Trip to Bayan-Olgii : Kazakh music

The main reason Kozy wanted to visit Olgii was a female musician who plays Kazakh bowing string instrument "Qobïz". She also sometime sings while playing the instrument. It's pretty rare as a female player of this instrument.
She welcomed us very much with full of dishes on a table. We stayed at a night at her place, and made the recording of 30 songs!!
Her way of playing was like floating feathers but the sound reflects her deep spirituality as well.


Another incredible musician was a cousin of our translator (also a good friend since Khovd).
Even though she has known that Kozy is very interested in traditional music, she has never told about this cousin until actual meeting... Maybe it was just a part of her normal environment since childhood...
But his playing style of the flute "Sïbïzgï" was really special. Basically it's same as Mongolian flute "Zhool". They play this flute with a voice drone in the base note of the song. It gives rich overtone and texture in the sound.
Remarkably this flute doesn't have any reed. It just a tube with 3 holes for fingers!!
Although he plays Kazakh songs with this style, those songs are normally not played with voice drone in Kazakhstan.
He inherited the style from his grand father. But he has never seen other people who play like them.
So, in the meaning, his style was very original new traditional music of Kazakh-Mongolian.
I hope his son will inherit the style from him.

Another very famous Kazakh instrument is "Donbra". We could meet with people who play this instrument in everywhere in this area. So, it's real folk instrument of this area.
We were very glad to know that people still love their tradition. And it's deeply rooted in their life.
We've expected the "folk" music situation in whole Mongolia, but actually we could only see it in this Kazakh area.