Mercan Dede : Seyahatname & 800

Mercan Dede believes that when you put digital, electronic sounds together with hand-made, human ones, you can create universal language, capable of uniting old and young, ancient and modern, East and West. It's a bold claim, but the Turkish-born and Montreal-based musician/producer/DJ has the career and the music to back it up. When he takes the stage with his group Secret Tribe, he hovers at the side behind his turntables and electronics, occasionally picking up a traditional wooden flute, or ney to float in sweet, breathy melodies, while masters of the kanun (zither), clarinet, darbuka (hand drum) and whatever other instruments he's decided to include that night, ornament his grooves and spin magical, trance melodies to match the whirling of the group's spectacular dervish dancer, Mira Burke.

Mercan Dede - Seyahatname [2001]

  

 Created for dancers, these pieces have a wonderful Turkish elegance. Mercan Dede, who moved from Turkey to Canada, uses musicians from both countries to create his sound, which manages to be spacious and airy without ever floating away. Spoken word samples add to the atmosphere, as on the opening of "Semaname," where a rhythm that could almost be Native American appears under a wispy flute line; although it never completely develops as a piece of music, there's still something lovely about it. Like many of the pieces here, the rhythm is more important than the melody; on "Hayalname," for example, there are layers of polyrhythms throughout the piece. Dede understands Turkish music, and doesn't go for easy, flashy sounds. Instead, he subtly mixes melodies with programmed beats on "Sahname" or the antiphonal phrasing between instruments over brooding synth tones at the opening of "Vefaname." By its very nature, this is different to Dede's other albums, where the emphasis is on melody. But, listened to on its own terms, this is a great success.     

                                                                                     

 

Enjoy! 

Mercan Dede - 800 [2007]

  Focusing on the divine beauty of the ney, percussive instruments, and poetic vocals in various languages, Mercan Dede puts forth an album dedicated to his teacher, the Mevlana in celebration of his 800th birthday. Music, dance and poetry were art forms integral to the Mevlana`s teachings, and on this album Mercan Dede creates a final tribute that fully conveys the lessons the Mevlana set out to teach eight centuries ago. Peace is the central theme of this album and as a result it sets out to convey humanistic messages and poems from one track to the next.

                                                                                 Enjoy!