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2008 brought changes to our band. In September we debuted the new material for our 3rd album, "Seventh Story" before live audiences in Tashkent. Replacing Andrew Mara-Novik & Vladimir Badirov were/are Sur'at Kasimov, bass, and Ali Izmailov on drums. Igor Elizov on keyboards became our second keyboardist.

The new lineup is known as From.uz.

So, officially, we are now:

Vitaly Popeloff - electric & acoustic guitars, fretless synth guitar
Albert Khalmurzaev - keyboards, acoustic guitar & vibraphone
Igor Elizov - grand piano & keyboards
Ali Izmailov - drums, percussion & tubular bells
Sur'at Kasimov - bass & double bass

Fromuz is:

Vladimir B. BADIROV - drums

He was born in 1967, and raised in Uzbekistan, where he trained as a musician. Brought-up in a family of musical teachers, he successfully graduated from a musical school in class of a violin. In 15 years he has passionately became keen on drums. He has graduated from the Tashkent variety studio in this specialty, and has not changed his favorite instrument in 20 years.

He has attended many musical projects. From 1994 to 2002, Vladimir collaborated with Yulduz Usmanova. In her team he has traveled with performances almost all over the globe, playing in festivals of ethnic pop music. As a session musician, he has accompanied the young singer Sevara Nazarkhan. In her team in 2003, he was busy in the big round of Peter Gabriel “Grown Up,” the mega-star of world music, that toured in Europe and America.

Vladimir's first solo album “Greeting from Nostradamus,” came out in 2004 on the Unicorn Records label. It has received very positive reviews critically. Shortly after this, “Greeting from Nostradamus – LIVE” was also released.

The participation in the project The FROMUZ became the logical continuation of Vladimir's musical pursuits, passions, and love of music.
www.badirov.com

Albert S. KHALMURZAYEV - keyboards

Albert was born in Uzbekistan in 1967. His specialty is the actor of dramatic theatre and cinema. His first musical steps were begunin school: the group created by him played the style of instrumental avant-garde usic, so the instruments used were not only "standard" instruments, but also specially made equipment, and various objects.
During his studying at the poly-technical institute, in 1984, he played guitar and percussion in a group, "Visit," performing for student festivals. When Albert was called to serve in the navy, he continued his musical training in a group "Contour," which he formed. The group successfully participated in the Seaside Rock Festival in 1987 and won first prize. In 1989, he became the participant of an acoustic art – group called “Rare Bird,” (guitar, vocals, mandolin, wooden flute, harmonica & percussion). The valuable material stuff was created for two albums “Music for Relatives” and “Electric,” no longer available. The group participated in rock festivals in Central Asia and played many concerts.

During the same period Albert began to work in the Youth Theater of Uzbekistan, first as an actor, and then as an arranger and composer. In the theater, Albert has arranged music for about 20 performances and has composed music and songs for 14 others. He collaborates frequently with local radio and TV stations. Also based in theater he has recorded two albums published in Europe: “Sodom and Gomorrah XXI” (Musea Records, France) and “Dances on Gobelins” of the project X Religion (Mellow Records, Italy). In 2004, he was offered the opportunity to play “Sodom and Gomorrah XXI” live with the newly formed group, The FROMUZ. Moreover, after realization of this project he became a full member of the team.

Andrew G. MARA-NOVIK - bass

Andrew is the youngest member of team as a musician, but the eldest chronologically. He was born in Russia in 1962, but has lived all his life in Uzbekistan. He has two higher educations, one of them being journalism. He was interested in music in school age. He has played in the youth groups such as “Downpour”, "Monologues", and “Disorder.” He has participated in different small local festivals and competitions of amateur art and performance. As a student, he has taken part in recording musical performances for the Uzbek theaters. He has constantly listened to "serious" music, and it has developed his musical tastes in future. In 1984, he was compelled to stop his musical training. Since this period, he has served in the security services. He is an international expert of airports' safety, and checking posts through the state frontier.

After retirement, in 2002, he decided to resume his musical training. To realize it he bought a guitar and created a small private company, “ZIP TOP” in order to produce musicians, whose creativity, in his opinion, has progressive and intellectual orientations. Recently he has involved the well-known guitarist Vitaly Popeloff, with whom he created The FROMUZ in 2004.

Vitaly A. POPELOFF - guitars

Vitaly was born in Tashkent in 1969. His profession is the civil engineer of the airports. In his youth, he was greedy for sport, so has played handball actively. He has started to take an interest in music in his student years, and has reached certain successes very quickly. In 1991, he created the first "serious" group called “Edgar Poe,” which earned popularity in Tashkent, playing the style of art-rock. Later his musical passions were turned to style of jazz, so he became the inspirer and a participant in the jazz project “Not For Sale” (1994). In 2003, he recorded his first solo album “Pure Fiction,” where he has summed up his passion for jazz.

In 1999, Vitaly became a session musician. He is the top studio guitarist in Uzbekistan today. He takes part in recording of albums and concerts of many musical stars of the Uzbek variety. However, his musical passions have always been directed to serious music. He constantly longs for the musical experiments, uses the most various instruments and equipment. Probably, these aptitudes have led him to joining such a team as The FROMUZ.