Traditional Turkish Sufi Music (ARC Music, 2013)
Dipping an ear into the intoxicating world of Sufi music is easy with ARC Music’s release of Traditional Turkish Sufi Music by the Du-Sems Ensemble. Formed in 2010 by ud and sehrud player Osman Kirklilci, kemence player Emre Erdal and kdum, bendir and halile player Osman Oksuzoglu, Du-Sems has set out on a musical journey to gain some international attention to traditional Turkish music, while encouraging and playing with other traditional musicians from Greece, Syria, Iran and the Balkan. Keeping carefully to original composition forms and original instruments, Du-Sems offers a musical glimpse into the rich traditions of Turkish music.
Traditional Turkish Sufi Music isn’t in any way light listening. No, the music on this CD is heady, powerful and breathlessly exotic. In a series of ilahis or hymms, kasides or poems and salats or prayers, Traditional Turkish Sufi Music takes the listener on an astonishing journey ripe with ud, kemence, bendir, kanun, ney and cello.
Backed by vocalists Ahmed Sahin, Bekir Buyukbas and Yunus Balcioglu and ney player Volkan Yilmaz, cellist Volkan Ertem and bendir and arbane player Can Akin, Du-Sems Ensemble’s sound glories in the rich musical traditions and profound faith Sufism. Set without breaks, one track seamlessly flows into the next track, providing the listener with a collective of hymns and prayers that is both galvanizing and deeply evocative.
Traditional Turkish Sufi Music is a stunning listen into Turkey’s Sufi traditions and masterful set of tracks by the Du-Sems Ensemble.
Author: TJ Nelson
TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow.
Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.
Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.
