Zulya

Elusive Zulya

- Artist of the Year 2001 - World Music Artist of the Year 2002 (Australian Live Music Awards) - Album of the year 2000 for 'Aloukie' (Australian World Music Awards) - World Music Album of the Year 2003 (nomination for 'elusive') Award-winning Zulya Kamalova is the leading proponent of Tatar music in Australia as well as one of the most versatile and accomplished vocalists on the world music scene today. A native of Volga River region of Central Russia, Zulya began performing Russian and Tatar songs at the age of 9. Later she studied music and languages at university level. Inspired by the diversity of cultures, Zulya made a dramatic decision to settle in Australia in 1991 and began to not only share her indigenous music, but master the musical and linguistic riches of the multitude of cultures living side by side in Australia. The release of her album 'elusive' finds Zulya at the edge of an exciting new stage in her already illustrious career. Zulya's new totally original album is an affirmation of her unique identity, but an affirmation of the progressive type, and most definitely not of the conservative type! Her music reflects not only the cultural wealth of her background - Tatar, Russian, Australian - but also an ongoing fascination with experimenting with timbres and styles, manifested in employing of a diversity of unusual instruments and instrumentation (kora, oud, bouzouki, litungu, jaw harp, kalimba, tuba, flugel horn, saxillo, tabla, ghatam, violin, accordion, and others). In command of this formidable array of instruments are some of the best musicians in Australia: Blair Greenberg, Llew Kiek, Epizo Bangoura, Davood Tabrizi to name a few. The unorthodox and sometimes adventurous arrangments on 'elusive' are nonetheless delicately sparse, and above all there is Zulya's beautiful voice - pure and powerfully commanding in delivery.