Gayda Istanbul brings warm breeze from Balkans

Today’s Zaman
12 August 2009, Wednesday

"A cold front approaching from the Balkans is likely to bring cold
and wet weather across the country this week."

This is almost a staple of weather forecasts in Turkey during the
winter. For those who wonder why this sentence has made it onto the
culture and arts page of the paper, especially during these scorching
days of August, here’s the answer: Recently a new front has approached
from the Balkans, but this time, instead of bringing cold and wet
weather, it has brought with it a warm and lively musical breeze.

Gayda Ýstanbul, an Ýstanbul-based Balkan music ensemble founded under
the roof of the Boðazici Performing Arts Company (BGST), which also
gave birth to the acclaimed ethnic folk ensemble Kardeþ Turkuler,
is responsible for this warm front that moved into Turkey earlier
this summer with its self-titled debut studio album released in June
through Kalan Music. And their motto is: "It’s not always cold fronts
that come from the Balkans."

Gayda Ýstanbul is a musical journey that stretches from the Balkans
to Thrace and from there to Ýstanbul. The group’s warm sound is the
result of an amalgamation of the traditional instruments of Balkan
(or more accurately, Roma) music — the violin, clarinet, accordion,
trumpet and darbuka — with electric guitar, bass guitar and drums.

Fehmiye Celik, one of the vocalists of Kardeþ Turkuler, is the lead
singer of Gayda Ýstanbul, which aims to create a new style through
innovative experimentation. Apart from traditional folk songs with
new arrangements, the album also includes original music and lyrics
by the group’s members. Celik and Ayhan Akkaya, the two architects
of the project, spoke with Today’s Zaman about Gayda Ýstanbul.

Akkaya says Gayda Ýstanbul is the outcome of BGST’s efforts to serve
as "an alternative music school." Singing "only one or two songs from
each different language spoken on this land with Kardeþ Turkuler did
not suffice," Akkaya explains.

Although their debut album focuses on Balkan and Thracian music,
and more specifically on Roma music, Akkaya says they are planning
on shifting their focus to Turkmen, Kurdish, Azerbaijani, Circassian
and Armenian music in upcoming albums.

Akkaya and Celik have been working on Balkan and Roma music for the
last two years. "We had to conduct very intense research in the area
and [music] resources to be able to grasp what was in the background
of this music," Akkaya explains. During those two years, they met
many Roma musicians, and this was also how they formed the Gayda
Ýstanbul orchestra.

‘Seventy-two-and-a-half nations’ Celik says they set off with an idea
of cultural pluralism in their minds, intently researching the specific
location covered in the CD’s track list. And while working on the
project, the musicians also conducted a number of interviews with Roma
people. Celik says she cannot forget one specific interview conducted
with a Roma lady in Ýstanbul who collects paper for recycling. "They’re
living right next to us; in Kaðýthane, Kuþtepe [districts of Ýstanbul]
… in slums, in isolated places. But we pretend they don’t exist,"
Celik says, voicing her feelings about the Roma people of Ýstanbul.

The Roma are the main inheritors of Balkan music in Turkey, says
Akkaya. "[When playing with large ensembles,] they [Roma] usually
remain in the background; they cannot play their own music too often,
but rather play tunes that people love. With this album, we tried to
bring forth their own music in their own language," he explains.

"You know, there’s a saying that goes, ‘Seventy-two-and-a-half nations
live on this land.’ The ‘half’ in that saying refers to the Roma. This
album is a critical look toward this perception. These people too
have their own concerns, and they have their own lives. By way of
this album, we wanted to put them under the spotlight."

The Balkans as a land evokes a sense of bitterness in general. But
although most of the songs on the album have satirical and meaningful
lyrics, the tunes are predominantly dynamic and cheerful. Before
releasing the recordings as an album, Gayda Ýstanbul played a concert
to see whether their music appeals to the audiences’ appetite. After
seeing that concertgoers reacted most to the lively songs in the
program, they decided to include a selection of those energetic tunes
on the album.

"The Balkans is a land that has gone through many pains, but just
like in Latin [America], it is a land where people react to sorrow
with joy and enthusiasm. You can feel this enthusiasm even in their
most sorrowful songs. [There are] many layers [in their songs], and
you cannot understand these unless you actually go and live among
them. We have indeed shouldered a very heavy task," Akkaya says.