Various Artists – Young Flowers: Music of Kazakhs from Orenburg Region (Antonovka Records, 2024)
On Young Flowers, a field recording compilation from the Adamovsky district of southwestern Russia’s Orenburg region, the voices of Kazakh villagers drift like wind across the steppe, melodic, proud, and poignantly rooted in place.
There are roughly 600,000 Kazakhs living in Russia today, forming the country’s tenth-largest ethnic group. Most are indigenous to the borderlands, regions that have never ceased being Kazakh in language, memory, or song, even as they’ve been redrawn on maps. The Orenburg region, where this album was recorded, sits along the second-longest land border in the world, after the one between the U.S. and Canada. In the Adamovsky district alone, Kazakhs constitute a third of the population.
The group at the heart of Young Flowers, Zhas Gulem (rendered correctly in modern Kazakh Latin as Jas Gülim), is led by Amanzhol Ismukhambetov, who also appears as a soloist. They perform mainly familiar folk songs. These are interpretations shaped by locality: rooted in the everyday, filtered through decades of semi-isolation, and modified by regional accent, phrasing, and emotional tenor. Even the group’s name, “Young Flowers,” implies regeneration.
What strikes the listener first is the unadorned intimacy of the recordings. There is no studio polish, no attempt at modernization. Instead, we hear voices and instruments, dombra, kobyz, hand drums, captured in community spaces and living rooms, sometimes with audible footfalls or children in the background. These are not disruptions; they are invitations into a world still breathing tradition.
The vocal style across the album is plaintive and flexible, full of ornamentation and microtonal nuance. It recalls the Kazakh zhyrau or epic singers of the steppe. “Ay, Arym, Ay” or “Kyzyl Gül” are passed like heirlooms, fragments of an ongoing conversation between generations.
It’s worth noting that this repertoire overlaps significantly with that of Kazakhs living in western Kazakhstan, across the modern border.
As with other releases on Antonovka Records, the album is modest in presentation but rigorous in purpose. The label has established a quiet but vital archive of minority and regional music traditions in Russia and beyond.
Performers (on the album cover photo from top to bottom left to right): Amanzhol Ismukhambetov (apart from the ensemble) — tracks 7, 8, 10; Turebek Makashev (Belopolye village) — 5, 11-14; Mukhtar Tulkubaev — 10; Raziya Zhakupova — 1; Zhas Gulem Ensemble — 4, 6, 9; Kusem Village Choir — 2, 3.
Recorded in the Adamovka House of culture.
Track list
- Zaureş | Зауреш | Зауреш
Raziya Zhakupova | Разия Жакупова - Green Meadows | Қоғанай | Зелёные луга
Kusem Village Choir | Хор села Кусем - Dedication to Mother | Ана туралы жыр | Посвящение маме
Kusem Village Choir | Хор села Кусем - Lullaby | Келші, келші, бопешім | Колыбельная
Zhas Gulem Ensemble | Ансамбль «Жас гулем» - The Real Kazakh | Терме «Қазақ осы» | Настоящий казах
Turebek Makashev | Туребек Макашев - On the River Bank | Арыс жағасында | На берегу реки
Zhas Gulem Ensemble | Ансамбль «Жас гулем» - Balqadişa | Балқадиша | Балкадиша
Amanzhol Ismukhambetov | Аманжол Исмухамбетов - Black Eyes | Көзімнің қарасы | Чёрные глаза
Amanzhol Ismukhambetov | Аманжол Исмухамбетов - Ägugai | Әгугай | Агугай
Zhas Gulem Ensemble | Ансамбль «Жас гулем» - Aitys (Song Competition) | Айтыс | Айтыс (песня-состязание)
Amanzhol Ismukhambetov, Mukhtar Tulkubaev | Аманжол Исмухамбетов, Мухтар Тулкубаев - Betaşar (Song for the Unveiling of the Bride’s Face) | Беташар | Беташар (открытие лица невесты)
Turebek Makashev | Туребек Макашев - Greetings to Mother | Анаға сәлем | Приветствие матери
Turebek Makashev | Туребек Макашев - Küi 1 | Күй 1 | Кюй 1
Turebek Makashev | Туребек Макашев - Küi 2 | Күй 2 | Кюй 2
Turebek Makashev | Туребек Макашев
Buy Young Flowers
Author: Tyler Bennet
