YERLİ MÜZİK*
A History of Turkey through Music
By Murat Meriç
bi'bakaudio is a program of curated listening events that aims to find audiophile approaches to music, society and politics. From live radio shows to record listening sessions, mini-concerts, artist talks and soundscapes, bi'bakaudio invites the listener to hear the musical traces of a post migrant society. Together with musicians, sound artists, activists and musicologists, the listener will explore the sounds of transcultural life forms.
A History of Turkey through Music
By Murat Meriç
By Sebastian Reier aka Booty Carrell, Pamela Owusu-Brenyah aka DJ Pam Bam, Florian Sievers, Oded Erez, Kornelia Binicewicz, Ekaterina Borisova, Yuriy Gurzhy and Can Sungu
The new bi’bakaudio series OUTERNATIONALE: Stars from Outer Space is devoted to the concept of Outernational Music, a counterposition to so-called “World music”. While “World music” tends to exoticize or tame music produced outside of the Western world, Outernational Music sees the distinction between Western music and World music as an extension of the colonial perspective. In contrast, the emphasis is on sound productions that are received and celebrated in cross-border geographies far away from the Western music market - neither mainstream nor underground, but multilingual and influenced by diverse musical traditions and cultures. The music talk series OUTERNATIONALE presents selected artists, along with their artistic creations and biographies, in conversation with experts. Venturing beyond cultural or linguistic barriers, we begin a project of collective musicological research.
Funded by Berliner Senat für Kultur und Europa
Can Sungu studied film and visual communication design in Istanbul and at the Institute for Art in Context at the Berlin University of the Arts. He has given workshops and seminars in the field of film and published texts on film and migration. As an artist, he participated in numerous exhibitions, including at MMSU Rijeka, Künstlerhaus Vienna and REDCAT Los Angeles. He is co-founder and artistic director of bi‘bak.
Ekaterina Borisova is a music journalist from Saint Petersburg, Russia. Since the mid-80s she has been writing articles on rock music for Russian magazines and newspapers, whilst remaining a major fan and developing a deep knowledge about the Russian underground rock scene. She’s also the author of several books – two books about Yanka Dyagileva among them, issued and reissued between 1998 - 2005.
Florian Sievers is a journalist, author, and curator who loves to tell alternative stories from African urban spaces where at present a rising middle class is producing hip cultural expressions, from fashion and art to especially music. Originally a trained journalist for politics and economics, Florian researches his forward-looking stories from the mother continent on at least yearly trips to continuously new African metropolises. On a sideline during these trips Florian has also become a hobby collector of old vinyl records from Africa.
Kornelia Binicewicz is a Polish record collector, curator, DJ, and founder of Ladies on Records, a multifaceted endeavour focused on the musical legacy of women all over the world, presenting female music from the past decades. Her passion for female music brought her to Turkey where she started to explore the undiscovered world of Turkish female music scene. She curated “Turkish Ladies. Female Singers from Turkey 1973 - 1988” (Epic Istanbul) compilation and “Uzelli Psychedelic Anadolu” compilation (Uzelli), both released on vinyl. Kornelia is currently working on a special project dedicated to female singers from Turkey from one of the Turkish label’s back catalogues.
Oded Erez (Dept. of Music, Bar-Ilan University) is a scholar of popular music and film music, working in the intersection of historical musicology, ethnomusicology and cultural studies. His work focuses on the relationship between politics and aesthetics, with an emphasis on music in Israel and the Mediterranean. He is currently completing a book manuscript on Greek music and ethno-class politics in Israel.
Pamela Owusu-Brenyah is a music consultant, festival organiser, and DJ, working on an enhanced visibility of contemporary African Pop culture in Germany. With her community platform AFRO x POP she regularly offers a music festival stage for rising artists of the Afro-German scene. Pamela, a studied political scientist, is based in Berlin and has family roots in Ghana. She has worked in Ghana’s capital Accra as a DJ for three years and since then has been commuting back and forth between both musical worlds.
Booty Carrell is the DJ alias of Vinyl archaeologist, Golden Pudel resident and outernational deejay Sebastian Reier. Carrell does his research in the deep spaces of the vinyl universe. He likes to dig into the second wave of musical globalization.
Yuriy Gurzhy was born in the Ukraine and lives in Berlin. He is a musician, songwriter, DJ and producer and is known for his work with RotFront, Shtetl Superstars and The Disorientalists as well as his party series Russendisko, Born in UA and Disko Kosmopolit.
frontend.im_anschluss_x. Sebastian Reier aka Booty Carrell
Derdiyoklar or Derdiyoklar Ikilisi, founded by Ali Ekber Aydoğan and İhsan Güvercin in 1979, was perhaps the most significant Turkish music duo in Germany. Playing electro-saz, drums and especially designed instruments, they developed their own music genre: Disco Folk. Their insane live performances, unique style and anti-rascist lyrics made them tremendously popular within the Turkish migrant communities in Germany, and hence, they were the most demanded wedding band in the 80s. Their iconic fame encouraged other bands to imitate their style and music. The compilation albums and reissues in the last few years introduced them to a global audience. Yet Derdiyoklar is still an unknown gem for the non-Turkish-speaking listeners in Germany. In this kick-off session, Sebastian Reier aka Booty Carrell will guide us through a journey in Derdiyoklar’s psychedelic sonic space.
Booty Carrell is the DJ alias of Vinyl archaeologist, Golden Pudel resident and outernational deejay Sebastian Reier. Carrell does his research in the deep spaces of the vinyl universe. He likes to dig into the second wave of musical globalization.
frontend.im_anschluss_x. Pamela Owusu-Brenyah aka DJ Pam Bam and Florian Sievers
In Nigeria and Ghana, the music-centric alté movement has recently begun to challenge the dominant Afrobeats/Afropop/Afrofusion scene as an underground/DIY counterpart. Ghanaian-American musician and producer Amaarae is part of this exciting young generation of West-African artists, who express their (queer) identity through music and fashion, using social media and visual aesthetics to connect with their audience – be it inside or outside of their visible borders. Amaarae's sound combines Neo-Soul and African pop, creating an alternative version of contemporary African club music with lyrics revolving around everyday queer intimacy.
Pamela Owusu-Brenyah is a music consultant, festival organiser, and DJ, working on an enhanced visibility of contemporary African Pop culture in Germany. With her community platform AFRO x POP she regularly offers a music festival stage for rising artists of the Afro-German scene. Pamela, a studied political scientist, is based in Berlin and has family roots in Ghana. She has worked in Ghana’s capital Accra as a DJ for three years and since then has been commuting back and forth between both musical worlds.
Florian Sievers is a journalist, author, and curator who loves to tell alternative stories from African urban spaces where at present a rising middle class is producing hip cultural expressions, from fashion and art to especially music. Originally a trained journalist for politics and economics, Florian researches his forward-looking stories from the mother continent on at least yearly trips to continuously new African metropolises. On a sideline during these trips Florian has also become a hobby collector of old vinyl records from Africa.
frontend.im_anschluss_x. Kornelia Binicewicz
In this sound lecture we will shed some light on the life and musical career of Esmeray, one of the most interesting and appealing Turkish female singers. While Esmeray has been recognized by an older generation in Turkey she is mostly unknown to an international crowd. Although the Afro-Turkish artist is remembered mainly for her 1977 hit “Gel Tezkere Gel”, her whole musical heritage and cultural background highlight many levels of Turkish cultural legacy. The sound lecture will be a quest to present Esmeray’s music, cultural identity and her impact on contemporary Turkish society.
Kornelia Binicewicz is a Polish record collector, curator, DJ, and founder of Ladies on Records, a multifaceted endeavour focused on the musical legacy of women all over the world, presenting female music from the past decades. Her passion for female music brought her to Turkey where she started to explore the undiscovered world of Turkish female music scene. She curated “Turkish Ladies. Female Singers from Turkey 1973 - 1988” (Epic Istanbul) compilation and “Uzelli Psychedelic Anadolu” compilation (Uzelli), both released on vinyl. Kornelia is currently working on a special project dedicated to female singers from Turkey from one of the Turkish label’s back catalogues.
frontend.im_anschluss_x. Oded Erez
When Aris San (born Aristeídis Seïsanás in Kalamata, Greece, 1940) arrived in Israel in 1957, he was just an anonymous Greek teenager with a guitar. When he left in 1969, he was the top-selling recording artist in the country. During his twelve years in Israel, he managed to become not only an icon of celebrity, European chic, and musical fashionability but a brand name associated with “wedding music”, working-class audiences, and Mizrahiyut (“Eastern-ness”, or, the culture of Middle Eastern Jews in Israel). San was a key agent in transporting Greek music – or, to be more precise, the conglomerate of styles, sounds and stereotypes loosely held together by this title – from the smoky confines of an immigrant café in Jaffa to Israel’s most prestigious music venues, official Independence Day celebrations, national television, and the homes of leading generals and politicians. In an era when the bouzouki was being established globally as the national instrument of Greece, San wielded an electric guitar as his solo instrument. Employing bouzouki techniques and melodic formulas, he created a unique, signature sound, evocative of both bouzouki and rock-guitar virtuosity. In this and other ways, his musical persona was able to traverse the twin fictions of Western modernity and Oriental backwardness.
The goal of this lecture is to look at San’s career as a window into the negotiation of cultural identities that took place in 1960s Israel/Palestine (and, indeed, the East mediterranean at large) between Eurocentric national elites and marginalized groups often associated with Oriental taste cultures. It will present San’s career as a performer, recording artist, club manager, and public figure not merely for the sake of telling an individual's story: In all these capacities San facilitated the emergence of Mediterranean “Audiotopias”: physical or virtual sonic spaces of identification, where musical stereotypes of East and West were both mobilized and overcome, and where an ideal Mediterranean was outlined, which encompass everything from Umm Kulthum to Mexican Ballads.
Oded Erez (Dept. of Music, Bar-Ilan University) is a scholar of popular music and film music, working in the intersection of historical musicology, ethnomusicology and cultural studies. His work focuses on the relationship between politics and aesthetics, with an emphasis on music in Israel and the Mediterranean. He is currently completing a book manuscript on Greek music and ethno-class politics in Israel.
frontend.im_anschluss_x. Ekaterina Borisova and Yuriy Gurzhy
Yana “Yanka” Dyagileva (1966 - 1991) is a well-known Russian singer/songwriter. Born in Novosibirsk (Siberia) she was never in showbiz but was (and still is) a true underground rock icon in Russia. Based on punk, psychedelic rock and Russian folk and poetical traditions, her songs deal with themes of despair, depression and nihilism. At the age of 25 she drowned in the Inja river near Novosibirisk. Her legacy of 30+ songs and a few verses only became known in Russia after her death, but these songs are deeply loved and widely covered by many people – Massive Attack among them. Songs that are full of emotions and genuine beauty and can touch every soul.
Ekaterina Borisova is a music journalist from Saint Petersburg, Russia. Since the mid-80s she has been writing articles on rock music for Russian magazines and newspapers, whilst remaining a major fan and developing a deep knowledge about the Russian underground rock scene. She’s also the author of several books – two books about Yanka Dyagileva among them, issued and reissued between 1998 - 2005.
Yuriy Gurzhy was born in the Ukraine and lives in Berlin. He is a musician, songwriter, DJ and producer and is known for his work with RotFront, Shtetl Superstars and The Disorientalists as well as his party series Russendisko, Born in UA and Disko Kosmopolit.
In their New Year’s mix, the DJ duo Anadol and Tayfun Aras welcome the first day of 2021, which should herald a fresh start to a new, hopefully better year. The musical journey of discovery through the former Soviet Union, Latin America and Japan shine into our rooms like the winter sun, bringing love, courage and hope with it.
Anadol, a project by the musician, DJ and photographer Gözen Atila, explores synth pop and other sonic possibilities. Gözen Atila mainly plays the keyboard, who as a composer started in the field of electronica before moving to the genres of electro-acoustic and musical theater. She was the producer of radio shows for Açık Radyo and founded the independent web radio Fakir Radyo. Tayfun Aras, owner of the well-known record shop Deform in Istanbul, is also an eminent DJ with a wide range of knowledge of non-western music and who has had a profound impact on the musical scene of Istanbul.
Çerikunda opens new doors that introduce us to unknown sounds from Turkey, the Middle East and the Caucasus. With their mix you can not only “dust off your ears” as they say in Turkish, but also get your arms and feet moving - which is not only good for you during the long days of lockdown, but also for your neighbours who will no longer have to hear your same old Spotify playlists on repeat.
Çerikunda is a DJ collective based in Istanbul and Berlin. Since 2006 they have been unearthing hidden intercontinental sounds, as well as bringing to light forgotten gems of popular music from Turkey with their radio shows, mixtapes, experiments and DJ Sets.
