User:Dana Kamzabek

Maqpalsher – is a contemporary music project formed in 2008 in Almaty, Kazakhstan (http://maqpalsher.kz/). It was founded by a poet, a composer and a song-writer Maqpal Zhumabay, who was excited by the idea of combining literature and music to propose a new genre of the contemporary art, which would let the poetry sing.

Introduction
Maqpalsher as a project is about investigating the inner appearance of human being and his attitude towards outer world. The word “Maqpal” means “silk velvet, tender” and “sher” means both “poetry” in ancient Kazakh language and “sadness, lament” in contemporary Kazakh. Accordingly, the project’s name means “tender poetry” and “velvet sadness”, which explains the poetic and musical character of the genre. Maqpal explains that her compositions are not music that goes with its lyrics, it is rather poetry that found its music.

Maqpalsher as a project includes several fields of art, poetry, music, painting, video, animation. Nowadays all the borders of separate art methods are getting diminished, which is the main advantage of contemporary art. As a part of Maqpalsher there was organized a music group, who had already accomplished several projects.

Group members
The group consists of herself, an arranger Beibit Aqosh, a lead guitarist Oralkhan Saduaqas, an acoustic guitarist Ruslan Zhurbin, an electric guitarist Baqyt Zhetenov, a drummer Alibi Abdrakhmanov, a keyboardist Khamida Akosheva.

Albums and concerts
In 2017 Maqpal had released the band’s first poetry book-album named “Maqpal sher” including the CD disk and the lyrics of the singles.

Significantly, the book was fully illustrated by the author, which had brought even greater value for the release. Maqpal explained that when inspiration comes, she puts all the effort to deliver her art as full as possible, that is how she became even an illustrator.

The group’s second album “Zhalgyzym” was released just a year after the debut album. https://www.amazon.com/Jalgyzym-Maqpalsher/dp/B07MYF8WMV. Popular for their conceptual live performances, Maqpalsher has staged several concerts in Almaty. Two of them (“Maqpalsher Live” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZBOyGX9MO0&t=320s, “Aua Live” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEmcJmqeThs&t=1849s) were filmed and are now available online.

The success of the live performances and warm feedback from the audience inspired Maqpal to launch a TV program on the national channel Qazaqstan, called Zhangyryq, meaning “echo”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiVBKa7eB_Q&t=1090s It was a TV platform for the musicians-songwriters as Maqpal to perform alive their compositions at the acoustic studio. Zhangyryq was a wonderful springboard not only for ambitious musicians but also for new styles of the author-music in the country. Now Jangyryq has grown as an sub-culture of musicians who search for the new trends (waves) in art.

Slogan of 2019 "Aua"("Air")
Maqpal has dedicated the year of 2019 to the concept of “Aua”, meaning “Air”. It was about investigating the space and the world, human and spirit. So, in July 2019 she with her team opened the doors of the art space OzgeEpic in Almaty for holding live concerts, exhibitions and meetups https://www.instagram.com/ozgeepic/. This was also done to promote young people in this field of art for growth and development. She believes that in such developing countries like Kazakhstan it is very important to support and teach the youth in order to move faster as a society.

In August 2019 Maqpal released an animated short film “Aua” (“Air”) directed by Dilshat Rahmatullin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQZT1DdhIsg.

It was a brilliant result of a five-year search. Her idea was to create an animated hero, who could show the deepest feelings of a person, who could fly and fall, who could die and reborn. The animation has received the attention of many people due its uniqueness and novelty.

In September 2019 Maqpalsher organized a live concert “Aua” in London. Maqpal Zhumabay’s poems have been translated into English by a British poet David Cooke, and the English translations have been demonstrated to the public during the concert. The concert venue was carefully chosen to be at the Brunel Museum, which is famous as a stage for the representatives of the new alternative styles of art. Maqpalsher was warmly welcomed by British audience which had a very big influence on Maqpal and her art plans for future.

Maqpalsher’s second music video “Bir adym” (“One step”) was shoot in London across the London Bridge using a one-shot technique by Zhambyl Belgibayev https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8WV4aFhY14. The idea was to film a video as natural as possible with minimalistic effects to drive the whole attention of the viewer on the lyrics.

Slogan of 2020 - "Qolyndy ber" ("Give me your hand")
The slogan of the year 2020 for Maqpalsher is “Give me your hand”. All the projects, concerts and meetings will be held with this topic. One of the ambitious plans of Maqpal is to give several conceptual concerts in Turkey, Germany and USA in order to discover new horizons for her poetry and music.