Oleg Fesov

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Oleg Fezov
Origin	Khorugh, Tajikistan
Genre(s)	pop, folk rock,
Instrument(s)	Guitar, Ud, Sitar, Tabl, Keyboard

Oleg Fezov, or Oleg Fesov (Tajik: Олег Фезов) is a musician, and composer from Tajikistan, who composes and arranges his songs in addition to performing. In 1990 he graduated from Dushanbe College of Arts, and was considered as one of the best illustrating artists of children's periodic . His natural talent and passions for music allowed him to simultaneously develop a musical career. He first started to compose and arrange music and later performing his own songs and music. He now lives in Germany. Despite living as an immigrant, Fesov still feels strongly connected to his home country and his ancestors from the Pamir Mountains. His people are Badakhshani, or Pamiri, an ethnic group of some 350,000 people who are divided by the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border. Fesov had to leave his home country because of the Civil War of Tajikistan that raged on during the 1990s. His studio and equipment were looted and Fezov had to flee to Moscow, and later move to Germany.

The album Lalaiki Pamir presents the musical traditions and ideas of Badakhshan (Tajikistan) and the Pamir Mountains. The traditional oriental string and percussion instruments such as sitar, rubab, ud, dombra, various drums and tablas, play an important role in the music of Oleg Fesov combined with his intensive and emotion-loaded voice. All lyrics are in Tajik or Shughni languages.

Oleg Fesov was discovered at the huge "Voice of Asia" festival in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan. His international exposure came when German label Blue Flame released a series of recordings with the top performers that participated in that festival. American audiences found out about Oleg Fesov in 1995, when one of his songs, Marav, was included in the three-CD world fusion boxed set titled Planet Soup (Ellipsis Arts CD 3450), released by Ellipsis Arts and produced by Angel Romero.