This summer’s heatwaves across Europe created difficulties for many countries, but in Greece and Turkey it led to some of the worst wildfires in living memory. Countless people lost their homes, and dozens were killed or injured, whilst wildlife and swathes of forest were destroyed as the fires ravaged everything in their path. News reports […]
After her critically-acclaimed 2013 debut release Mortissa¸ Çiğdem returns with an inspired follow-up. Her musical cue is again Rebetiko – the shared cultural heritage of Turkey and Greece in the 1920s – but Çiğdem spreads her musical wings in A Thousand Cranes, travelling from Istanbul and Izmir to Greece, the Balkans, and eastern Turkey picking […]
Istanbul-born Çiğdem Aslan brings her multi-lingual skills to this year’s Rebetiko Carnival, singing the songs of her roots. Çiğdem came to the forefront of the UK Rebetiko revival with her stunning 2013 debut release Mortissa, which breathed new life into 1920s and 1930s Rebetiko and Smyrnaic songs. The album received great reviews from all around […]
It’s been an incredible 12 months for Çiğdem Aslan. Described by the Guardian as, “one of the best British-based discoveries of the year”, she released her debut album Mortissa last October to critical acclaim in both the UK and in her native Turkey. Among her many achievements this past year was to be nominated in […]
Slight in frame but big in voice Çiğdem Aslan, is an enchanting addition to the musical world of rebetiko or ‘the Aegean Blues’. In her most recent London concert, Aslan transported audience members from the wooden pews of Islington’s 19th Century Gothic style Union Chapel to the cobbled side streets of Smyrna (Izmir), the […]
This talented Kurdish singer from Turkey is part of the Rebetiko revival, also known as the ‘Blues of the Aegean’. It was banned for a time because it was considered socially degenerate. Emerging during the turbulent 1920s these bitter-sweet songs about an exiled underclass have strong roots inIzmir and were often performed in dubious Greek […]
