Yengi Yol - De Seville à Boukhara (2003)

«Yengi Yol means “new way”, in Turkish as well as in Uzbek. The “Yengi Yol” Ensemble was born a few years ago when European musician E.H. During went to meet young musicians his age in Uzbekistan. Back then, when his flamenca guitar met their traditional Uzbek music, the result was convincing straight away. The band was born and several concerts and recordings were rapidly done, so that a new sound could be heard in European and Oriental countries.

Today, “Yengi Yol” has set off again, towards a new, totally original adventure where Turkish Ottoman music meets Uzbek music. The four European musicians (A.Espinouze, S.Halaris, A.Morineau et E.H.During) who took up the challenge already had sound experience of Ottoman high culture music, but they had never tackled high culture tradition from Central Asia.
The meeting occurred in May 2007 in Uzbekistan when three concerts were given (in Samarqand, Bukhara and Tashkent) to an audience dumbfounded by the new tones brought by “Yengi Yol” to their music. A few videos and some recordings give an account of what had probably never happened in centuries.
In the 15th century, exchanges were still flourishing between the door to Europe and the heart of Asia. Thus, musicians from Samarqand or Bukhara were able to play at the Ottoman court of Istanbul and vice versa. The works of the repertoire would travel over thousands of kilometres, from one end of a chain of transmission to the other, and were organized into a both refined and complex codified knowledge: the Maqam or the art of high culture music, shared by the elite of musicians from the Maghreb to China. With the passing of centuries and due to the setting up of political borders, the Maqam was progressively divided and interpreted in accordance with local claims, each region developing its own style and repertoire.
Yengi Yol proposes to go in the reverse direction. While keeping the specificities proper to each culture, they want to play Ottoman and Uzbek pieces having obvious similarities by drawing from the ancient – up to 15th century – repertoires of the court as well as Sufi brotherhoods.
As obvious and natural as the result may appear, such a meeting has never happened before.» (Yengi Yol’s MySpace page)

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Yalla - The Beard of the Camel (1996)

Pop music from Uzbekistan! Maybe not a masterpiece, but a curious piece of music indeed!

«Yalla, the leading popular music group in the former Soviet central Asian republics, is from Tashkent – the capital of Uzbekistan, one of the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union. The group, whose name is an Uzbek word for a song accompanied by dancing, has become a popular icon in Uzbekistan, frequently serving as cultural ambassadors to international festivals or meetings abroad.

The members of Yalla are graduates of the Ostrovsky Theatrical Art Institute and the Ashrafi State Conservatory in Tashkent. They are not Russian but Uzbek, a Turkic nationality from the crossroads of the ancient Silk Road. Their music incorporates traditional ethnic folk tunes and poetry of Uzbekistan and other Central Asian and Middle Eastern cultures, along with contemporary pop and dance influences, into a unique international blend. They perform songs in more than 10 languages, including Arabic, Farsi, Hindi, Nepalese and French as well as Uzbek and Russian.

Formed in the early 1970's, Yalla has appeared on Soviet national television as well as performing in Moscow and elsewhere in the Soviet Union, and on concert tours in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America, including featured appearances at the "Voice of Asia" festival.

Yalla has been named "State Merited Chamber-Instrumental Ensemble" (a musical equivalent to poet laureate), and winner of the Lenin Komsomol Prize of Uzbekistan. Farrukh Zakirov, artistic director of Yalla and composer of many of their songs, was elected to Uzbekistan's national parliament.» (Imagina Productions)

More info on Beard of the Camel here

Full English review here

Interview in Russian here

«Yalla is Uzbekistan’s equivalent of the Beatles…» (Laurel Victoria Gray, founder of Uzbek Dance and Culture Society, USA)

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The Rough Guide to the Music of Central Asia (2005)

«While there are a few handfuls of albums of Mongolian music, and older targeted albums for particular nations, this is more of a rarity: an album covering the music of Central Asia as defined essentially by the 'Stans' of the former Soviet Union: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikstan. The music on Rough Guide to the Music of Central Asia ranges from the classical traditions of the region, as hailing from Samarkand and Tashkent, to modern hard rock, as well as all points on the spectrum between the extremes. A number of the performers herein are fusionists and revisionists, combining traditional folk musics with contemporary sounds. The album starts on such a note with a mix of classical Kazakh tunes pounded over by electric guitars. Pop singers from the last decade of cultural exchange are sprinkled throughout the album, as recorded locally and through international channels (some have some decent fame in Europe). Folk performers and classicists also take their share of playing time, with masters of the various Central Asian lutes prominent, such as Turgun Alimatov. The album carries a little of something for everyone, in theory, without as many of the particularly foreign sounds, or the more weathered voices and wails that are sometimes known to accompany the music of the region. It's a more accessible entry point to the region's music than many, and may provide a good reference for current listeners to find something new, as well.» (AMG)

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