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Galya Bisengalieva is a Kazakh composer, producer and violinist whose work transcends genre. Known for her striking originality and virtuosic command of her instrument, she occupies a singular space in music. Her first two releases, EP ONE and TWO, were issued on NOMAD Music Productions, the label she founded to champion experimental sounds.
In 2020 she released her debut album Aralkum. Galya’s focus on wide expanses of tone suit the album’s subject: the Aral Sea and the desolate landscapes formed from its disastrous shrinking. October 2023 saw the release of Polygon turning her attention to one of the darkest episodes in Kazakh history - the radioactive legacy of the Semipalatinsk Test Site. Born into a family of classical and folk musicians in the Kazakh capital Almaty in the late 1980s, Galya’s own early childhood overlapped with the latter part of the forty-year period during which the former Soviet Union conducted 456 nuclear tests, creating more fallout than Chernobyl. On the aptly titled Polygon, Galya demonstrates the power of music to convey a story even as complex as this one as she considers its environmental, geological and geopolitical aspects.
An internationally-recognised performer, Galya has appeared at venues including the Barbican, Royal Festival Hall, Concertgebouw, Elbphilharmonie and the Paris Philharmonie, Brooklyn Academy of Arts, ACE Theatre LA, Béla Bartók Concert Hall, Victoria Hall, BOZAR, Teatro Colòn and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai. Recently she was invited to showcase her works at the ICA London, Haus Der Kunst, National Sawdust, Kiezsalon, Berliner Festspiele, Le Guess Who, Rewire, WOS and Donau Festivals.
She has closely collaborated with some of the world’s finest musicians including Moor Mother, Pauline Oliveros, Suzanne Ciani, Laurie Spiegel, Terry Riley, Jlin, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Thom Yorke and Actress. Her solo and improvisation work have featured on film soundtracks and TV productions including You Were Never Really Here, Sing Sing, The Two Popes, The Master, Suspiria and on albums by Frank Ocean, Taylor Swift, Radiohead, Justice, The National and Sigur Rós.
Galya’s work has extended into the world of fashion with collaborations for Norlha, Phoebe English, Renata Brenha, Gerbase, Burberry and Alexander McQueen. Her music has been featured in publications including The Wire, FACT, Boiler Room, Pitchfork, The Quietus, Sound on Sound and NOWNESS.
