All Batyr’s solo compositions were issued in one diskbook

The songbook was issued by the Foundation named after Batyrkhan Shukenov with the support of the Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundation. Design of cover was developed by the Lebedev’s Studio in Moscow.
“Issue of this anthology is a result of almost two-year work summarizing the creative work and life of the musician”, Baurzhan Shukenov, Chairman of the Board of Regents of the Foundation named after Batyrkhan Shukenov, said. “It includes the albums which he had worked upon, the live entertainments and records which were in plans and trial versions and which were arranged after his quietus. Of course, every song from this collection must be listened, sung, experienced and remembered for a long time, stamped on heart. There is genuine kindness and sincerity, huge love and respect to a listener”.

“The album-songbook of all songs of Batyr, the favourite of the Kazakhstani and the fans all over the world, is much needed. We all waited for it. Therefore, our Foundation readily supported its issue without any doubts. We are proud of our participation in this project for preservation and distribution of heritage of our great artist. He left us early, but his songs are with us forever”, Marat Aitmagambetov, Director of the Bulat Utemuratov’s Foundation, concluded.
‘Otan Ana’,’ Amanat’, ‘Your Steps’, ‘Be Careful, Nice Girl!’, ‘Love Heals Us’, ‘All Things Must Pass’, ‘Soul’ – this is the     non-exhaustive list of albums with songs, which had already taken the fancy, included in the songbook. In addition to the music CDs, the songbook includes two DVDs with live albums of Batyr – concerts of 2006 and 2013 in Almaty city. The latter was created with the participation of colleague and friends of the artist from New York, London, Riga and Moscow.
“Two concerts were included in the songbook. Both of them were held at his favorite stage in the Republic Palace; almost 7 years separated those two concerts, during which he was growing and changing. At the first concert, there were his friends: Daler Nazarov, Sevara Nazarkhan, Vladimir Presnyakov, a lot of personal stories. His last anniversary concert was the big job of huge team in the different continents: there he apparently summarized the large trip after leaving the band”, Nargiz Shukenova, Director of the Foundation named after Batyrkhan Shukenov, commented. “This songbook is the possibility to trace the solo career: we see obvious rises and milestones, there are the attempts of experimentation, search of own sound, wish to work with different authors. I hope that our songbook will give the possibility to estimate the extent of Batyr personality, his professionalism and high hurdle that he set”.

As everything in the Batyr’s creative work, beautiful symbols are an essential part of the gift songbook. So, it includes album ‘Best’, the idea of which the singer kept for many years. The album reflects the landmarks of solo career: the singer expressed them through the compositions, where even the number is no mere chance – 17 gives infinity when summing up.
Moreover, the songbook includes the last and new for listeners album ‘Autumn’, upon which the artist was working during his last year of life in own studio in Moscow, but he didn’t have a chance to finish it. The songs were recorded in tandem with Russian composer Pavel Esenin. The cover for the album was designed by Arys Arenov with the participation of Batyr’s son Maxut.
“Title of the album was selected after the death of Batyr. It refers to the first song, which we have recorded for it. Associatively, this is something elusive as a season”, Ruslan Magomedov, Batyr’s Co-Producer, commented. “This was deeply meaningful work, which was very easy. Generally, the album was created in full mutual understanding and synergy of all participants of the process. Newly found friendly tandem with Esenin also determined its character: it turned out to be a philosophical story to some extent. Pity that we had no a chance to finish several songs for it”.
Now, this album included in the gift songbook is available in Meloman chain stores and at the sites of ‘Yandex. Music’ and ‘Apple Music’. On June 28 at 19:00, documentary film about Batyrkhan Shukenov will be shown by Gakku TV-channel and Gakku YouTube-channel.