Murat Aydemir and Salih Bilgi Release Neva

San Francisco, California, USA –
Murat Aydemir and Salih Bilgin’s collaboration, Neva, is out on Golden
Horn Records. It is a
work of musical juxtapositions. The ney and tanbur, seldom played in duo,
have very
different aesthetics. The ney, beloved instrument of the Mevlevi
Sufis, is often
compared to the beauty of the human voice. The scholarly tanbur, on the
other hand, is
considered expressive of the classical Ottoman/Turkish repertoires. Yet as tanbur master
and foremost expert on Turkish classical music, Necdet Yasar, remarks
about Neva,
“Aydemir and Bilgin successfully interweave the music of tanbur and ney.” Murat Aydemir’s musical life is deeply influenced by Tanburi Cemil Bey.
The album’s title, Neva, pays homage not only to Tanburi Cemil Bey’s “Neva Pesrevi” (the
opening track),
but also to the sounds and songs carried by musicians and their
instruments through the
generations — neva.

In keeping with neva, Aydemir and Bilgin’s repertoire presents works
spanning several
hundred years in traditional and modern interpretations. Cantemir’s regal
“Pençgah
Pesrevi,” composed in the late 17th century, represents the oldest work
on the album.
“Pençgah Pesrevi” makes an interesting contrast to the album’s
late-romantic era Turkish
classical pieces, such as the rarely performed and sadly overlooked “Neva
Pesrevi”
composed by Tanburi Cemil Bey. Modern interpretations of classical styles
of improvisation
are interspersed throughout the album, including three “Müsterek Taksim”
on tracks 2, 7, and 9. The unusual performance of “Fihrist Taksim” on track 4 gives
listeners a rare
opportunity to hear the subtle differences between modes in the Rast
family (normally,
improvisations move only between modes in unrelated families). Finally,
several tracks
accentuate the individual instruments, such as “Ussak Sazsemaisi,”
composed by ney
master Aziz Dede. The tanbur used in this recording was made by master
Sacit Gürel and
the ney was made by Salih Bilgin. The ney and tanbur are supported by the
daf (frame
drum).

[Buy

Neva ].