This is one of the few Eurovisions that actually featured a band I like, Zdob si Zdub. There’s no way a hard rock song could win, but I like bands that use horns and traditional instruments in rock genres. And I’m glad they at least got to participate.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/n78sM1pl04I

While the stars claim that their desire to make this video was purely voluntary, it does coincide with the administration’s message. The opposition is pushing a campaign to boycott the vote. Having garnered 5 million signatures in support of the referendum, it would be embarrassing for the President if he didn’t get around the same number of votes in the election. If the opposition can keep voter turnout low, it will cast into doubt Nazarbayev’s claim that he has a mandate from the population of Kazakahstan.

In any case, it is hard to be against a message to encourage young people to vote, even if none of the candidates are to their liking

According to this YouTube Video:

His name is Ernar Kaldynov, was born in Karoi, small village in Western Kazakhstan.

in 2007 he took part as singer with dombra(Kazakh National Instrument) in SuperStar.KZ show (Kazakh version of American Idol), but did not progressed (sic) to the final stage. However he became popular after the video of his performance was posted on YouTube and millions of users became his fans.

He currently performs as a sole(sic) artist of an orchestra in a small town Kalbatau.

Ernar is married and is going to be a father of his first son in May 2010.

This video was recorded by local journalist from regional newspaper in Kazakhstan

And this entry on Youtube with the same video adds some details and gives a link to the interview:

Having done with a casting on teleproject “superstar” (Pop Idol in Kazakhstan) he returned back to his city Oskemen.. Later on when his videos began to roll wave on the youtube domestic producers became interested in him. He was found through local forum of his city where was written about him. Now he sings to reporters of this resource.

Ernar Kaldynov originally from village Karoy of Tarbagatay District, a graduate of the regional boarding school named after Zhambyl. Married in 2009, has a child and works in the district House of Culture as a soloist of Kazakh instruments.

They also link to an interview with him from the local Ust-Kammengorsk paper: http://yk.kz/news/show/6737

In any case here it is, Freestailo 2010:

So he is still alive, still making music, aware of his fame, and he is going to be a father soon. Congratulations Ernar and please make a techno-dombro album soon! Although if the interview is any indication, he seems content working for the local orchestra and doesn’t have any plans for a more ambitious career. Which is too bad. As one commenter on YouTube said, “I’ll gladly trade Lady Gaga for Ernar.”

And Mashina Vremeni is a fun band to see live. They play around on stage. The guitarist, Margulis, often looked up at the video screen and mugged at the audience when he saw himself. Kutikov had fun encouraging the audience to clap, snap and sing along and I think Makarevich smiled 60% of the time. They were playing with a trumpet player/percussionist/back-up singer who did a fair amount of playing around with Margulis and the other band members. Overall it looked like they were having a great time which was contagious. I’m not overly familiar with their songs–the language barrier and the fact that radio time usually goes to pop projects make it a bit difficult–but I’ve tried to put together a partial set list, and if anyone else was there, please feel free to comment and add songs:

Кастёр
Улетай
Мой друг
Марионетки
За тех, кто в море
Шанхай блюз
Эти веки нечиво не хлынуть (I think that’s what it was called; it was a new song and really, really good!)

Encore:
Однажды мир прогнётся под нас
Поворот

Anyway, on to a review of the album itself. It’s a solid release from the band that features a domibra player, a metal guitarist and a violin player as well as a rhythm section of drummer, keyboards and a bass-player. If you’ve heard Ulytau before, the tracks on this album are not a surprise. If you haven’t, think Vanessa Mae and other classical/rock/prog-rock/electronic pop fusion bands that are influenced by Yes, Metallica, and Bach. What Ulytau adds to this admittedly small but popular genre is the Kazakh influence. The sound of the dombira itself is quite unique. While a guitar can also double as a rhythm or a lead instrument, the way the dombira is plucked adds a percussive quality to the tune.

Beyond that, seven out of the ten tracks on Jumyr Kylysh are Kazakh folk songs. The other three are classical works, but the one of them is the Turkish inspired Turkish March by Mozart. The other two are Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in Dminor and Winter from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

In general, Ulytau is a talented ensemble and there are no flaws in their playing or their arrangements. They tend to err on the side of melodiousness in this particular album, which I appreciate because some of their other works (and works by other Kazakh musicians who use electronica in their tunes) has erred on the side of pop, with sweet keyboard melodies or hard hitting beats. It’s certainly one of their best albums. I am particularly fond of their arrangement of the well-known (in Kazakhstan, of course)Ata Tolgauy. It’s been covered by Urker, among others, and shows up as incidental music at concerts, plays, in TV shows and movies. With it’s simple melody, you’d think I’d be sick to death of this tune. But their arrangement of it starts off as a poppy ballad complete with synth pan-pipes, then moves to an acoustic-guitar driven rhythm section, making it sound like the Eagles or Dan Fogelberg. The distorted guitar comes in, without being overbearing, and brings us to a counter theme. Toward the end we get the tune in a more traditional setting, with violin and guitar playing the melody in unison, and the dombira in the background. It’s a clean, little arrangement that never gets boring, but doesn’t overshadow the tune itself.

Their cover of the Turkish March is also fun as they switch around with which instrument plays the lead melody. The disco-funk vamp intro, which reappears half-way through the song to back up a Kazakh melody, promises something a little more fun that never gets realized. Yapyr-Ai, a ballad, is nicely placed in the middle of the album as it’s a fairly straight-forward tune without a lot of production effects. It sounds like Asylbek Enseppov could have done it and it refreshes the ear from all the prog-rock.

The biggest disappointment is probably the Toccata and Fugue. It’s a tune that the whole world knows so it’s hard to do something original with it. And Vanessa Mae got big doing a rock-fusion version. Here Ulytau basically covers Vanessa Mae covering Bach. Except for the “Here We Go Now” and some of the more overtly techno parts of Mae’s version, this pretty much sounds like Mae.

Overall, this is a solid album, and an excellent introduction to the talented group. I do hope that in the future they will explore other genres of music and choose a few more obscure tunes or even move into composition, but I will definitely be making a trip to the record store (am I showing my age?) to pick this album up.

It’s being sold now in Kazakhstan in record shops and is also available on Amazon.com or off of iTunes as an MP3 download under the nameTwo Warriors. You can get the whole album or download individual tracks. Interestingly the band’s official website lists Paramount Records as the producer of the album, so perhaps it is available for purchase in Western countries.

Ulytau consists of Nurgaysha Sadvakasova (violin), Max Kichigin (solo-guitar), Erzhan Alimbetov (dombira), Novel Adonin (keys), Evgeniy Sizov (bass-guitar), Igori Dzhavad-Back (percussion) and is the brainchild of producer/musician Kydyrali Bolmanov.

Note: the concert poster on the right is for the Almaty show.