Gaye Su Akyol - Anadolu Ejderi
Met Anadolu Ejderi ("de Anatolische draak") stelt Gaye Su Akyol haar eerst langspeler in ruim vier jaar voor. Na een periode van haast onophoudelijk toeren, verschafte de COVID-19 pandemie en de daarbij horende restricties haar het perfecte excuus om even op de rem te gaan staan en opnieuw de studio in te duiken. Gaye Su Akyol: "With everything closed, we all had to sit at home. The isolation gave me time to write. I ended up with over 100 songs. I tried to broaden the palette: to start with Anatolian folk and pop, then see how to add African and Middle Eastern sounds, the soul revolution, disco, and rock from other cultures. The music is still quite psychedelic, but it connects to different areas, all the pop genres I love so much. The hard part was picking the right songs and the correct order.".
De selectie die ze uiteindelijk maakte laat zich beluisteren als een manifest over de politieke situatie in haar thuisland Turkije of het Istanbul van weleer, maar net zo goed over de positie van de vrouw in de samenleving.
Gaye Su Akyol: "In a political climate where a woman's commitment to her passion, to falling in love, to her sexual identity is revolutionary enough, it would have been easy to sit in the comfort zone of the past. This is the most freeing thing I've done. The lyrics, the songs, this is music I need to hear. It's a manifesto: I'm back with rock'n'roll, fused with post-punk, stoner rock, Turkish psychedelia, blood sweat and tears, all crowded with herds of wild horses. This is a time mission. It takes you where you want to go. Politically and economically we're witnessing a country in collapse. There is a lost culture in this country, so much has gone. There are lots of memories of pain in this country, and pain is bigger than anything. I had a chance to see the beauty of the past. Now it's going down and down, tearing at the deep beauty of this country.".
Muzikaal gezien verbreedde Gaye Su Akyol voor dit album dan weer haar horizonten: "Musically, this album was an adventure for me to go beyond the known limits and pursue brand new sounds, in this sense, I can say that it is my most liberated and authentic production ever. I felt like a scientist as it turned into a chemical reaction that expanded the boundaries of the genres I was influenced by, Anatolian pop folk, classical Turkish music, and Turkish psychedelic rock with dark beats, post punk, jazz, surf, stoner rock and touches of disco, and brought them together with brand new genres; in addition to these, it is possible to follow the traces of hip-hop and industrial rock in Biz Ne Zaman Düşman Olduk or Bu Izdırabın Panzehiri, 90s Turkish pop, Middle Eastern influences in Vurgunum Ama Acelesi Yok and grunge in Yaram Derin Derin Kanar.
De experimenteringsdrang vertaalde zich ook naar het gebruikte instrumentarium, waarbij westerse instrumenten als gitaar, bas en drums, werden aangevuld met viool en oed, maar ook traditionele Turkse instrumenten als de bağlama of saz, cümbüş (kruising tussen een westerse banjo en een oed) en sazbüş (combinatie van een saz met een banjo) hun intrede deden.
Samenvaten doet Gaye Su Akyol al volgt: "I am back with a meteor of fresh Turkish psychedelia, fused with my own musical and philosophical journey spiced with dance, pain, hope, blood, sweat and tears, crowded with herds of wild horses."
Op zondag 9 april komt Gaye Su Akyol Anadolu Ejderi live voorstellen in de Brusselse Ancienne Belgique als deel van BRDCST 2023!
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