Sound engineer Neal Birnie, who hails from a soul jazz background, has been running his own label, Night Dreamer, for the last three or four years now. His »Direct-to-Disc Sessions« series has been greeted with particular enthusiasm. He invites musicians to jam in a recording studio in the Netherlands and records the sessions directly on tape. Past artists have included Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, Sarathy Korwar & Upaj Collective, Seu Jorge & Rogê, and Gary Bartz & Maisha. The current release of the »Direct-to-Disc Sessions« brings together Islandman, Okay Temiz and Muhlis Berberoğlu, three musicians who are very different apart from their Turkish origins.
Islandman (Tolga Böyük) hails from an electronic music background, works with synthesisers and drum machines and releases records on Music For Dreams. Drummer Okay Temiz is a legend of Turkish jazz. Muhlis Berberoğlu, a virtuoso on the bağlama and cura, rescues the traditional sounds of Anatolia and brings them into the present as a representative of a very young generation of female musicians. To make this recording, they met in Amsterdam on 30 November, 2021, for a 62-minute jam. And what a success. On »Aşık Atışması«, the first of six pieces, they gingerly approach each other, attune to one another and develop a common language. Only at the beginning of »Kalenin Bedenleri«, the penultimate track, do they allow themselves a breather, until they start grooving non-stop. »Aşık Atışması« then picks up pace again, taking the listener on another musical journey, all-inclusive, from the Sea of Marmara to Istanbul and the Taurus Mountains.
