COSMOTENGRI
Dedicated to Bakhtiyar Amanzhol
"CosmoTengri" is the new album by Kazakh composer Angelina Yershova. In this album she dwells on the subject of the protection of nature and of our planet's ecosystem - beginning from her own land, Kazakhstan - touching the global issues related to deforestation and sustainability. The leitmotif of the work is the mythical Tengri (Eternal Blue Sky), a supreme entity of the ancient religion of Central Asia characterized by shamanism.
It is no coincidence that the video of the first track of the album, "Korgau", was made by Kazakh artist and environmental activist Saltanat Tashimova. The video is dedicated to "Kok Zhailau", a mountain plateau in the Ile-Alatau State National Park. The trees of the video, in their verticality, represent the link between the telluric phase and the tension towards the plateau's summit (intended above all in a suggestive and metaphorical sense). In this view the "tree-child" identification in the final scenes of the video is of some note.
The fluidity of the music of Angelina Yershova follows the concept of the passage of time, in which nothing can remain unchanged and everything is subjected to change. The composer creates a shamanic and ancestral dimension where every sound element represents a precise meaning. For example, the resonances of the modified and elaborated fans, the self-made wind instruments and the harmonic singing (performed by Yershova herself) contribute in creating the hybrid, archaic and primordial mood linked to the shamanic rite (as in the track "Khan Tengri"), the image of the God Tengri, the cosmos, and the forces of nature, while the kazakh instrument kyl kobyz represents a "human dimension" created by emotions, and an aspiration towards ascension. The kyl kobyz was played by the talented kobyzist Gulzhan Amanzol, who also wrote the poem in the Kazakh language present in the track "Kamlanie", and sang in the track "Korgau".
The album proposes a radical change of inner awareness starting from the Earth ("Korgau" - the title of one of the tracks on the album - in Kazakh means "Protection") towards the union with the Cosmos, meant as the universal spirit that we can feel in the last track on the album "Ecstatic Dance".
music composed, performed, recorded, produced,
mixed & mastered by Angelina Yershova
kobyz, kyl kobyz: Gulzhan Amanzhol
voice: track 1,3 Gulzhan Amamzhol
cover artwork: Saltanat Tashimova
label: Twin Paradox Records
catalog: TPR 005
released April 18, 2019
Some Feedback:
-
A CLOSER LISTEN / Review / WEBZINE
"The album "CosmoTengri" by Angelina Yershova leads the listener towards environmental communion through a different path to those that entail a loss of self via repetition: in the sublime dazzle of the mountaintop we find ourselves full, and yet come to understand that we are but one more raindrop amidst a titanic thunderstorm.." (David Murrieta Flores)
- AFRICAN PAPER Webzine / Review / German
“Angelina Yershova hat ihr neues Album, dessen Titel auf den “Ewigen blauen Himmel”, eine pantheistische Gottheit aus archaischer Zeit verweist, mehrfach mit dem drohenden Zerfall des nicht nur regionalen Ökosystems in Verbindung gebracht, was einen solchen Deutungsaspekt nicht unplausibel erscheinen lässt. Doch gestaltet sich der Tumult in dieser 5 vor 12-Stimmung ausgesprochen kraftvoll. Das von Gulzhan Amanzol in Kasachisch geflüsterte Gedicht in “Kam Laure” schafft eine intime Stimmung, die durch immer lauter werdende rituelle Drums in Furor verwandelt wird.” (Uwe Schneider)
- ROCKERILLA / Review / Italy
"Benchè già allora avesse dimostrato uno spiccato interesse per l'elettronica, all'epoca del suo secondo disco Resonance Night (2017) Angelina Yershova presentava ancora evvidenti tracce della formazione classica. Radicalmente diversi sono gli orizzonti di Cosmo tengri, interamente ammantati dalla ricerca di equilibri spirituali tra uomo e natura, legati ad asoetti culturali della sua origine kazaka, rapresentata anche dall'uso del tradizionale kyl kobyz. Decisamente preponderante è tuttavia l'aspetto di sintesi del lavoro, costituito da flussi ambientali a pulsazioni ruvide, che coniugano al futuro un'ancestrale ritualità schiamanica." (Raffaello Russo)
- CHAINDLK Webzine / Review / USA
"Established Kazakh composer Yershova has a strong list of collaborations under belt and has worked with symphony orchestras, However this release is entirely her own work, with Yershova credited as writer, recording artist, producer, mixer and masterer of her own destiny here, in an album that sounds close and introspective, but which avoids sounding small. The result is an incredibly versatile showcase for a multi-talented artist, with a lot of breadth of moods and styles." ()
-
FBi Radio / Review / Australia
"Kazakh composer Angelina Yershova has released a few albums pitting her classical composition and piano skills against her electronic production wizardry. Her new album, one of a number on Italian label Twin Paradox Records, draws deeply from her Kazakh heritage - "Korgau" features Gulzhan Amanzhol on the kazakh string instrument the kyl-kobyz, and will come with a video produced by environmentalist film-maker Saltanat Tashimova about the Kok Zhailau mountain plateau in a Kazakh national park, currently threatened with deforestation. It's a beautiful piece in which Amanzhol's choral vocals and questing kobyz are surrounded by field recordings, droning electronics, slow percussion and whispered vocals. It's quite a contrast with the first track I played, which revels in drill'n'bass beats!
The album is released this Friday, much recommended." -
"Die kasachische Komponistin und Pianistin Angelina Yershova, die zwischen Rom, Berlin und Almaty lebt, ist ebenfalls klassisch ausgebildet. Auf CosmoTengri (Twin Paradox, VÖ 18. April), dem dritten Soloalbum auf ihrem eigenen Label, hat sie sich von sowohl vom Instrument wie von der dahinter liegenden Tradition der europäischen Klassik (und populären Neoklassik) weitgehend emanzipiert, im Sound wie in den Songstrukturen. Letztere emulieren Synth-Pop und zeitgenössische Elektronik, meist geben untergründig gerade oder angedeutet ungerade Beats die Struktur der Stücke vor. Ihr Sound verweist dagegen auf die reichen Texturen von Ambient. Die Stücke auf CosmoTengri sind geprägt von körnigen Field Recordings, dem markant kehlig schnarrenden Klang der zweisaitigen Rosshaar-Violine Kobyz und einem Stimmeinsatz der wie der Klang des Kobyz auf die rituellen Klänge kasachischer Schamanen verweist. Mit soundexotisch aufgemotzter World Music und esoterischem Anthropozän-New-Age hat das Album dennoch wenig bis nichts zu tun. Die ausgestellte naturreligiöse Erdverbundenheit ist digital dekonstruiert, vom Doppelspiegel elektronischen Pops und europäischer Komposition reflektiert."
COSMOTENGRI
Dedicated to Bakhtiyar Amanzhol
"CosmoTengri" is the new album by Kazakh composer Angelina Yershova. In this album she dwells on the subject of the protection of nature and of our planet's ecosystem - beginning from her own land, Kazakhstan - touching the global issues related to deforestation and sustainability. The leitmotif of the work is the mythical Tengri (Eternal Blue Sky), a supreme entity of the ancient religion of Central Asia characterized by shamanism.
It is no coincidence that the video of the first track of the album, "Korgau", was made by Kazakh artist and environmental activist Saltanat Tashimova. The video is dedicated to "Kok Zhailau", a mountain plateau in the Ile-Alatau State National Park. The trees of the video, in their verticality, represent the link between the telluric phase and the tension towards the plateau's summit (intended above all in a suggestive and metaphorical sense). In this view the "tree-child" identification in the final scenes of the video is of some note.
The fluidity of the music of Angelina Yershova follows the concept of the passage of time, in which nothing can remain unchanged and everything is subjected to change. The composer creates a shamanic and ancestral dimension where every sound element represents a precise meaning. For example, the resonances of the modified and elaborated fans, the self-made wind instruments and the harmonic singing (performed by Yershova herself) contribute in creating the hybrid, archaic and primordial mood linked to the shamanic rite (as in the track "Khan Tengri"), the image of the God Tengri, the cosmos, and the forces of nature, while the kazakh instrument kyl kobyz represents a "human dimension" created by emotions, and an aspiration towards ascension. The kyl kobyz was played by the talented kobyzist Gulzhan Amanzol, who also wrote the poem in the Kazakh language present in the track "Kamlanie", and sang in the track "Korgau".
The album proposes a radical change of inner awareness starting from the Earth ("Korgau" - the title of one of the tracks on the album - in Kazakh means "Protection") towards the union with the Cosmos, meant as the universal spirit that we can feel in the last track on the album "Ecstatic Dance".
music composed, performed, recorded, produced,
mixed & mastered by Angelina Yershova
kobyz, kyl kobyz: Gulzhan Amanzhol
voice: track 1,3 Gulzhan Amamzhol
cover artwork: Saltanat Tashimova
label: Twin Paradox Records
catalog: TPR 005
released April 18, 2019
Some Feedback:
-
A CLOSER LISTEN / Review / WEBZINE
"The album "CosmoTengri" by Angelina Yershova leads the listener towards environmental communion through a different path to those that entail a loss of self via repetition: in the sublime dazzle of the mountaintop we find ourselves full, and yet come to understand that we are but one more raindrop amidst a titanic thunderstorm.." (David Murrieta Flores)
- AFRICAN PAPER Webzine / Review / German
“Angelina Yershova hat ihr neues Album, dessen Titel auf den “Ewigen blauen Himmel”, eine pantheistische Gottheit aus archaischer Zeit verweist, mehrfach mit dem drohenden Zerfall des nicht nur regionalen Ökosystems in Verbindung gebracht, was einen solchen Deutungsaspekt nicht unplausibel erscheinen lässt. Doch gestaltet sich der Tumult in dieser 5 vor 12-Stimmung ausgesprochen kraftvoll. Das von Gulzhan Amanzol in Kasachisch geflüsterte Gedicht in “Kam Laure” schafft eine intime Stimmung, die durch immer lauter werdende rituelle Drums in Furor verwandelt wird.” (Uwe Schneider)
- ROCKERILLA / Review / Italy
"Benchè già allora avesse dimostrato uno spiccato interesse per l'elettronica, all'epoca del suo secondo disco Resonance Night (2017) Angelina Yershova presentava ancora evvidenti tracce della formazione classica. Radicalmente diversi sono gli orizzonti di Cosmo tengri, interamente ammantati dalla ricerca di equilibri spirituali tra uomo e natura, legati ad asoetti culturali della sua origine kazaka, rapresentata anche dall'uso del tradizionale kyl kobyz. Decisamente preponderante è tuttavia l'aspetto di sintesi del lavoro, costituito da flussi ambientali a pulsazioni ruvide, che coniugano al futuro un'ancestrale ritualità schiamanica." (Raffaello Russo)
- CHAINDLK Webzine / Review / USA
"Established Kazakh composer Yershova has a strong list of collaborations under belt and has worked with symphony orchestras, However this release is entirely her own work, with Yershova credited as writer, recording artist, producer, mixer and masterer of her own destiny here, in an album that sounds close and introspective, but which avoids sounding small. The result is an incredibly versatile showcase for a multi-talented artist, with a lot of breadth of moods and styles." ()
-
FBi Radio / Review / Australia
"Kazakh composer Angelina Yershova has released a few albums pitting her classical composition and piano skills against her electronic production wizardry. Her new album, one of a number on Italian label Twin Paradox Records, draws deeply from her Kazakh heritage - "Korgau" features Gulzhan Amanzhol on the kazakh string instrument the kyl-kobyz, and will come with a video produced by environmentalist film-maker Saltanat Tashimova about the Kok Zhailau mountain plateau in a Kazakh national park, currently threatened with deforestation. It's a beautiful piece in which Amanzhol's choral vocals and questing kobyz are surrounded by field recordings, droning electronics, slow percussion and whispered vocals. It's quite a contrast with the first track I played, which revels in drill'n'bass beats!
The album is released this Friday, much recommended." -
"Die kasachische Komponistin und Pianistin Angelina Yershova, die zwischen Rom, Berlin und Almaty lebt, ist ebenfalls klassisch ausgebildet. Auf CosmoTengri (Twin Paradox, VÖ 18. April), dem dritten Soloalbum auf ihrem eigenen Label, hat sie sich von sowohl vom Instrument wie von der dahinter liegenden Tradition der europäischen Klassik (und populären Neoklassik) weitgehend emanzipiert, im Sound wie in den Songstrukturen. Letztere emulieren Synth-Pop und zeitgenössische Elektronik, meist geben untergründig gerade oder angedeutet ungerade Beats die Struktur der Stücke vor. Ihr Sound verweist dagegen auf die reichen Texturen von Ambient. Die Stücke auf CosmoTengri sind geprägt von körnigen Field Recordings, dem markant kehlig schnarrenden Klang der zweisaitigen Rosshaar-Violine Kobyz und einem Stimmeinsatz der wie der Klang des Kobyz auf die rituellen Klänge kasachischer Schamanen verweist. Mit soundexotisch aufgemotzter World Music und esoterischem Anthropozän-New-Age hat das Album dennoch wenig bis nichts zu tun. Die ausgestellte naturreligiöse Erdverbundenheit ist digital dekonstruiert, vom Doppelspiegel elektronischen Pops und europäischer Komposition reflektiert."