fusion

Unlike other Turkish psychedelic stars of the time, Derdiyoklar made their name first and actually only among the “gastarbeiter” Turks in Germany. They played weddings and parties almost exclusively of Turkish workers and rural population; clung tightly to their Turkish roots, in the face of cultural shock and obvious social problems.

His Nonplace partner in crime, multi-instrumentalist Hayden Chisholm – who’s been here before with his Root 70 project- has added new blood to Root 70, christened it as The Embassadors and set out to “Heal the Music“.

I’ve downloaded 2 hard to rare albums of the 57 year old Indian saxophonist Kadri Gopalnath from Meshes of the Afternoon. Born in the Karnataka region in southern India, it took Gopalnath 20 years to master the Saxophone. I’ve personally never heard saxophone in Indian music, no wonder he’s the first musician to incorporate the saxophone in Indian music literature.

Another essential middle-eastern dub & electronic fusion album you’ve got to own is a joint project by DuOud & Abdulatif Yagoub. DuOud is an obvious play on “duo oud”, and consists of French Musicians Mehdi Habbab (Algeria) and Jean-Pierre Smadj (Tunisia) who I’ve heard before from his activities in Istanbul.

It was surprising to see middle eastern music on Berlin’s Staubgold which release electronic acts like Leafcutter John, Kammerflimmer Kollektief, To Rococo Rot. It turns out that Thilges ‘ second album on Staubgold is a commision by “Jeunesse“, which features 2 main guest artists, the Iraqi oud player Asim-Al Chalabi and Persian vocalist Zohreh Jooya and 4 other guests like the viola player Eyvind Kang.

The album is successful not only for being a very well executed and nicely interpreted jazz album but also for not missing the spirit amidst clean-cut-musicianship (which i consider as a common problem with this kind of jazzy Turkish folk albums). It’s an “oriental” album, not an “orientalist” one and I thought they’ve captured the authentic aroma of the Black-Sea culture and the sentimental ups and downs of its people perfectly.

Back to intellectual music after a week or so of party music and easy listening now that the weather is a bleak gray again. It’s easy to classify me as an aspirant layman in avant jazz & rock & contemporary classic, that’s why I haven’t heard of Aka Moon.

I came across this one while searching for some nice afrobeat pieces to play on the show (and i have to admit that’s mostly because fela kuti songs are neverending stories between 8 to 13 minutes…too long for the show) Anyway i’m very happy to have stumbled on this compilation since every song is a gem of spicy afro-funky taste for all Africa 70’s fans.