ISSUE 11
Galya Bisengalieva’s Polygon Reflections: Exploring Memory, Identity, and Transformation
Galya Bisengalieva is a Kazakh-born violinist and composer whose work embodies a deeply personal and nomadic spirit. At 13, she moved westward from her homeland, carrying with her the echoes of folk melodies sung by her grandmother and the complex shadows cast by the Soviet regime she grew up amidst. Now based between London and other creative hubs, Bisengalieva’s music is a hybrid, an unceasing exploration mixing her cultural roots with contemporary sound worlds. Her compositions reveal a restless search for identity and expression, always reaching for something truthful in sound and story.
Her bold and expansive new album, Polygon Reflections, stands as a testament to the power of dialogue across genres, geographies, and histories. It features nine tracks that act as sonic mirrors, each reimagined by a diverse and carefully curated lineup of trailblazing artists in experimental, electronic, and contemporary classical music. These collaborators include The Bug (Kevin Richard Martin), Hatis Noit, KMRU, Aïsha Devi, Hinako Omori, Alva Noto, Balkhash Dreaming, and a second reflection by Martin himself. The album is both a determined statement of intent and an immersive space for deep, contemplative listening.
Her bold and expansive new album, Polygon Reflections, stands as a testament to the power of dialogue across genres, geographies, and histories. It features nine tracks that act as sonic mirrors, each reimagined by a diverse and carefully curated lineup of trailblazing artists in experimental, electronic, and contemporary classical music. These collaborators include The Bug (Kevin Richard Martin), Hatis Noit, KMRU, Aïsha Devi, Hinako Omori, Alva Noto, Balkhash Dreaming, and a second reflection by Martin himself. The album is both a determined statement of intent and an immersive space for deep, contemplative listening.
At its spiritual core, Polygon Reflections is rooted in the vast landscapes of Kazakhstan and the histories they carry, lands marked by loss, transformation, and resilience. To Bisengalieva, these places are not static backdrops but living entities whose “shadows” stretch across time, infusing every note and phrase of her work. The album is a meditation on movement itself, encompassing the physical journeys she has undertaken from Kazakhstan to London and beyond, alongside the internal migrations of memory, identity, and creative selfhood.
Bisengalieva’s process is strongly visual when she comes to begin a new project. Archival footage, photography, and historical research are deeply featured in her work, integrating into her music videos and conceptual frameworks. One powerful visual influence comes from Philip Hatcher-Moore’s Nuclear Ghosts project, a haunting photographic exploration of nuclear test sites and their lingering human cost. These striking images shaped the album’s artwork and guided its sonic architecture, embedding themes of devastation and hope in the music.
“Each artist took it to a different world and made it their own thing... I love the healing powers of Aïsha Devi’s track, which was a contrast to the atomic subject of Chagan Lake, offering a moment of healing and hope.”
Polygon Reflections is an album that unfolds like a living, breathing conversation. With tracks that branch off, loop back, and balance individual voices with a cohesive collective vision. Each collaborator stretched and transformed Galya’s material into something unexpected and vibrant. The Bug’s contributions stand out notably, delivering some of the heaviest beats he has ever created, perfectly conveying the album’s narrative of devastation and endurance.
Beneath the collision of styles, Bisengalieva’s sound remains unmistakably tied to her identity. The DNA of her experiences and upbringing is an intrinsic part of her musical language, a restless, searching force driving her forward. Her journey has also been marked by an ongoing search for self and place, a feeling common among many who have lived through displacement and upheaval.
“I feel like I’m trying to reestablish and remember the beginnings. It’s a hybrid, but always looking to where I’ve come from and what my roots are.”
Polygon Reflections is an album that unfolds like a living, breathing conversation. With tracks that branch off, loop back, and balance individual voices with a cohesive collective vision. Each collaborator stretched and transformed Galya’s material into something unexpected and vibrant. The Bug’s contributions stand out notably, delivering some of the heaviest beats he has ever created, perfectly conveying the album’s narrative of devastation and endurance.
After dedicating five years to this album, Bisengalieva is embracing a period of rest and reflection, an essential pause after such an all-encompassing project. She speaks honestly about the need to absorb the work fully before stepping into a new territory. “It’s been a heavy and intense journey,” she admits, “and now I feel the need for softness, space, to breathe, and time to just be.”
Polygon Reflections is out now on One Little Independent Records.