mosaiqa

Central Asia includes countries that were once part of the ancient Silk Road and typically refers to the five Soviet republics that became independent states when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 - Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

At Mosaiqa we’re also interested in connections to other places with cultural similarities, like Tatarstan.

Scholars often refer to the region as Central Eurasia. This calls attention to the existence of the Eurasian landmass, which has no clear geographic demarcation between Europe and Asia. It emphasizes the fluid diffusion of cultural traditions across the great steppe and along the Silk Road. Eurasianism was coined by the Russian linguist Prince Nikolai Trubetskoy in the 1920s and has historically been used by Russians to identify themselves as something other and more exotic than Europeans. In the past fifteen years, Eurasianism has experienced a revival achieving new and varied significances as (1) a mystical form of Slavophilism, (2) a way for ex-Soviet Central Asian leaders to appease their Russian citizens’ anxieties, and (3) a means for western scholars to identify the region using a post-Soviet paradigm.

More information on the cultural traditions and music of the region will become available as Mosaiqa Records’ capacity grows.