British Council Supports Music Project on Aral Sea Sounds

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — The British Council is supporting the international music project Two Seas, under which British and Uzbek artists have recorded sounds from the dried seabed of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan. The recordings will become part of an audiovisual project focused on environmental change, the British Council said.

As part of the project, Quinn Whalley of British electronic duo Paranoid London visited the Aral Sea region and recorded sounds from the transformed landscape. The field recordings include wind blowing across the exposed seabed and sounds of abandoned vessels at the well-known ship cemetery in Muynak.

According to the British Council, the Aral Sea has lost about 90% of its water volume over the past 60 years. It was once the world’s fourth-largest lake and a center of a developed fishing industry. The retreating water has transformed the landscape of Muynak, which was previously a port city.

The Two Seas project will combine the recordings from Uzbekistan with material collected in the Gulf of Bothnia in Finland, where melting ice is also changing the natural environment. The project’s creators aim to show two different forms of environmental change: the disappearance of a sea and the gradual loss of ice cover.

Two Seas is being implemented in partnership with Shambala festival, Uzbekistan’s Stihia festival and EarthSonic, the climate programme of the organisation In Place of War. British and Uzbek cultural organisations and artists are also involved in the project.

The collaboration will result in a specially created audiovisual performance. Its premiere will take place at the Shambala festival at the Data Mine venue. New musical compositions will be accompanied by immersive visuals created by Matt Black of Coldcut/Ninja Tune and Ben Sheppe of The Observatory.

The Shambala festival will take place from 27 to 30 August 2026 at Kelmarsh Hall and Gardens in Northamptonshire. Following the premiere, the Two Seas music will be released on the EarthSonic label. The release will also be accompanied by a documentary about the collaboration and the two natural areas.

The project is part of a broader international exchange between independent festivals and cultural organisations. Its participants intend to use cultural cooperation to exchange experience in sustainable festival practices, engagement with local communities and support for artists working on climate change issues.

Tom Sweet, senior manager for music industry engagement at the British Council, highlighted the importance of cooperation between cultural organisations in Uzbekistan and the United Kingdom. He said the project should help develop partnerships and new initiatives that use music and art to raise environmental awareness.

Odil Mukhamedov, executive producer of Stihia, emphasised the particular importance of the Aral Sea and Muynak to the festival.

He said turning the sounds of the landscape into music makes it possible to present the environmental issue to audiences in different countries and contributes to cultural dialogue.

Shambala Creative Director Siddharth Sharma said the collaboration makes it possible not only to create music, but also to document environmental changes and discuss ways for independent festivals to adapt to the effects of climate change.