Yol Bolsin

The history of a lone woman singing and accompanying herself on a string instrument is ancient. It is a familiar image in manuscripts and miniature paintings from Iran, Turkey, the Middle East, and China— the countries and regions of the legendary Silk Route. In places that evoke the exotic, like Bukhara and Samarkand —the cities of modern day Uzbekistan— music was advanced and courtly. A female singer and instrumentalist epitomised high culture.

Sevara Nazarkhan —an Uzbek singer, songwriter and musician— is a direct descendent of this past. Her instrument is the doutar – a 15th century, two-stringed, Central Asian lute that is plucked not strummed. For this album’s doutar-playing, however, Sevara borrows the hands and experience of Toir Kuziyev, a master of instrumentation. In Toir’s hands and Sevara’s voice an ancient tradition breathes.