Polygon

Following both her striking debut Aralkum and the Hold Your Breath soundtrack, Galya Bisengalieva’s 2023 release Polygon continues the theme of environmental apocalypse her first album established, this time focusing on the legacy of Soviet nuclear testing in the northeast steppe of Kazakhstan. Beginning with the crushed flow of “Alash-kala,” Bisengalieva’s violin playing, both in and of itself and with a wide variety of treatments and production elements, hits tragically hard on the title track’s mournful drones and the queasy dance pulse of “Balapan.”