VVAA – 1961-2014 An Anthology of Turkish Experimental Music

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2CD – Sub Rosa

If the current political situation in Turkey represents a diminishing of personal and collective liberty, this release for Sub Rosa can become an exemplar of modernity repressed, a zone of influence that has not been subjugated by a handful of bigots and troglodyte housekeepers. This anthology presents productions by Turkish musicians from 1960s electronica to the many experimental forms of the 2010s, As a document then, it performs the function of showcasing a very innovative and cosmopolitan art. The impressive collection, unravelled in two CDs, is curated by Batur Sönmez and Erdem Helvacioglu, who selected a total of 29 musicians. Among these were Ilhan Mimaroglu, best known in Italy for his contribution to the soundtrack of Federico Fellini’s Satyricon, and Bülent Arel, a composer heavily involved with experimentation at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Centre in the late 1950s. The work of İlhan Mimaroğlu is also included,. The composer also studied during the 1960s in the same centre under Vladimir Ussachevsky and on occasion worked with Edgard Varèse and Stefan Wolpe. He is a remarkable author and his Prelude No. 17 [Istanbul Fog], the last track of the first CD, would do well in any audio-art catalogue. If the selection on the first of the two CD selection is somewhat ‘dry’ under the all-encompassing Electronic Music tag on the second the curatorship becomes more fuzzy and conceptual. This is already suggested in the title: Politic, Sampler, Ambient Music, including – it is no accident – such activist songs as “Democracy Lessons” by Asaf Zeki Yüksel, “The Monopoly of Victim Status” by Osman Kayatazoglus and “I want to be a suicide bomber,” by the SIFIR group, the only track on the album that boasts vocals and coldwave-like atmospheres. In this rich anthology we go from a raw free form to feedback and noisy audio-abuses, from post-rock to cinematic soundscapes. It serves to reminds us that the history of Turkish culture was very much alive and still could be.

 

VVAA – 1961-2014 An Anthology of Turkish Experimental Music