Rock musician Hakan Tuna has hit the New Year running, with a new musical project called ‘12 songs 12 stories’ that will see him release a new single every month. Tuna’s first project track is ‘Bütün İnsanlara’[‘For All The People’], an Anatolian rock ditty inspired by a poem of the same name by famed Turkish […]
Newly released on British label Night Dreamers, Anatolia Sun is Moğollar’s first studio album since 2009’s Umut Yollunu Bulur. The new double album, reprising 16 of the band’s classic songs with fresh sounds for 2020, has sent fans into a frenzy. Emerging in the late 60s and finding fame in 70s that even reached international […]
Taner Öngür has been the torch-bearer for Turkish pop rock for decades, even baptising the genre with the name ‘Anatolian Pop’. The bass guitarist cum multi-instrumentalist has played with many of Turkey’s seminal artists, including Barış Manço, Erkin Koray, Ersen Dinleten and Selda Bağcan, and featured in the line-ups of leading progressive and psychedelic Anatolian […]
Roots The effects of the French Revolution in 1789 reached the Ottoman Empire nearly fifty years later. Starting from 1839 until 1876, during the regression period of Ottoman Empire, a set of reforms were implemented to modernise, centralise and improve the legal, economic, social and political structure of the government, which was called the Tanzimat […]
In almost every speech, Gaye strongly asserts she’s fighting the “Geography is destiny” saying, aphorised by Ibn-i Haldun in the 14th Century. Is this a pertinent remark for Turkey and Turkish artists? In a way it is. Turkey has had many economic, social and geopolitical issues over the years. With its central location as a passage […]
On Sunday, 19 January, a packed house at Camden’s Jazz Café celebrated the music of Barış Manço – one of the godfathers of Anatolian Rock. This legend, who passed away 21 years ago today (1 February 1999), had a profound influence on Turkish culture. Known for his long hair, prominent jewellery and flamboyant stage costumes, […]
When London-based singer-songwriter Djanan Turan invited some musical friends to hold a tribute concert in London on the twentieth anniversary of the death of Barış Manço, few could have predicted the outcome would be quite as epic. Five hundred people packed into Jazz Café to pay homage to the legendary psychedelic rocker, known as much […]
Although the term ‘Istanbul Psychedelia’ defines the music of BaBa ZuLa pretty well, their inspiration is not just Istanbul, but the whole of Anatolia. The band is deeply fascinated by the sounds of the late 60s and 70s when Anatolian Pop, which later converged into Anatolian Rock, was king. Retaining this influence at their core, […]
Gaye Su Akyol’s critically acclaimed first international album Hologram Ĭmparatorluğu (Glitterbeat, 2016) established her as one of Turkey’s most compelling new voices, her music effortlessly straddling diverse genres such as rock, folk and Turkish classical music. She spent the next few years touring the globe with her band, showcasing her vibrant live abilities: a surreal, […]
Friday, 1stFebruary, will mark twenty years since one of Turkey’s most influential singer-songwriters and TV personalities Barış Manço passed away from a heart attack aged 56. Characterised by his long hair, horseshoe moustache and flamboyant jewellery, he was adored by Turks of all ages. During his 37-year career, Manço composed over 200 songs, and recorded […]
