This album is an affirmation of her unique identity, but an affirmation of the progressive type, and most definitely not of the conservative type! It is a step forward, and a bit to the left, of her previous, more traditionally Tatar work featured in Aloukie. Her music reflects not only the cultural wealth of her background ? Tatar, Russian, Australian ? but also an ongoing fascination with experimenting with timbres and styles, manifested in employing of a diversity of unusual instruments and instrumentation (kora, oud, bouzouki, litungu, jaw harp, kalimba, tuba, flugel horn, saxillo, tabla, ghatam, violin, accordion, and others). In command of this formidable array of instruments are some of the best musicians in Australia: Blair Greenberg, Llew Kiek, Epizo Bangoura, Davood Tabrizi to name a few. Be prepared to hear everything from a Balkan-tinged love song (complete with tuba, trumpets and accordion), insomnia, to a West African kora lullaby, cradle song, and the eastern sounds of jaw harp, oud and ghatam (pot-drum) on late again. The unorthodox and sometimes adventurous arrangments on elusive are nonetheless delicately sparse, and above all there is Zulya?s achingly beautiful voice ? pure and powerfully commanding in delivery.
