Tanya Tagaq Announces Saputjiji, New Album out March 6, 2026
Listen to “Foxtrot” Here
Split Tooth: Saputjiji Stage Show Debuts February 5, 2026 at PuSh Festival, Vancouver
Photo credit: Sebastian Buzzalino
Saputjiji, the harbinger of change.
The standing tall.
The unyielding.
Designated protector.
With “Foxtrot,” Tanya Tagaq introduces her new full-length album, Saputjiji, due March 6, 2026. Featuring vocals by Damian Abraham (Fucked Up), “Foxtrot” weaponizes the military alphabet into protest callsign. On Saputjiji (Sa-put-yee-yee), the singular force of Tagaq is more commanding, innovative and pointed than ever, aiming straight at the jugular of the military-industrial-capitalist-tech powers of the times.
Listen to “Foxtrot” here.
Saputjiji, which means designated protector, is a potent counter-strike against billionaires, genocide, abuse and colonial systems. Produced by Sumach and Jean Martin, the songs of Saputjiji have their origins in armour and soft underbellies alike, the hardest and most vulnerable places. With “Foxtrot” and throughout the album, Tagaq deploys military imagery and convention against itself, Tagaq wields the very tools of power to naturalize and neutralize.
Saputjiji smells good, like burnt gunpowder, notes of deet and two-stroke engine exhaust. Stand at attention, breathe it in. On this new album, Tagaq ventures further with ambient, electronic and filmic sound design elements. From pulsing trip-hop ambience to sonic turbulence, Tagaq’s palate is acidic, tarry, and dissonant, a mouthful of soil contaminated by the poisons of violence, conflict and economic exploitation.
With percussion, synths and organ by producer and longtime drummer/collaborator Jean Martin, drum machine and synth by producer Sumach, Saputjiji also includes contributions from Jeffrey Zeigler (cello), Kevin Hearn (keys/synths), Fucked Up’s Damian Abraham (vocals), Patrick O’Reilly (electric guitar), and Celina Kalluk (vocals).
Tagaq’s musical and literary worlds further interlock with a second forthcoming project in 2026, Split Tooth: Saputjiji, a new stage production that will feature songs from the album. Directed by Kaneza Schaal, known for her boundary-breaking work in opera and theatre, the show brings Tagaq’s vocal soundscapes, imagery and creative world into a stage environment that blurs music and memory, land and breath, body and cosmos.
Pre-save Saputjiji here.
SAPUTJIJI TRACK LIST
Fuck War
Razorblades
Foxtrot
When They Call
Exit Wound
Ikualajut
Bohica
Lichens
Expensive Plane Tickets
Black Boot
Imiq
TOUR DATES
02/05/26 Vancouver, BC - PUSH Festival (Split Tooth: Saputjiji World Premiere)
02/19/26 Budapest, HU - House of Music
02/27/26 Hamburg, DE - Elbphilharmonie Hamburg
03/03/26 Berlin, DE - Berghain
03/06/26 London, UK - Institute of Contemporary Arts
For tickets and show details, visit tanyatagaq.com
ABOUT TANYA TAGAQ
From Ikaluktutiak (Cambridge Bay, Nunavut), internationally celebrated artist Tanya Tagaq is an improvisational singer, avant-garde composer and bestselling author. A member of the Order of Canada, Polaris Music Prize and JUNO Award winner and recipient of multiple honorary doctorates, Tagaq is an original disruptor, a world-changing figure at the forefront of seismic social, political and environmental change. On her new album Saputjiji, the singular force of Tagaq is more commanding, innovative and pointed than ever, aiming straight at the jugular of the military-industrial-capitalist-tech powers of the times.
Recent credits, projects and accolades for the award winning composer/author/performer include Tagaq’s soundtrack contribution to Mission Impossible, and film/tv appearances including CBC/Netflix’s North of North and HBO’s True Detective. Tagaq’s first children’s book, It Bears Repeating, recently received a Governor General’s Literary Award nomination and was selected for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. A vocal supporter of #InuitMeToo, Tagaq uses her platforms for justice, solidarity and to encourage discussion of difficult topics.
