The Hot List: April 2, 2003

Reviews by Matthew J. Forss

Matthew brings us the Eastern European and Turkish sounds of Kalan Records:

Asik Veysel - Asik Veysel: A remarkable 2 CD set of the best folk poetry, songs and performances on baglama and saz from the region of Anatolia.

Zeki Muren - 1955-63 Kayitlari Recordings: A 2 CD set of popular folk music from one of Turkey's most beloved singer. Suryaniler : Religious and Folk Music of the Syriacs: An extensive 2 CD set of religious and folk music of the Syriac people with English, French and Syriac liner translations.

Suren Asaduryan - Bir Omur Sadece: The duduk, kemence, clarinet and guitar are arranged in the traditional Turkish folk style.

Erkan Ogur/Djivan Gasparyan - Fuad: Armenian born Djivan and Turkish born Erkan, collaborate on duduk and classical guitar, respectively.

Kardes Turkuler - Hemavaz: Vocal and instrumental traditional music of Anatolia and Mesopotamia is performed in several different dialects.

Incesaz - Iki/Eyul Sarkilari: Vocalist Melihat Gulses is accompanied by traditional Turkish percussion of tanbur, kemence, kanun, ud and santur.

Muharrem Temiz/Cengiz Ozkan - Yare Dokunma: Turkish instrumental and vocal music is accompanied by saz and derleyen.

Yarkin - Ten/Tende: Turkish percussion with traditional folk, world jazz and dance rhythms.

Matthew J. Forss is currently a full-time student at Lakeland College-Sheboygan, Wisconsin. He is majoring in Biology and German Language/Culture. Since 1998, he has collected numerous musical instruments and CDs from around the world. Also in 1998, he wrote a paper on Mongolian Ethnomusicology, titled: How Does Music Play An Important Role In The Life And Culture Of Mongolia? Currently, he has collected over 100 CDs that represent dozens of different countries. His general interests include ethnomusicology journalism and researching the traditional/contemporary ethnic music of various cultures from around the world. His specific, geographic areas of study include the traditional and popular music from Central Eurasia (especially Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.) In November of 2000, he accepted the position of writing world music CD reviews for this site.