On Thursday, August 1, Baba Zula, one of "Turkey's most important rock bands" (Deutschlandradio Kultur) and Gaye Su Akyol, currently the country's most exciting newcomer, will transform Centralstation into a melting pot à la Bosporus with their double concert.
The spectacular live band around singer Murat Ertel has its roots in the Turkish "psychedelic music" of the 60s, but traditional instruments like saz (electronically amplified, of course) or darbouka take center stage rather than electric guitars or keyboards. They describe their sound as modern Oriental Dub, their lyrics are social and political - and only their love songs are allowed on Turkish radio. As part of the Merck Summer Pearls, of course, there's the full program. Rousing and sweaty.
Singer Gaye Su Akyol is considered one of Turkey's most compelling young voices and exciting sound explorers, and has established herself not only in her own country's music scene. Nirvana were as influential as Anatolian rock music, Sonic Youth or Nick Cave. So dusty orient-occident clichés have never been her thing, but a music that is global in concept and local in spirit and subtlety, bringing all these different influences together. The singer-songwriter combines fun-loving ballads, futuristic surf rock and post-punk. Psychedelic electric guitars and thundering percussion meet oud and baglama, electronic beats and synths meet violin and trumpet
Lyrics source and further information: https://www.centralstation-darmstadt.de/
