SAMARKAND ­ there it is still around ­ the once booming centre of the Silkroad from Peking to Istanbul. NASIBA from SAMARKAND embodies in her music the synthesis of Orient and Oczident.

Nasiba Abdullaeva, born in Samarkand, is a well known Uzbek ethno-pop Artist and was chosen by the Uzbek people as the „People’s Artist of Uzbekistan“. She started her singing career at a secondary school singing in a choir hobby group. She also attended music school and graduated from the department of accordion. Being a pupil, Nasiba participated in different national contests and always won first places. Nasiba, yet has a higher education – she graduated from the Institute (college) of Culture in Tashkent and was enrolled in the Samarkand Philharmonic Society as a solo singer in 1980. After that she started touring not only Uzbekistan, but also all over Central Asia, with appearances on TV and radio and releases of her audio albums, which were very popular with the Central Asian people.

Nasiba’s first foreign tour was in India in 1988 where she was invited by the Indian President. This first tour abroad was a great success and brought her on further tours through Israel, Turkey, Japan and also Germany and the USA.

Blue Flame Records discovered Nasiba during a trip to Uzbekistan. Her songs were recorded and only had to be re-produced. This was done in Tashkent and in Germany from Lenny Mac Dowell and Aziz Khalmuratov, Nasiba’s band leader.

„Samarkand“, the silkroad city of mosques is the name of Nasiba’s first CD production. Not all tracks are written by Nasiba; Oleg Fesov (musician, author and producer from Duschanbe, Tadjikistan) composed 3 tracks – „Marav“, „Amina“ and „Armonia“. These 3 tracks are sung by Nasiba in Farsi, the Persian native language. Nasiba is gifted with the abilitiy to sing in many languages: Uzbek, Tadjik, Azerbaijanian, Russian, French, Greek, Farsi, Turkish, Arabic, Hindi and others. She doesn’t just compose traditional Uzbek musik, but also writes melodies of common understanding in Tadjikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan or even Afghanistan.

Her debut album stands for the modern music culture of Central Asia. Even with western influences, she and her musicians keep Uzbek music tradition in firm view. Traditional instruments, such as the Tandur, Doire, Sitar and Tarabuka come in side by side with modern grooves and keyboards. The songs are a mix between celebration and melancholy, between happiness and sorrow and are like a short voyage through the musical culture of Central Asia.