Vortex, LondonThis Turkish Kurd singer's three-night residency made her sound like one of the year's best new discoveries
Just occasionally, a new artist emerges to throw old music styles into an intriguing contemporary perspective. Çiğdem Aslan is a young Turkish Kurd who was born in Istanbul, lives in London, and until now has been best known for her work with She'koyokh, the upbeat British klezmer band. Her first solo album, Mortissa, concentrates on rebetika, the bravely outspoken "Balkan blues" that flourished back in the early 1920s, the era of enforced mass population movements between Greece and Turkey. Performing these songs at the Vortex, where she gave three shows, she sounds like one of the best British-based discoveries of the year.
Her success is down to her reworking of the old songs with a blend of delicate soulful vocals, subtle theatrics and a stage persona that could switch from stately to slinky and flirtatious. Backed by a nine-piece band that included the bağlama, bouzouki and kanun along with clarinet, she switched between songs in Greek and Turkish (including one with a Turkish title but Greek lyrics) that explained the historic connection between the two communities. These were sturdy, often sentimental songs that used to be sung in the bars or hash houses of Istanbul and Athens, and they were interspersed with well-chosen readings by the actor Philip Arditti, dealing with anything from druggy musicians to the Anatolian wars.
Aslan started with Greek songs, then brought on the excellent She'koyokh band to show how the material might sound with a klezmer/Balkan backing, and ended with a furious Turkish singalong, which led to excited demands for songs in Kurdish from many of her supporters.
This was an emotional musical history of the eastern Mediterranean as seen by a mortissa - an independent woman determined to throw off her veil and have fun.
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Rating: 4/5
World musicTurkeyKurdsMiddle East and North AfricaRobin Denselowtheguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds |
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