same. He taught himself how to do earlier this decade when he composed the music for "Oedipus Rex," by the Rising Phoenix Theatre Company.

When he throat sings, "Everything in my body vibrates. My vision vibrates, because the aqueus humor, the liquid in my eyeballs, vibrates," he said.

Brunner still uses the technique with Johnny B. and the Gravediggers.

"It usually stops people pretty cold in their tracks. They wonder, what the heck just happened?" Brunner said.

Middfest International

When: 5:30 to 10 p.m. today, Oct. 3; 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday Oct. 4; noon to 8 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 5.

Where: In and around Donham Plaza, downtown Middletown

Cost: $5, a one-time fee for the entire weekend. Souvenir badge is $7.

On the Web: Video of Steve Sklar throat singing can be found at www.middletownjournal.com and at www.youtube.com/throatsinger.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2836 or erobinette@coxohio.com.