Rating:
Genre:
World
Release Date: 08/26/2008
Whether a typical Turkish café has a soundtrack like this is a moot point, but it's a nice idea. The star of this particular show is
Sezen Aksu, who merits three tracks (to be fair, one is incredibly brief) as befits her status as the country's leading pop diva. But pop here is an elastic phrase, and she has combined Western ideas and Turkish styles to become a leader in a very Turkish style of music. But this is a disc that mixes the more venerable -- like the Arabic-inflected
"Kendimi Kaybettim" or singer
Sevval Sam's venture into Turkish classical music -- with newer sounds from
Sultana, whose hip-hop, though adventurous by Turkish standards, falls flat when compared against other countries (although it does sound very native, in its favor). The saz of
Hüseyin Türkmenler captivates, and Canadian
Brenna MacCrimmon shows you don't have to be Turkish to make authentic-sounding music (although she's subsumed herself in the culture). But loveliest of all is the Kurdish song from
Aynur Dogan, a piece that proved controversial on its release, with the album banned as seditious. This is a disc that successfully captures many of the facets of today's Turkey, from both sides of the Bosporus.
~Chris Nickson, All Music Guide
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