British musician's Abai involves 15 Kazakh instruments

Serik Nurmoldayev with Karl Jenkins. Personal archive photo

Abai composition written by famous British composer Karl Jenkins has been recorded in London, Tengrinews.kz reports. The unique sound of Abai was created through a combination of the London Symphony Orchestra, Marat Bissengaliyev’s orchestra, the London Choir and young musicians from Kazakhstan playing folk instruments. According to one of the project’s participants Serik Nurmoldayev, the recording involved 15 Kazakh national instruments, including dombra, sybyzgy, kobyz, shan-kobyz, assa-tayak, daulpaz, zhetygen. Medgat Kulzhanov, a direct descendant of Abai Kunanbayev (famous Kazakh poet) and Shakarim Kudaiberdiyev (famous Kazakh poet and composer), is the organizer of the project. He was the one who discovered and invited young musicians from Kazakhstan. “We recorded in one of the biggest London’s studios, Angel Studio, where international orchestras get recorded. The composition fully opens the essence of Abai’s oeuvre. During the process each of us wanted to add something, we improvised a lot and consilted with the composer. He sometimes made instructed to add certain sounds in some places,” one of the project’s participants and the frontman of ST Brothers Serik Nurmoldayev said. The instruments failed frequently because of London’s weather. The musicians had to tune them up very often. It took two days to record Kazakh national instruments only. Their a chance that all the participants of the project will go on a world tour that will include Kazakhstan in the nearest future. By Aizhan Tugelbayeva

Abai composition written by famous British composer Karl Jenkins has been recorded in London, Tengrinews.kz reports. The unique sound of Abai was created through a combination of the London Symphony Orchestra, Marat Bissengaliyev’s orchestra, the London Choir and young musicians from Kazakhstan playing folk instruments. According to one of the project’s participants Serik Nurmoldayev, the recording involved 15 Kazakh national instruments, including dombra, sybyzgy, kobyz, shan-kobyz, assa-tayak, daulpaz, zhetygen. Medgat Kulzhanov, a direct descendant of Abai Kunanbayev (famous Kazakh poet) and Shakarim Kudaiberdiyev (famous Kazakh poet and composer), is the organizer of the project. He was the one who discovered and invited young musicians from Kazakhstan. “We recorded in one of the biggest London’s studios, Angel Studio, where international orchestras get recorded. The composition fully opens the essence of Abai’s oeuvre. During the process each of us wanted to add something, we improvised a lot and consilted with the composer. He sometimes made instructed to add certain sounds in some places,” one of the project’s participants and the frontman of ST Brothers Serik Nurmoldayev said. The instruments failed frequently because of London’s weather. The musicians had to tune them up very often. It took two days to record Kazakh national instruments only. Their a chance that all the participants of the project will go on a world tour that will include Kazakhstan in the nearest future. By Aizhan Tugelbayeva

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