You’ve probably heard Galya Bisengalieva’s violin before. Her sweepingly melodic and yet piercingly brittle bowing and plucking is a distinct, elevating voice on everything from Jonny Greenwood’s soundtracks for Phantom Thread and You Were Never Really Here to Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool and Frank Ocean’s Blonde. As leader of the London Contemporary Orchestra, the Kazakh-British violinist is used to making other people’s compositions her own, but with her second solo release, EP Two, Bisengalieva moves centrestage.
Comprised of pieces written by turntablist and composer Shiva Feshareki and experimental composer Chaines, as well as one by Bisengalieva herself, the resulting record is a deep dive into a digital orchestra of her own making. Opener Zohra, by Feshareki, features droning strings scraping across fractal drum’n’bass, while Chaines’s Claycorn resolves into captivating techno, reminiscent of Bisengalieva’s work with the producer Actress on 2018’s Lageos. The highlight comes on Bisengalieva’s Umay, where she builds siren-like strings into a terror-inducing crescendo.
It makes for a challenging listen, but demands the listener return for more, and reveals Bisengalieva not only as star violinist but as a producing force to be reckoned with.
Galya Bisengalieva’s EP One is out now on Nomad Music. EP Two is released on 28 June. She plays Kings Place, London, on 22 June
