Yansimalar

Yansimalar is a Turkish musical group that composes and plays contemporary ethnic music.

It was founded by Birol Yayla (guitarist, tanbur lutist) and Aziz Senol Filiz (ney flutist). In their journey, the founding group was joined by Engin Gurkey (percussions) and Nezih Yesilnil (double bass).

In 1980, Birol Yayla and Aziz Şenol Filiz met at the conservatoire. In 1983, they joined the Turkish music chorus. In 1990, they formed Yansımalar: the name is the plural of the Turkish word yansıma (reflection); giving yansımalar (reflections), which as in English means both the reflection of the mirror and the reflection of the mind.

The music of Yansimalar has an acoustic sound and is essentially instrumental, though a few pieces feature the sound of voice or breathing.

It has its roots in the traditional Ottoman Music and consists of compositions that have a broad perspective. The artists define their aim as to “Introduce today’s chaotic world to natural and peaceful feelings.

In 1991 and 1995, the founding pair recorded two albums, released by the newly created record label Kalan Müzik (1991). In 1996, the band was joined by Engin Gürkey (percussions) and Nezih Yeşilnil (double bass), who appear on the 3rd and following albums. In 2001, four guest musicians participated to the recording of the 4th album, and in 2004, eight guests are featured on the 5th album, including noted fretless guitarist Erkan Oğur.

Remarkably, Yansimalar’s third album adds some rhythm with percussion instruments and contrabass to the usual meditative ney and guitar duo.

Recently, their music is used by Turkish films and TV documentaries such as Derviş Zaim’s and Tabutta Rövaşata.

Cheikha Rabia

At the age of sixty eight, Cheikha Rabia has recorded her new album drawing inspiration from paradoxical Black Sabbath rock mixed with funk groove range from hip-hop Beats, drums & bass in 2012.

Rabia was born in Relizane in 1944, a city near Oran in Algeria. She began singing at 11 years old through singing at celebrations and wedding parties. When she reached 14 years old, she worked all sorts of music even those formerly forbidden to women. Her provocative personality made her being coined as the ‘Mistress of Voice’ when she was 18 years old. Cheikha Rabia, one of the great Algerian voices expatriated in Paris was portrayed in 2001.

From the 1960s, she sang in cabarets of Algiers where it is a huge success with an exclusively male audience.

The singularity of her voice and her personality captivated new generations of Rock musicians and electronic music producers. Thus, made her even until now the eye of label Tiferet(e) which had produced her latest album.