The surprising sounds of the Silk Roads

In the 1980s, Uzbekistan was a unique cultural meeting place. During the second world war, the Central Asian country became home for many of the 16 million people evacuated and forcibly transported by the Soviet authorities from the Russian frontlines. Among those displaced were musicians and recording engineers from Uyghur, Korean, Tajik and Tatar backgrounds, most of whom made their new lives in the capital city of Tashkent. 

It was there, at the convergence of the ancient Silk Road trading routes, that these communities began to formulate their own distinct hybrid musical cultures. From Tatar jazz fusion to early Uzbek dancefloor electronics, Korean folk-pop and Uyghur rock, those nascent musical styles were circulated widely within Central Asia. Just a decade before the fall of the iron curtain, the local Tashkent Gramplastinok plant was churning out 200 million records per year and a thriving disco scene existed in the country. In 1991, however, when the Soviet Union collapsed and Uzbekistan gained independence, this wellspring of creativity all but dried up. 

Read the feature on Hyphen Online.

[This piece was published on 17/09/24]