Sen

Sevara Nazarkhan

Released 30 June 2007

  1. Korgim Kelar (I Want To See You)
  2. Bu Sevgi (This Love)
  3. Erkalab (Caress)
  4. Kunlarim Sensiz (My Days Without You)
  5. Sen (You)
  6. Bakhtimdan
  7. Kuigai (Ablaze)
  8. Ne Kechar
  9. Kuyoshga
  10. Tushim (My Dream)
  11. Debochadan (Prelude)

Liner notes

Sen —which means ‘you’ in Uzbek— sees the irrepressible, ever curious artist leaping boldly into contemporary writing and production. This is the album Sevara has always wanted to make: a looping, shimmering, beats-laden gem underscored by traditional instrumentation and, with Uzbek-language lyrics provided by past and present Uzbek poets, sent soaring by her unforgettable voice.

“I don’t think in terms of contemporary versus traditional or Western versus central Asian,” says Sevara, 31. “I live in all those worlds. I’m lucky: when I feel fed up with modern life I can luxuriate in the beauty of tradition, with the music my folks presented me with. Other days I can indulge myself by playing around with sounds, by having fun experimenting, exploring and sometimes,” she adds with a grin, “even panicking.”

With the exception of two long-time favourites, Bakhtimdan (a song of beauty and happiness) and the oft-recorded Uzbeki classic Kuigai (lent an extra dimension here), all the tracks on Sen were composed by Sevara. And all were produced by herself in collaboration with Russian electro-techno wizard Victor Sologub and the West Country’s much-touted Bruno Ellingham.

The making of the album 'Sen'

“I simply love working with a kaleidoscope of musical bits,” she says in her chatty, upbeat way. “That is my ocean to dive into. I choose lyrics very carefully. Uzbek poetry is intoxicating, emotionally-involving. It tends to lose its magic in translation; perhaps you have to be Uzbek to truly comprehend it. But the emotion and feeling are the same.” Oral poetry has particular significance in Uzbekistan. It is the language of both the natural and the spiritual worlds, heavy on metaphor and delightful to the ear. “A flower or a star might represent a lover. A love song may be a hymn to God. It has always been like this: I use excerpts from a 13th Century poem written by the great poet Saadiy (Debochadan), just as I do a poem by the 16-year-old boy who approached me on the Tashkent metro a few years back (Tushim).”

Sen was created with touring in mind. Onstage, Sevara is a whirl of joyous, co-ordinated movement; her love of live performance is as palpable as her spontaneous, child-like nature. The sort of seize-the-day spirit, in fact, that saw her persuade the famously uncompromising Victor Sologub – late of Soviet post punk outfit Strannye Igry— to come on board and produce. Sologub is now an avowed fan for life. “I love Victor’s mix of craziness and sincerity,” Sevara says. “We met when I watched him recording his album in St Petersburg. I loved his ideas and the way he worked. So I phoned him up and asked him to come to Tashkent to do some programming.”

Photo credit: York Tillyer.

Sen began as all great albums should: as a bunch of jams. Sevara’s compositions evolved courtesy of a tight-knit band playing everything from twanging tanbur lute and rhythmic doira frame drum to keyboards and bass-guitar. Convinced and intrigued, Sologub visited Sevara’s home studio in downtown Tashkent, in the city’s quieter, non-industrial green belt. “It was days of fierce fighting, lots of arguments and lots of learning for me,” she laughs. “We’d work on the songs. My band would play their lines. Then we’d lunch in a nearby Bukhara cafe while Victor would swim for an hour in the Soy, the canal that passes a few hundred metres from my home. Then we’d go back to work. There wasn’t much time for fun, though I suspect Victor spent more than a few late evenings in the local nightclubs.”

Everyone then decamped to Real World, where Sologub’s inspired electronic treatments were carefully remoulded by the equally visionary Bruno Ellingham. Where Sevara, determined to pour exactly the right emotion and power into each and every track, re-recorded all of her glorious vocals —including all the backing arrangements— until they did precisely that. “There were never any constraints on me with this album,” she says happily. “No one said ‘we want this’ or ‘we want that’. Everyone at Real World was very supportive— maybe a bit worried, too, I guess.” They needn’t have been. “That freedom helped me create an album that I am very, very proud of.”

Sen: a gorgeous, song-driven album, as melodious as it is danceable, as harmonious as it is edgy. An album that treads both traditional and contemporary paths. Which, for that matter, today’s Silk Road does anyway.

“Is Sen traditional or contemporary?” Sevara Nazarkhan gives a good-natured shrug. “That’s for other people to decide.”

“But either way,” she says, shaking out her long dark hair and flashing a dazzling smile. “Sen is who I am.”

Words by Jane Cornwell

Listen

Reviews

  • Perhaps the most stunning mixture of ancient traditional music from a culture completely removed from ours, with the most modern and intricate western sounds that has yet hit the streets. Rough Trade (UK)
  • Production boffins have made the mix subtly funkier and spurred Nazarkhan to stretch her vocals, which tumble between yearning wails and seductive whispers. It adds up to a lovely and original creation. The Guardian (UK)
  • Strange and lovely electronic atmospherics cosy up to traditional instruments in the most enchanting way... the songs inhabit their own carefully honed universe, redefining the idea of the ballad, while also being groove-driven... utterly compelling. Independent on Sunday (UK)
  • Is this world music or pop? Are they mutually exclusive? Not if you are Sevara. File her under Electronica: world division.... Russian producer Victor Sologub uses both programmed rhythms and local instruments to provide an environment that encourages the adventurous singer to reach for and find melodies that soon become definitive.... This is Sevara's second international release and matches the achievements of the first, confirmation that she is one of the world's leading singers seeking effective routes to the ears of those beyond her nation's borders. Treasure and applaud her. The Observer (UK)

Further Listening

  • Yol Bolsin

    Sevara Nazarkhan

    Released 03 February 2003

    A collection of folk and peasant songs from Uzbekistan, a country that formally broke with the Soviet Union in 1991 and has worked hard to reassert its rich cultural identity ever since. Imbued with echoes of Persian classical music and the meditational Sufi tradition, traditional Uzbek music takes the form of poetic songs called ‘maqams’.
  • Anian

    9Bach

    Released 28 April 2016

    ‘Anian’ is 9Bach's third album. Like 2014's ‘Tincian’ it begins in North Wales, but broadens out through Greek and Near Eastern influences into an emotional tour de force. Angry, sad, but most of all passionate at the state of the world, the album taps into a truly universal language.

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