Rare Recordings of Kazakh Folk Music Discovered

cover Photo: Igor Ulitin, Orda.kz

A musical heritage once thought lost has returned to Kazakhstan. Rare recordings of Kazakh folk music, created almost a century ago, have been discovered in a Moscow archive, Orda.kz reports.

According to the Ministry of Culture, the Central State Archive of Film, Photo, and Sound Recordings of Kazakhstan has received unique recordings: the folk kyui Yestek, performed on the sybyzgy by Yskak Ualiyev, and the song Zauresh by composer Mukhit Meralyuly.

The recordings were uncovered last year in the State Archive of Sound Documents in Moscow as part of the state program Archive 2025. Experts believe they date back to the 1930s and 1940s, during the Decade of Kazakh Literature and Art in the USSR capital.

The find is considered an important reminder of the recognition Kazakhstan’s national art received during the Soviet era. 

In 2024, the recordings were officially transferred to Kazakhstan’s National Archives, restoring a piece of the country’s cultural memory.

Original Author: Alina Pak

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