I was pleasantly surprised to find what looks to be a cool record shop in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. To learn more, see their Instagram site here.
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Tag: Kyrgyzstan
Yet another amazing collection has been released by Antonovka Records, now based in Moldova. This collection features a Chinese Muslim ethnic group called the Dungan who live in the passes between Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, and surprisingly, they don’t write in Chinese, but in Cyrillic!
From Antonovka’s Bandcamp site:
“Most of the members of the ensemble Yunchi (“Happiness”) live in two Dungan villages in the Chuy region of Kyrgyzstan – Aleksandrovka and Milyanfan. Aleksandrovka is located in the Moskva district to the west of Bishkek. The village was named after the Emperor Alexander II of Russia, during whose reign the Dungans came here. The name Milyanfan means a place where rice grows in Dungan language. Milyanfan is located in the Ysyk-Ata district northeast of Bishkek, not far from the Kazakhstan border.”
Nurbek Serkebaev is a well known Kyrgyz folk musician who plays virtually all Kyrgyz traditional music instruments. The venerabl Antonovka Records have released yet another fine album of traditional music.
The Zacharivna Pisnya Ensemble are made up of ethnic Ukrainians who reside in the republic of Kyrgyzstan, and have existed as a group since 1902. Though some of their names have been Russified, they maintain their cultural ties to Ukraine via song.
Antonovka Records have done astounding work documenting such ensembles throughout Russia and Central Asia, and they should be commended for maintaining such high quality throughout each release.
There is little information available on Uyghur musicians Erkin Sadykov (vocal, dutar) and Abdugheni Abdurusul (tambur), but the quality of these recordings show a warm, sensitive interpretation of music we’re watching disintegrate before our eyes. Thankfully, Kyrgyzstan allows their Uyghur minority to live and protect their traditions in peace.