Yol Bolsin

Sevara's acclaimed 2002 debut Yol Bolsin ('Where Are You Going') is a collection of traditional, folk and peasant songs from Uzbekistan, a country that formally broke with the Soviet Union in 1991 and has worked hard to reassert its rich cultural identity ever since. Music is a priority: imbued with echoes of Persian classical music and the meditational Sufi tradition, traditional Uzbek music takes the form of age-old poetic songs called maqams. Many such maqams are as well-known in Uzbekistan as those of the country's now booming - and gloriously cheesy - pop industry. Within which, coincidentally, Sevara Nazarkhan happens to be a major player. "Our youth listen to a lot of traditional music. These are songs they grew up with. We don't dismiss them as boring as some Western cultures might." Sevara pauses, sighs. "Traditional music has been tested by time and generations, too," she offers. "It is always travelling and developing, which in turn pushes me to go further and experiment with other sounds."