Music from Turkije by: Haytham Safia, Emre Gültekin & Guo Gan, Istanbul Twilight, Renaud García-Fons & Derya Türkan.
1-
Haytham Safia.
What the piano is to Western classical music, the oud (Arabic lute) is to Arabic classical music. Or perhaps we are even doing the oud a disservice, because where a pianist is limited to semitones, an oud player can get any tone he wants from his instrument. It is not without reason that the Arabic lute is also called the ‘queen among instruments’. Haytham Safia (1980) wanted to make an album that would showcase the different moods that this instrument can express.
CD. U’d – Haytham Safia. LABEL: LopLop (2006), code: LLR 018. Video
2- Guo Gan & Emre Gültekin.
This project is the result of one meeting. Two worlds that a priori would have nothing in common… The beginning of the journey. In the Levant, the Er Hu, the Chinese traditional violin evokes love. Then the caravan in front, full of other sounds lavta lutes, baglama, Tanbur and percussion. At the end of the journey, a tribute to Hasret Gültekin, with a small nod to China’s Lune de Jade, a miracle of musicality, full of poetry and finesse.
CD. Lune de jade – Guo Gan & Emre Gültekin.
LABEL: Home Records (2016), code: 4446153. Video
3- Istanbul Twilight.
Istanbul, as if you have never seen or heard it before. Soothing music, revealing videos and photos of the city… This is Istanbul Twilight. In honor of the label’s tenth anniversary, Doublemoon wanted to describe the sound of Istanbul: the sea, the streets, the inhabitants and the culture, through the music of the musicians in its environment. The mix on this album is a tribute to the fact that an audiovisual treat like this could only be created in the misty twilight of Istanbul.
CD. Istanbul twilight. LABEL: Doublemoon (Turkije) 2008, code: DM 0043. Video
4- Renaud García-Fons & Derya Türkan.
The French-Catalan double bassist García-Fons and the Turkish kemenche player Türkan had already met in 2006, but still wanted to make an album together. In 2014 the time had finally come. On the album Silk Moon you can hear their improvisations, which are a pleasant mixture of Eastern and Southern European music with a touch of jazz. The special instruments sound beautiful together: the dark, melancholy sound of the three-string Turkish fiddle and the deep, full rhythmic sound of the five-string double bass that is plucked and bowed. As the title Silk Moon predicts: the melancholy silky sound of the strings forms an atmospheric backdrop for a summer evening in a Mediterranean country.
CD. Silk moon – Renaud García-Fons & Derya Türkan.
LABEL: E-Motive (2015), code: EMO141. Video
Thanks to: