Türkiye - Istanbul Part II

 We continue our exploration of Istanbul with one of the pioneers of Anatolian Rock, the band Moğollar (The Mongols).  They started of in 1968 blending Turkish folk with western rock and psychedelia.  They quickly gained a big following internationally and drew comparison with Pink Floyd.  For a while Cem Karaca was a member as soloist.  They disbanded in 1976, but reformed in 1993 and are still going to this day.  With the recent revival in Anatolian rock, some of their albums have recently been reissued, such as their 1976 self-titled album.  Here's the opening track called Katip Arzuhalim Yaz Yare Böyle:

Carrying the torch of modern Anatolian psych rock with a real vintage feel is Istanbul native Umut Adan.  Now based in Italy, some of his songs contain criticism of his homeland.  He has only had one international release so far his 2019 album Bahar (Spring).  Here is a track from it called Şeytanın Aklını Çeldim:

The A.G.A Trio a Trans-caucasian/Anatolian collaboration between 3 musicians from Armenia, Georgia and Turkey (the name standing for Anatolia, Georgia, Armenia), the Turkish contribution being from Deniz Mahir Kartal, a kaval player from Istanbul.  The other two are Mikhail Yakut from Turkey, but of Georgian descent on accordion and Armenian Arsen Petrosyan on duduk.  They play on the similarities of their respective regions, whilst inventing their own soundscape.  In this tune from their 2024 album Araxes (named after a river in the Caucasus) they play a dance tune common in all 3 regions, but under different names: Shalakho / Kintauri / Karabağ:

Derya Türkan, born in Istabul in 1973, is a master of the classical Turkish kemençe, a 3-stringed bowed fiddle played upright on the knee.  There are various versions of the instrument throughout the region, including in Greece where it is known as the politiki lyra.  He has collaborated with many different acts, including Greek lyra player Sokratis Sinopoulos, exploring the similarities of their cultures.  They released an album in 2020 called Soundplaces, in which they take listeners on a journey through different places between Greece and Turkey, which have a shared history. Sadly none of the tunes from the album are available on YouTube, so here is another tune of theirs from their 2001 album Letters from Istanbul called Uşşak Şarkı:

Kardeş Türküler are a large folk band founded in 1993 at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul.  They incorporate influences from all over the region including Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian and Alevian.  Here's a song from their 2017 album Yol called Halâlê:

Another kemençe player from Istanbul is young Melisa Yildirim.  She grew up in a family from the Alevi branch of Islam.  She collaborates with a wide variety of musicians from around the world, influenced by Sufi music, Anatolian folk as well as Iranian genres and contemporary music.  One of her collaborations is with Israeli guitarist Gilad Weiss, with whom she recorded their 2021 album Talûş (Link: null).  This tune, Seven Lakes, does not feature on the album, but gives a flavour of their beautifully relaxing style:

We'll leave it at that for today.  As usual you can follow my virtual travels on my Tripline map.

Türkiye - Istanbul Part I

 

We arrive in the largest city in Turkey, in fact the largest city in Europe, Istanbul.  It's a bustling melting pot between east and west straddling the Bosporus Straight, which separates Europe from Asia.  Whilst not being the capital of Turkey, it is the economic and cultural powerhouse of the country and home to 19% of the population, so we'll be spending a bit longer here.  

Let's arrive early in the morning before it gets too busy and not too hot and ease ourselves into the city with something calming and meditative and maybe not so typical.  Duduk player Canberk Ulaş was born in Istanbul, but now resides in Sweden.  He plays and teaches the Armenian duduk, a double reed woodwind instrument.  He draws on Armenian and Anatolian influences with a modern electronic twists and looping. The results are a kind of reflective meditation.  He  has just released his new album Echoes of Becoming and this is a tune from it called Greetings to Istanbul, accompanied on piano: 

After breakfast we'll maybe wander down Independence Avenue (İstiklal Caddesi) in the Beyoğlu district and catch a few buskers plying their trade, like these guys here:

They are international ethno-folk ensemble Light in Babylon.  They formed in 2010, when Israeli/Iranian singer Michal Elia Kamal and French guitarist Julien Demarque bumped into each other and went in search for a santur player (A type of hammered dulcimer), whom they found in Istanbul in the form of Metehan Çiftçi.  Initially the 3 had difficulty communicating as they didn't speak each others languages, but musically they hit it off.  So, inspired by the Biblical story of the Tower of Babylon they came up with their name.  Initially they just hit the Istanbul busking scene, but they have since added a couple more members to the band, recorded some albums and tour internationally.  Here is a song from their 2022 album On Our Way called Sal Sal:

Psych folk band Baba Zula got together in 1996, and with some personnel changes, are still going strong.  They combine traditional Turkish sounds around the saz (a bouzouki-like string instrument) with electronic overdubs and reggae-like rhythms.  Here's a particularly psychedelic number called Transendance from their 2019 album Derin Derin: 

Singer Gaye Si Akyol was born in Istanbul in 1985.  She has had some considerable international success with her version of Turkish psychedelia and Anatolian rock, winning the Best Artist award in Songlines Magazine in 2019.  Like others in the genre, she combines guitar, bass and drums with traditional Turkish instruments such as oud, electro baglama and cümbüş.  She also champions various political causes, such as LGBTQ+ rights, performing in flamboyant outfits, and she is also an accomplished painter.  Here's a stripped down version of a song called Vurgunum Ama Acelesi Yok (I'm keen, but there's no rush) from her 2022 album Anadolu Ejderi:

Lalalar are a three-man psych-rock band from Istanbul, who are relatively new on the scene, with a sound, according to their own words, like a dumpster dive of spaghetti-western psychedelics, Anatolian funk, sampling and hazy electronics. Their songs are real dancefloor fillers.  Here is a song called Göt from their 2023 album  En Kötü Iyi Olur:

Tolga Boyuk is the creative force behind electro acoustic trio Islandman, based in Istanbul  They blend Anatolian rock with electronica, Afrobeat sounds and shamanic rhythms to produce music for the dance floor.  Here's the opening track to their 2020 album Kaybola called Dimitro:

I think that should do for this post, more music from Istanbul next time.  In the meantime, as usual, you can follow my virtual travels on my Tripline Map

Germany - Saxony & Lower Saxony

 Our first stop in the state of Saxony is in the city of Dresden.  Here is a view of the inside of Dresden railway station which I took during my 1987 visit of East Germany.

Dresden of course was subjected to the allied carpet bombing at the end of World War II and much of the historic centre was destroyed (not to mention 100's of thousands of people).  Although much of it has been rebuilt since, in 1987 the destruction was still visible.  One of my most vivid memories is of an international group of about 20 of us going to a cellar bar, the top floors of which were just a pile of rubble.  As beer in the old GDR was classed as basic food, and therefore subsidised, it was dirt cheap, about 50 East Pfennigs for half a litre.  At that price about half the group decided to buy a round for everybody at the same time and about 200 beers turned up on our table.  It turned into quite a jolly night...

I'm sure Dresden has changed somewhat since then as is also evidenced by the international flavour of music emanating from the city.  Arabic jazz band Masaa are based here and includes musicians from Germany Lebanon and Israel.  Here's a song from their 2020 album Irade called Fadai:

Next stop is the city of Leipzig, which I also visited back in 1987.  I haven't been since, but at the time it certainly hadn't been as sympathetically restored as Dresden, with many socialist style functional buildings.  This is a display window of a shoe shop from back then.  The caption reads: "Men must go dancing".

Leipzig was the home of one of East Germany's first and best known folk bands called Folkländer.  Established by some students in 1976 they went through various personnel and name changes including Folkländers Bierfiedler and finally just Bierfiedler until they finally disbanded in 2008.  The original name was a pun on Vogtländer, because 2 of the original members were from the Vogtland, a historical region covering parts of Bavaria, Thuringia and Saxony.  Some of their songs are sung in the Vogtland dialect.  Initially they sang inoffensive songs from the romantic era, but later increasingly used more political material, which could have been interpreted as Socialist in the real sense or as criticism of the real conditions in the GDR.  It got them into trouble as their folk opera Die Boten des Todes (The Messengers of Death) was banned in 1982.  In 2018 a compilation album of some of their songs was published under the title Wenn man fragt, wer hat's getan... (When one asks, who did it...).  This is a song from the album called Der Desserteur (The Deserter):

Moving on to the university city of Göttingen in Lower Saxony, where musical comedy duo Die Feisten hail from.  They sing own compositions or rip-offs of popular songs with humoristic lyrics.  Here is a popular blues song of theirs called Nussschuesselblues (nut bowl blues), which describes the perils of eating the complimentary bar nuts offered in a pub:

Finally we move on to East Frisia in the far northwest of Germany.  The East Frisians are the butt of jokes in Germany, much like the Irish in England or the Belgians in the Netherlands and France.  East Frisia has its own dialect of Low German, which is undecipherable to other Germans and has more in common with the Scandinavian languages and Dutch.  Folk band Malbrook started originally from a one album project of the same name by Emden native Wolfgang Meyering  in 2004, but their success encouraged them to carry on as a touring band, which includes violinist Vivien Zeller (of Trad Töchter) and harpist Merit Zloch (of Harfenduo Zirla), both of whom we have already met in Berlin.  Malbrook's music is a mixture of northern German and Scandinavian folk.  Their name in East Frisian translates as Mad Trousers and is a term to describe a person dancing like mad.  Here is a song from their original album called Winterleed (Winter song), in line with the the weather outside my window today:

That's it from the 2 Saxonies, next up the cities of Bremen and Hamburg, which might feature some music by myself even...  Until then you can follow my virtual ramblings on my Tripline map.