Ulytau: Classical Music meets Folk and Rock

Thursday, December 15, 2011 in Classical Music, Dombra, Heavy Metal, Kazakhstan, Turkish Music, Ulytau

Have you ever listened a group makes Rock music blended with classical music and local elements? There are some rock based classical music albums from famous singers and groups such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Trans Siberian Orchestra, Danney Alkana. This kind of music is one of my favorites, I will post some reviews about this kind of albums in my following posts. Today, we will know more about a group Kazakhstan which performs metal music combined with classical music and local music elements.The group was founded on 2001 to merge Western and Eastern music with some traditional Turkish instruments. Their music combines the sound of violin and electric guitar with the Dombra. It is a traditional two stringed instrument from middle Asia which made by the old Turkish civilizations in Middle Asia.

We can say Ulytau is a trio including violin, dombra and electric guitar. The group performs instrumental music. Although their music is Heavy Metal, the music is easy listening, likeable and beautiful. Alua Makanova plays violin, Maxim Kichigin plays guitar, and Erjan Alimbetov plays Dombra. And, there are some guest performers who play bass, drum, keyboard and so on. They only have one album released in 2006. The group also released a video DVD in 2009. The group had some concerts in Germany, England, Scotland, Poland, USA, Turkey, China, Japan and Russia.

Their album Jumyr-Kylysh was released in 2006, the same album released in Germany in 2009 named in Two Warriors. Let’s know more about the album.

Track list of the album is given below. 

• Adai
• Winter (Four Seasons)
• Kurishiler
• Jumyr-Kylysh
• Ata Tolgauy
• Toccata and Fugue
• Turkish March
• Yapyr-Ai (folk song)
• Teriskakpai

• Kokil

At the first sight to the track list, we can see some acquaintance songs. Winter Four Season is the Winter section of Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Turkish March is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s famous march, and Toccata and Fugue is Johann Sebastian Bach’s immortal composition. They perform those compositions very well and harmony between guitar and violin is perfect. They are extremely suggested songs in the album.

Adai is their awarded song. They were awarded the Golden Disc for this song. Jumyr-Kylysh is a perfect song with Dombra, Violin and Guitar. You should listen Dombra’s sound especially. Two stringed instruments made the music likeable.

They only have one album and this album deserves your interest. Buy it to support the group to get new albums. I believe that they will carry their music to higher levels. Finally, the group’s website is given below. You can listen some of their songs on their MySpace profile.

http://www.ulytau.ru
http://www.myspace.com/ulytau

Bye for now.