Dutar, doira and a sampler: how Sevara Nazarkhan's sound is built

The dutar sits at the centre of most of Sevara Nazarkhan's records. It is a two-stringed Central Asian lute. Real World Records dates it to the fifteenth century and says its strings were first made of gut and later of silk, when trade along the Silk Road grew. The label describes the tone as warm and sweet.

On Yol Bolsin the dutar belongs to Toir Kuziyev, whom the Real World page credits as a master of the instrument. The doira, a small flat frame drum, keeps time. Hector Zazou layered electric guitars, keyboards, samples, loops and electronic beats over those parts. The repertoire is folk, Sufi and peasant songs that go back to the oral poetry of the region. The album opens with "Yor-Yor," a song to the bride, and also holds "Orik Gullaganda," which translates as "When Apricot Blossoms," and "Alla," a lullaby.

Reviewer Angel Romero of World Music Central notes that some of these lyrics touch on taboo subjects, such as the hope of marrying outside an arranged match. He also points out that the bakhshi, the bards of the Central Asian tradition who sang to reach their spiritual ancestors, were traditionally men. A young woman singing this material gave it a different position.

Sen, from 2007, shifts the proportions. Real World lists tanbur, doira, keyboards and bass guitar in her band, and the production rests on loops and beats. The lyrics are poems by Uzbek poets of the past and present, and the liner notes call the result a shimmering record built from loops and rhythm.

Tortadur (2011) sounds sparse. Nigel Williamson of Songlines, who gave it four stars out of five, hears the dutar and tanbur lutes, the doira, the nai flute and the qanun zither in the hands of leading Uzbek musicians, with a voice recorded close and intimate, so that the listener feels like an outsider at a private gathering. He calls it a sharp break from the beats and pop polish of her two Real World albums. World Music Central lists the players and the poets whose verses she set, among them Bobur and the Sufi master Mashrab.

According to World Music Central, the album recreates the women's gatherings where people came together for music, tea and conversation. In "Yovvoi Tanovar" Sevara sings into a tea saucer. In "Galdir Talqinchasi" her voice stands against the rougher singing of the male musicians. Many of the lyrics come from Sufi poets, and Williamson hears their devotional tone even though love-themed Sufi verse can read as either secular or sacred. He has one complaint: the booklet carries no translations, so the Sufi poetry stays out of reach for most listeners.