In 1000 songs of the Kazakh People we look for lost and forgotten worlds, re-visit the faded empires and imagine a different future.

An open grassland of the Great Steppe of Western Kazakhstan emerges washed in blinding sunshine. Somewhere a large antique radio from the 1930s emits noise. Now and then fragments of music break through the crackle – centuries-old folk tunes mixed with intermittent bursts of Soviet classical music which is in turn washed away by pulsating ’80s pop. Choral music is briefly heard - a voice from the past sings a beautiful song, but you can’t make out the words.

In 1000 songs of the Kazakh People Aisha Orazbayeva, Ictus ensemble and Samrattama construct a collage of these disparate worlds, reconciling them into a coherent musical narrative. You will hear Soviet & new arrangements of folk music from the collection 1000 songs of the Kazakh People as well as the new works by Aisha Orazbayeva & Samrat Irzhasov, who like many young post-Soviet artists attempt to trace a through-line across the many layers of their musical heritage guiding them in the search for a modern Kazakh identity.