Mergen

Mergen (Akmaral Zykayeva) is Kazakh Independent Artist, singer, composer, professional musician and sound producer. A distinctive feature of Mergen as an artist is a bold mix of nomadic and modern (...) sounds. To the date she has released and produced independently fourth studio albums and an EP under different eponyms. Akmaral graduated Kazakh State Conservatory as a violinist in 2008, later graduated in Musician Institute, Hollywood, LA, USA, 2010, presenting there her second solo album "AYAN" as an artist Mergen which awarded "Outstanding project" by the end of IAP program. Simultaneously she was studying and graduated IT in a Kazakh State Technical University in 2011. She starts her career at the age of 18, working as a media manager on TV, later as a composer and sound producer in different studios of Almaty. From 2011 she started to work on Kazakhfilm studios as a composer, and sound engineer of ADSR/Foley, then at 2012-2013 she became a head of record studios of "Bilim Media Group" produced there different content like cartoons, TV shows, documentary films focused on educational theme. During this time, she released her compilation album as a producer “Qazaq Lounge” 2013. Where she gives a new interpretation for a Kazakh folk songs, which becomes popular and gives a strong trend in a country to rebranding of Kazakh identity. As a singer Mergen represents Kazakhstan at the events like Astana Expo 2017, Spirit of Dance Festival 2018, etc. Her music is often plays the role of musical concept at the contemporary art exhibitions, and also used in staging of contemporary dances and presented itself in a modern Kazakh classical music. To the date as a feature film composer she presented herself in such films like the Horse Thieves: Roads of Time (dir. Yerlan Nurmukhambetov, Lisa Takeba 2019) Opening Busan Film Festival 2019 and Tokyo Film Festival 2019, Dissolve (dir. Kim Ki Duk, 2019) Almaty Film Festival 2019, and currently she's working on upcoming film by Kazakhfilm studios and Astana telefilms "Aqtastagi Akhiko" (Yeldar Kaparov 2020). Either, at 2019 she debuted as an actress, starring in the short film by Zhannat Alshanova (Berlinale Alumni 2019)"History of Civilsations" (2020). Currently Akmaral is working on the next solo album in cinematic style (2020).