Rustem Myrzakhmetov is a composer, sound designer, and music producer. He studied choral conducting at the Tchaikovsky Music College in Almaty and first appeared on the city’s music scene as a DJ and beatmaker. Later, together with poet Änuar Düisenbinov, he co-founded the experimental duo Балхаш снится, a spoken-word project in which Rustem’s cinematic soundscapes interact on equal footing with Änuar’s texts — reflecting on contemporary life and attempts to peer into the human soul without permission.
The project caught the attention of the Almaty-based label qazaq indie, which later became closely involved in Rustem’s career. As an integral part of the label, his distinctive approach to music production and contemporary composition led him to collaborate with a range of notable Central Asian artists — Zere, SAMRATTAMA, Steppe Sons, among others. While continuing to work with these and other artists, Myrzakhmetov has, in recent years, become one of the key cultural figures in the region’s electronic and experimental music scene, working as a composer, arranger, and performer in projects such as Üi Küiı, UnMusicWeek, The Spirit of Tengri, and BARSAKELMES.
