Mosaiqa Records Is Up and Running

Admittedly, it's a bit lame to have two posts in a row on the same topic, especially months apart. Alas, that's how it is. But the good news is . . .

The Mosaiqa.com shop is fully up and running -- you can buy either (or both) of two Roksonaki CDs (approx. $20 each including shipping), or if you prefer bits and pieces, individual tracks are available to download at $1.00 each. If you've listened to the various podcasts from Roksonaki's spring tour, you may already have your own favorites in mind; buy one, or buy the disc it's on. I've ordered the Nauryz CD, because it contains my favorite piece Akbayan (Lake Akbayan, or Lake White-something). I don't sing for an audience, but this is fantastically, hauntingly hummable. The Mosaiqa.com site is also a nice resource for info about traditional Kazakh culture (folktales and other info).

And here's my challenge -- listen to Akbayan, and then listen to Musicola's Ai-Bupyem (Lullaby) and see what you think. And then, rush to Mosaiqa.com and get some Roksonaki for yourself.

Roksonaki CD Update

The latest word from Roksonaki producer Helen Faller is that all the legalities should be sorted out, and Roksonaki CDs will be available to buy online by August 1, 2008. Check the Mosaiqa Records site, or right here at Silk Road Caravan for more updates.

A full description of all the activities and events of the 2008 Nauryz with Roksonaki tour can be found in this report (PDF download).

Word is that the group has been invited back for another U. S. tour in spring 2009 -- stay tuned!

Urker Releases New CD

This past Saturday (May 17), KZ "ethno-pop" trio Urker released Tolgau, their first album since 2004's Best of Urker. According to the press release on the group's website, the 11 new songs on the album, including the wholly instrumental title track, are the result of two years of work for songwriting duo Aidos Sagat (music) and Nurlan Alban (lyrics). In the meantime, Aidos has been busy with charitable work, teaching show business management at KIMEP and is also a member of the national Author's Copyright Council.

The band has been leading up to the album release with a series of live performances -- Urker's Nauryz concert was their first live outing in five years, and on May 8 they played at London's Ministry of Sound music club, their first time to play Britain (Tolgau was recorded & mixed in Almaty, but mastered in a London studio) and their only European date for all of 2008.

"Mature" is a word that the press release uses to describe this album, rightly so. The first 'single' from the CD is Asel, and it's pretty darn good. Oh, it definitely sounds like Urker, but the video and a something about the way it sounds make me think of Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music -- or maybe it's just the skinny 1980s ties.





Urker played a hour-long CD release concert on Saturday at Almaty's new mega-mall (aptly named MEGA), outside the Meloman music shop. Mashenka of Getting Kazakhified was there, and says that performing live, the band rocked!, a lot harder than they do on CD. (Read about her interview with Roksonaki, too, while you're over at her site). According to the Urker website, the band is off to Shymkent (May 24) and Karaganda (June 18) for personal appearances, probably at Meloman stores in those cities.

The one thing I don't have is a source for getting the CD unless you're within driving/horseback/walking distance of a MEGA mall. When I find out how to get a copy, I'll let you know too.

Urker live at the 2008 Nauryz party in Almaty

Roksonaki on the Air

Spring has sprung, Nauryz is over, and Kazakhstan's first "experimental neo-traditional ethno-rock" band, Roksonaki, is finishing up their Nauryz 2008 tour in the Washington D. C. area. It's been an interesting tour, very academically oriented. The band has done 3-4 day residencies at several different universities, visited schools, and most of the concerts have been free.

Another feature of the tour has been radio interviews, mostly with Dr. Helen Faller, the group's American coordinator and also the producer of Mosaiqa Records, founded last year to promote Central Asian music. Wisconsin Public Radio broadcasts Here on Earth: Radio Without Borders live every weekday at 3 pm CST. Last Wednesday the hour-long program featured Roksonaki, in residence at U. Wisconsin - Madison. You can stream the audio by clicking the Listen button on the Here on Earth Roksonaki program page, or download the mp3 podcast on the March 2008 archives page. The audio stream is available indefinitely; the podcast is available for download until late May. Check out all the other programs in the archives while you're there -- it's a dizzying array of topics and interviews from around the world, well worth exploring.

Highlights of the Here on Earth show are Helen Faller's discussion of instruments and the shamanic tradition, the folk legend of the creation of the zhetigen (a 7-stringed harp/zither), and the hauntingly beautiful "Ak Bayan" (about 36 minutes into the show). This show focuses on acoustic pieces, which is the core of the 2008 tour.

Also last week, Roksonaki recorded a show with WFMU, in New York's Hudson Valley. It was broadcast on Saturday, March 29, as part of a weekly show called Transpacific Sound Paradise: Popular and Unpopular Music from Around the World (great subtitle). The middle hour of the 3-hour program is all Roksonaki, with 6 pieces recorded live in the studio and another 4 from CDs. Helen Faller speaks and translates, but if the chuckles and instant Russian replies are any indication, it seems that Ruslan Kara and other band members understand much more English than they are willing to speak on radio.

The TSP show highlights include "The Hunter's Lament" on zhetigen, a jammin' acoustic satire about bad stuff that can happen ("Ne Jaman"), a contemporary kyl-kobyz piece, and some insight into the personalities of the band members. The CD tracks illustrate the broader range of Roksonaki that qualifies them as "avant garde," leaning toward what were they thinking? Not everything can hit the Top 40.

Listen to Roksonaki's TSP interview (via streaming audio) on the program playlist page. If you're short on time, listen to opening track, then skip to 1:02:00 for the Roksonaki segment.

And because it's what I do, here's an older, even more traditional version of "Ak Bayan" on zhetigen and kyl-kobyz, from Asyl Mura.




Images from a National Bank of Kazakhstan commemorative series of 500 tenge coins

Nauryz 2008!

After 70+ years of Russian/Soviet holidays, Nauryz has taken hold as a big event in Kazakhstan, and in the international Kazakh/Kazakhstani communities. This poster, for the Embassy of Kazakhstan's Nauryz 2008 celebration in Washington, D.C., certainly is gorgeous. Nauryz, a spring festival with pre-Islamic roots, is also celebrated under varying names across Islamic Asia from Turkey to Kyrgystan.

Tonight in Moscow (it's probably over now, in fact), a beauty pageant/Nauryz celebration was held to select the most beautiful of all Kazakhstani students in Russia. The winner of "Moscow Spring - 2008" will be a contestant in the national "Miss Kazakhstan" pageant later on. Between competition rounds, the audience was treated to performances by no less than A-Studio, Musicola, Asylbek Ensepov and the legendary Dos Mukasan, and other stars of the KZ music scene. arba.ru

Also from arba.ru, folk-pop band Urker will give their first full-length concert in 5 years for the Nauryz 2008 celebration on Saturday night (7 pm) in Old Almaty Square. Fittingly, they'll rock the crowd with their holiday anthem Nauryz, under a massive fireworks display.

I think the Nauryz party in London has already happened, but the big event in the US is a multi-city tour by "the unique neo-traditional avant-garde band from Kazakhstan," Roksonaki, culminating in the Washington, D.C. gala on April 5. Roksonaki made a big splash at the Smithsonian Institution's 2002 "Silk Road" Folklife Festival, with Yo-Yo Ma. Though the group was formed in 1990, there's next to no additional information about them until now, aided by a group member and Central Asian scholar, Dr. Helen Faller, who coordinated the tour. Roksonaki's music is fascinating and exactly as billed -- experimental, scholarly, with contemporary influences, traditional instruments and more. Is there such a thing as Central Asian space music? Check out the Roksonaki blogs (mosaiqa.com, and Nauryz with Roksonaki), and even a MySpace page, which has several music samples. And if you're anywhere near Washington, D.C. in a couple of weekends, there's a party going on that you really shouldn't miss.

A sample Roksonaki track, from the mosaiqa.com site:

Another Musical Pairing:Sary-Arka

Kurmangazy's Sary-Arka (Golden Steppe), on solo dombra,
by Abdulhamit Rayimbergenov **
(from The Rough Guide to the Music of Central Asia



Ulytau's folk-metal version of Sary-Arka




** Abdulhamit Rayimbergenov is a featured music educator & dombrist in Theodore Levin's
Where Rivers And Mountains Sing: Sound, Music, And Nomadism in Tuva And Beyond

Adai, 3 Ways

Kurmangazy Sagyrbaev (Russian)
Курмангазы Сагырбаев

Kurmangazy Sagirbaiuly (Kazakh)
Құрманғазы Сағырбайұлы

Kurmangazy was a brilliant 19th century Kazakh composer and musician. Various reputable sources give 1806-1879, 1823-1896, 1818-1889, among others, as his birth and death dates. He lived in the western area of what is now Kazakhstan, and is buried just over the border in Astrakhan, Russia.

Renowned for his courage, cunning and skill on the dombra, Kurmangazy wrote numerous kui, brilliant 'mood' solo instrument pieces, of which some 60 are known and played today. Kui or kyui are musical narratives -- traditionally the musician introduces a piece with a summary of the story illustrated by the music, and some information about its history.

Kurmangazy's music is woven into the fabric of Kazakh/Kazakhstani culture. His kuis tell stories of Kazakh warriors (Adai), of the land (Sary Arka, 'Golden Steppe'), and of courage and resistance (Kishkentay is about an 1836 folk uprising). His music is played not only in its original instrumental forms, but is also adapted into popular music. Just today I stumbled across Getting Kazakhified, the blog of a ethnomusicology doctoral student living in Almaty -- her dissertation is on "how the struggle over ethnic/national identities is literally playing itself out through music." This is fascinating stuff, and I'm looking forward to following her ideas and research.

But for now, listen to three different versions of Adai. Whatever the embellishments, pounding hoofbeats across the steppe come through loud and clear.


Kali Zhantleuov on solo dombra. His dombra teacher had been a student of Kurmangazy.




Asylbek Ensepov on dombra & synthesizer.
According to Werner Linden, the German "mad musicologist," Ensepov describes his music as "dance music, made from kuis, played on the dombra, with computerized accompaniment." Syntho-classical? Does anyone remember Classical Gas? It's next to impossible to find anything about Ensepov, and his 2003 debut disc is out of print (each of the 5,000 copies was numbered and packaged in a tooled leather case), but there are several videos on YouTube: check out Adai & Sultan (where the musician gets the girl!). The kid rocks, and he's not bad to look at either.



Kazakhstan Ethno-Rock Project Ulytau.
Ulytau is a young, all-instrumental folk-metal (yes, folk-metal) band. The trio consists of a classically-trained violinist, a dombrist, and a wailing lead-guitar player. Their first album, Jumyr-Kylysh, consists of traditional Kazakh & classical European pieces (Vivaldi & Bach), all given the Ulytau folk-metal treatment. I saw somewhere that they'd signed with a German label - could they be the first KZ band to make it big in the west? You can find three mp3s on the .ru site (there's also a .kz website). Jumyr-Kylysh is another a traditional Kazakh tune. Asylbek Ensepov has a version of it as well.

A Soundtrack for Your Nauryz Party (March 21,2007)

First I discovered Project Playlist and started playing with adding tracks from Kazakhstan. Then I made myself a CD mix of Kazakhstani music just for the fun of it. And then, might as well package it up to share. So, just in time for Nauryz 2007 . . .

The complete playlist includes 20 good, banal (but good for dancing), and "on principle" tracks (as in, SuperStar KZ winner Almas Kishkenbayev), mostly sung in Kazakh. Of course there are a couple of energetic dance sets, plus traditional dombra and qobyz pieces, a sampling of contemporary pop, and the new (2006) National Anthem.

Hear some of the tracks below. If you want more (including Adai, by contemporary dombra dude Aselbek Ensepov), download the .zip file (70-something MB) here. EDIT - link updated 2/19/08)

Nauryz Kuttuh Bolsyn!

The Kazakh Aul of the U.S. has an informative 3-page Nauryz article (PDF) here.

Musicola: Between Almaty and Moscow

Since exploring the nifty online jukebox of KZ music, I’ve been listening to Musicola, a smooth jazz-influenced pop duo from Almaty. Since their first single & album (Girl in a White Dress / Dyevochka v platitsye byelom) debuted in 1996, Musicola has stayed on pop charts in the CIS; I realized that one of my favorite songs on a Moscow-produced “greatest hits of the year” CDs is a Musicola track. In 2005, they released a Kazakh-language album Arman Zholdar (Road of Dreams); other albums are in Russian.

Musicola is Karina Abdullina, 32, vocalist and songwriter, and Bulat Sazdykov, 51, arranger and guitarist. Karina was born in Almaty into a family of professional musicians, and began singing at age four. Her mother, Olga Lviv is a classical pianist, her father, an operatic baritone. Karina’s grandfather and his twin brother, Rishat and Muslim Abdullin, were stars in the Soviet classical constellation of the 1940s-1970s. Karina’s family name is pronounced “ab-DOOL-in-a.”

Bulat Sazdykov is originally from Karaganda. His family wanted him to be a doctor, but at 14 he took a course in jazz guitar, and has been a musician ever since (even during his obligatory two years in the military). Before Musicola he was in successful bands in the 1980s, worked as a session musician for top artists in Moscow, and now is also a producer for young musicians in his own studio. In the “small world” category, Gulnara met Bulat in Almaty a few years ago; they have friends in common.

It's practically impossible to buy Musicola in the US, and I've even had a hard time finding their music on Russian sites (which all got shut down in February anyway) . Most of their CDs/albums are out of print. But never fear! The band's official website has downloadable MP3s of all the albums, with lyrics (in Russian). Listen to Dyevochka, Won't Forget You (great dance tune) or Arman Zholdar, and see if the jazzy, haunting melodies don't follow you around (in a good way).

If you've been captured by the Musicola sound, right here on News from the Caravan, you can download the 2006 Best of Musicola CD (71 MB zip file) for your very own. (EDIT - link updated 2/19/2008) It's all freely available on the band's website, but I've packaged the lyrics (I can't predict whether the Cyrillic will display properly, though), artwork and all 18 songs together. Enjoy!

Explore Kazakh Music Online

Somebody somewhere has created this nifty little Shockwave Flash jukebox, loaded with 32 random selections of Kazakh music. Some of it is more traditional, some of it is contemporary pop. I'm not quite sure who the author of the site it; clues make me think it might be a project of a Kazakh-language student (learning Kazakh is on the to-do list for my next lifetime) In any case, check it out (click on the image for the link).

Below are links to more, including music videos on YouTube, articles and mp3 files. Explore!

• Yulduz Usmanova - (she's actually Uzbeki) Official homepage (in Uzbek, click on MYCIKA for mp3s; Wikipedia entry; and Best of album at Amazon.com
• Musicola - Arman Zholdar, Girl in a White Dress (sung in Russian), on YouTube
• Tolkin Zabirova - official homepage (English version) and video on YouTube
• Rakhat Turlikanov - video of Bir Tamshi Zhas
• Nurlan Onerbaev - downloadable mp3 Kustar Ani
• Garifulla Kurmanbayev (or Kurmangaliyev) - CD, mp3s and info at AsylMura: Musical Heritage of Kazakhstan
• Canar Aycanova - downloadable zip file of entire album

Asyl Azhem

This is one of my favorite of the Kazakh/Kazakhstani music videos that have been uploaded to YouTube. It's just gorgeous (and look at all that amazing jewelry). The artist is Qaraqat (or Karakat).
Check YouTube for the video for Ayaulim, another Qaraqat song (with a modern setting).

Folk + Pop = Urker

URKER is a Kazakh pop folk group that first appeared on the scene in Kazakhstan in 1993, with its debut performance at one of the Almaty Rock Clubs. Their most recent album, Made in Kazakhstan, was released in 2002.




Many of the group's songs, written by band members Aidos Sagat and Nurlan Alban, take their flavor from the patriotic epic poetry of Kazakhstan. These songs take the themes of love or nostalgia for the homeland, and the legends of the batyrs who defend it, and combine it all with traditional (and traditional-sounding) melodies, and Kazakh as well as modern instruments.

This music video, Arular, incorporates several symbols of Kazakh tradition -- look for Nurlan on the dombra, and listen for the qobyz toward the end (sort of like cello, but hollower). These are two of the best known traditional Kazakh musical instruments. The traditional Kazakh skull cap is called a takiya, or tubeteika. The headwear of the women in the chorus is called a kimeshek.

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For a selection of Kazakh and Uzbek tubeitiki, browse the Silk Road Caravan store at eBay.

To hear more of Urker’s music, go to the official Urker website in Russian and English (if it doesn’t work try again. It’s unpredictably up and down.)

See more Urker videos on YouTube.