Uzbek singer Sevara Nazarkhan studied voice at the Tashkent State Conservatoire. She also plays the doutar, a fifteenth century two-stringed lute. In Yol Bolsin, she takes folk, peasant and Sufi songs and, with producer Hector Zazou, mixes Western instrumentation and production values with the traditional. Sadly, on this album, Nazarkhan does not play the doutar herself, though Toir Kuziyev’s playing is masterly.

The album kicks off with a traditional piece, Yor-Yor (Song To The Bride). Immediately we are transplanted to the East. Glossy production values merge relatively successfully with Nazarkhan’s voice. The next two tracks allow her voice more room to breathe. In Adolat Tanovari (Song of Adolat), Nazarkhan’s voice shimmers, and this is one of those pieces where Western and Eastern styles merge into an ethereal whole as she sings to a lover, asking to take away their pain.

El Nozanin (Beautiful), has some beautiful lyrics, but is one of those tracks that might have benefited from more traditional production values. It is followed by Yol Bolsin (Where Are You Going), one of the strongest songs on the album, and another example of a successful fusion of Western and Eastern in which the latter still manages to shine.

The opening of Moghulchai Navo allows us the chance to hear the doutar by itself, before the drum comes in, followed by Nazarkhan’s voice. Here we have an example of something that sounds much closer to the native Uzbek sound.

In Gazli, night is described as falling like a leaf on the eyelashes of the desert. The same could be said for her voice. This is one of the most ethereal of the songs on Yol Bolsin. The tranquillity that night brings to the town of Gazli in the lyrics is easily matched by the tranquillity induced by Nazarkhan’s gentle vocals and the sensitive instrumentation.

Orik Gullaganda (When Apricot Blossoms) is next. It’s not one of the strongest tracks, but we hear the doutar again at the outset, and Sevara’s voice. Things go up tempo in Yallajonim (My Dearest Song), and Western influence is more in evidence again. The final track, Alla, shows off Nazarkhan’s voice as she sings a haunting lullaby, from a mother hoping that her sleeping child will have a happy life, full of great deeds. The vocalisation hovers and wavers over the gentle instrumentation below.

Sevara Nazarkhan has been compared to Natacha Atlas, but this is not an accurate comparison. Atlas fuses Western and Middle Eastern influences to produce a more pop sound. The Uzbek singer is very much a product of her Conservatoire training, where folk music is highly regarded. Nazarkhan’s voice swoops, hovers, ululates. It wavers like a banner streaming in the wind. There’s no need to dress her beautiful vocalisations. She could sing without backup, or accompanied only by the doutar and her songs, if anything, would be even more beautiful.

A translation of the poetic lyrics is available in the CD booklet. This is an album well-worth buying. Haunting, ethereal and serene.

RATING: 7/10

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Kara Kellar Bell is a 38 year old film and media graduate from the West of Scotland, with a passion for European novels, French films, silent cinema, and Brazilian music (everything from Daniela Mercury and other pop stars through to bossa nova). As a writer, she likes to have room to move around creatively, so she’s not located in one genre. She writes realism and also stories of a more fantastic nature, usually grounded to some extent in the real world. She also takes delight in writing across the sexual spectrum, and as a bisexual, considers it important to remind people that things are not always black and white, either/or, in sexuality or in gender. For a selection of Kara’s writing on the Showcase section of this site, click here

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