The Hand Gallery

Described by Sound Projector as a "profoundly radical and inventive" violinist and as "a great talent" by The Telegraph - Aisha Orazbayeva's 'The Hand Gallery' is the debut album via PRAH Recordings - the new label set-up by Moshi Moshi's Stephen Bass. "The overall idea of the album is a slow and gradual process taking apart the violin sound" says Aisha and features her reinterpretations of music from an eclectic collection of musicians - Steve Reich, Morton Feldman, Elvis Presley and John Cale - along with her own compositions. Opener Violin Phase (1967) by Steve Reich and performed live sets the scene - "the kind of solid, rhythmic material which is ideal for 'unravelling' the music to come." Her lilting take on Harbor Lights taken from Elvis Presley's 1954 Sun Sessions sees Aisha take lead vocal and replaces the original guitar and bass with three plucked violins. A student of the renowned World College Of The Adriatic, Aisha has worked with Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Helmut Lachenmann, the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, Pierre Boulez, Peter Eotvos and Sir Colin Davies. As a soloist she has performed at the Aldeburgh, Klangspuren and Latitude festivals, and venues including Wigmore Hall, King's Place, Vortex Jazz Club, Café Oto, Zankel and Weill Recital Halls at Carnegie Hall, La Maison de Radio France in Paris, Le Corum in Montpellier and London's South Bank. Aisha has performed live on BBC Radio 3 and 4, France Musique and Kazakh National TV. Other performance broadcasts include Radio France, Resonance FM, WQXR New York and ORF Austrian TV.