Parallel societies, ethnic subcultures.https://berlinbazzar.com/en-ushttps://berlinbazzar.com/discourse-on-turkish-hip-hop-part-1-an-introduction/https://berlinbazzar.com/discourse-on-turkish-hip-hop-part-1-an-introduction/A month ago I was declared dead by the Turkish media. Literally. An Instagram posted this bit of misinformation, and as a result I received condolences on my social media portals. It wasn’t me who…Mon, 14 Feb 2022 19:39:44 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/west-berlin-daze/https://berlinbazzar.com/west-berlin-daze/MARC REEDER, DANGEROUSLY Berlin for many is a stepping-stone. You do your Berlin thing and then you move on. That’s how it was for Berlin’s most famous expats: Vladimir Nabokov, Christopher…Wed, 20 Jan 2021 03:05:06 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/prague-is-dangerous-for-love/https://berlinbazzar.com/prague-is-dangerous-for-love/PRAGUE It was 1992. Communism was over and I was in Berlin selling computer games at the PX with private Ricky Ruez from the Bronx. The base was closing and all the Americans were going home…Fri, 01 Jan 2021 02:29:00 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/adventures-in-balkan-and-turkish-music/https://berlinbazzar.com/adventures-in-balkan-and-turkish-music/The deeper I got into the Balkans the more I began to feel the magnetic pull of Istanbul. As of Novi Pazar, everything started to tilt towards the Bosphorus. The food, the music, the language, the…Fri, 23 Jul 2021 03:55:00 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/yurovision/https://berlinbazzar.com/yurovision/BERLIN-DONBASS (Part 1) My fellow musicians remember that end-of-March-2020-feeling we all had while staring in disbelief at the calendar, watching the scheduled dates vanish one by one. April, May…Tue, 12 Jan 2021 10:00:00 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/confessions-of-a-bandit/https://berlinbazzar.com/confessions-of-a-bandit/The first time I heard about Hammed Khamis was from a Turkish Sufi named Selman, who frequented a tekke in Schöneberg I sometimes went to. He didn’t mention that Hammed was a professional thief…Mon, 17 Aug 2020 08:58:22 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/gastarbeiter-rock-the-story-of-uzelli-kaset/https://berlinbazzar.com/gastarbeiter-rock-the-story-of-uzelli-kaset/“A soundtrack of freaks, gangsters, pimps and punks of the era.” So Uzelli Kaset bills their newly released compilation of Turkish electric saz music, called Uzelli Elektro Saz (1976-1984), curated…Sun, 03 May 2020 07:13:05 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-murat-ertel-of-baba-zula/https://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-murat-ertel-of-baba-zula/I wanted to ask you about the new album. What does it mean, “Derin, Derin”? “Derin, Derin” is kind of like, “Deep and deeper”. If you have seen the cover, then you would understand better, I think…Sun, 05 Apr 2020 21:11:12 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/i-am-not-romani-i-am-a-serb-a-serbian-gypsy/https://berlinbazzar.com/i-am-not-romani-i-am-a-serb-a-serbian-gypsy/“Saban Bajramović, the late, great, gravelly voiced, high living Roma blues legend was born in Niš, a nondescript, bleak, industrial town in east Serbia, from where he embarked on a musical journey…Sun, 05 Apr 2020 20:40:12 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/mission-statement/https://berlinbazzar.com/mission-statement/MANIFESTORobert Rigney In Weimar Berlin artists and writers, like Christopher Isherwood and Alfred Döblin sought out Berlin’s underground in secretive communist cell meetings and proletarian bars in…Sat, 04 Apr 2020 20:19:35 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/balkan-beats-diary/https://berlinbazzar.com/balkan-beats-diary/Somewhere in the noughties So I was on Potsdamer Straße after boxing, sitting in a Moroccan shisha bar, smoking a water pipe and drinking a Turkish tea with a shot of lemon. Turks, Arabs, Germans…Thu, 24 Nov 2022 12:44:19 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/3836-2/https://berlinbazzar.com/3836-2/Mostar Sevdah Reunion are a Bosnian institution. Emerging out of the ruins of war-torn Bosnia in 1998, tending the traditions of Bosnian (Muslim) sevdalinkes, they have been described as a kind of…Mon, 21 Nov 2022 07:01:31 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/interview-with-magnifico-the-king-of-balkan-bling/https://berlinbazzar.com/interview-with-magnifico-the-king-of-balkan-bling/Robert Pešut is Magnifico, a 42 year-old singer from Ljubljana, who is called in Slovenia somewhat quizzically “the Slovene Madonna”. He is also known as a self-styled čefur, a term which wannabe…Sat, 19 Nov 2022 12:23:15 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/vintage-interviews-mr-piranha-christoph-borkowsky/https://berlinbazzar.com/vintage-interviews-mr-piranha-christoph-borkowsky/Are you originally from West Berlin? No, I’m from the west of Germany close to the French border. My ancestors came from the east as my name says. According to family propaganda the number one…Fri, 18 Nov 2022 17:26:12 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/shotnez-dose-a-nova/https://berlinbazzar.com/shotnez-dose-a-nova/Now that the Balkan Beats hyperbole appears to be out of fashion, erstwhile pioneers of the genre Ori Kaplan and Tamir Muskat of Balkan Beat Box – teaming up with Uri Kinrot from Boom Pam and Itamar…Fri, 18 Nov 2022 15:22:04 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/kottarashky-the-rain-dogs-doghouse/https://berlinbazzar.com/kottarashky-the-rain-dogs-doghouse/All is quiet on the Balkan front. One exception from the region is this jazzy new release from Balkan stalwarts Kottarashky & The Rain Dogs, with ten new tracks by turns, moody, bluesy and…Thu, 10 Nov 2022 03:28:41 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-ozan-ata-canani/https://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-ozan-ata-canani/In 2013, Turkish-German author, music compiler and DJ, Imran Ayata stumbled upon a poor quality video snippet from the eighties featuring a young man named Ozan Ata Canani playing saz and singing in…Sun, 23 Oct 2022 10:05:44 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/istanbul-is-like-a-rebellious-woman-an-interview-with-gaye-su-akyol/https://berlinbazzar.com/istanbul-is-like-a-rebellious-woman-an-interview-with-gaye-su-akyol/Whereas the first albums had more to do with retro futurism, in Anadolu Ejderi (Anatolian Dragons), past and present collide beguilingly as Gaye Su Akyol jumps on the Anatolian wagon, pushing it…Sat, 22 Oct 2022 11:19:35 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-imran-ayata/https://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-imran-ayata/Imran Ayata (1969) is a Turkish-German author, music compiler and sometime DJ. Together with Bülent Kullukçu, he put out a collection of immigrant music, Songs of Gastarbeiter Vol. 1 in 2013, after…Sun, 16 Oct 2022 09:05:31 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/the-clans-on-the-trail/https://berlinbazzar.com/the-clans-on-the-trail/Bright and early I set out from my hotel in the middling Kurdish-Turkish town of Midyat in search of the bus station where the plan was to take a dolmuş – a minibus share taxi-to the village of…Wed, 12 Oct 2022 19:26:48 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/a-chassid-in-amsterdam-balkan-beats-book/https://berlinbazzar.com/a-chassid-in-amsterdam-balkan-beats-book/OMFO: I come from Odessa – an area that is closely linked with Balkan culture. Odessa was a part of the Ottoman Empire, and the territory has been home to many different ethnic groups – Gypsies…Mon, 10 Oct 2022 04:58:02 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-job-chajes-from-amsterdam-klezmer-band/https://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-job-chajes-from-amsterdam-klezmer-band/Robert Soko: Happy to have you on board. We are about to have a chapter on the Netherlands. And, well, we don’t have any prepared questions. We just love talking to people naturally. But let’s start…Sat, 08 Oct 2022 10:51:27 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/istanbul-balkan-beats-book/https://berlinbazzar.com/istanbul-balkan-beats-book/The deeper I got into the Balkans the more I began to feel the magnetic pull of Istanbul. As of Novi Pazar, everything started to tilt towards the Bosphorus. The food, the music, the language, the…Tue, 04 Oct 2022 05:47:57 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/mama-bar/https://berlinbazzar.com/mama-bar/I was walking up Hobrechtstrasse in Neukölln the other day when who did I run into but Petrit, my old friend and owner of Mama Bar, that legendary Neukölln watering hole where I had spent many a…Sat, 01 Oct 2022 12:47:21 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-this-is-lovski/https://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-this-is-lovski/Robert Soko: You were running a Project Rakija ten years ago, which was somehow linked to the Balkan Beats, Balkan culture. Then at some point you dropped it. The first question would be why? Then…Fri, 30 Sep 2022 18:43:58 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/derya-yildirim-dost-2/https://berlinbazzar.com/derya-yildirim-dost-2/Derya Yıldırım’s vocal style may not be to everyone’s taste. Compared to Anadolu pop living-legend Selda Bağcan, with whom Yıldırım may be seen to aspire to, her voice rarely rises up to Selda’s…Thu, 29 Sep 2022 03:59:38 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/mad-in-japan/https://berlinbazzar.com/mad-in-japan/Robert Soko: It was Tokyo, November 2015, and the crowd was going mad like only the Japanese knew how. People from Japan – those who were coming to our parties in Europe – I had found very lively and…Sun, 25 Sep 2022 11:26:51 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/balkans-in-japan-the-pyramids/https://berlinbazzar.com/balkans-in-japan-the-pyramids/Robert Rigney: Robert Soko is in Croatia at the moment and unable to make it to the interview. So it’just me for now. Do you know Robert Soko? Rodehihi: Yeah, yeah. He played with Pyramidos one…Sat, 24 Sep 2022 08:20:15 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/3642-2/https://berlinbazzar.com/3642-2/Robert Soko: So, Chiku, our goal is to interview you about your affinity for Balkan music, and then the Balkan scene in Japan in order to get some weird details out of this world. Chiku Yutaka: Yes…Fri, 02 Sep 2022 15:15:53 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/ahmeds-story/https://berlinbazzar.com/ahmeds-story/My mentor at the Reyhane dergah – the Sufi tekke in Berlin, where I remained for two years – was a Turk named Ahmed. He was my age, born in a town near Istanbul, who had moved to Germany in his…Wed, 24 Aug 2022 09:36:29 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/welcome-to-serbia-part-ii/https://berlinbazzar.com/welcome-to-serbia-part-ii/(back to part I) Sauntering up Balkanska ulica I noticed her verging towards me, a black-haired girl in a black dress clicking along the cracked pavement past cheap shops selling cheap wares…Tue, 23 Aug 2022 19:24:20 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/welcome-to-the-armpit-of-the-world/https://berlinbazzar.com/welcome-to-the-armpit-of-the-world/Istanbul is a world unto itself, with a population (between 15 and 20 million) that is larger than many countries. Just picture it: six times bigger than Berlin, about the equivalent of ex-Yugoslavia…Tue, 23 Aug 2022 14:52:33 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/the-discreet-charm-of-eyup/https://berlinbazzar.com/the-discreet-charm-of-eyup/Eyüp Sultan mosque (Eyüp Sultan Camii) is perhaps Istanbul’s holiest spot, outstripping even Hagia Sophia in sanctity. The standard bearer of the Prophet Muhammad, Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, who took part…Sun, 21 Aug 2022 10:54:12 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/biking-to-bosnia/https://berlinbazzar.com/biking-to-bosnia/It was 2004, and I decided to approach the Balkans from another end, this time through Bosnia. As I set forth from Berlin, I had a wavering vision of minarets and the old Turkish Baščaršija dreaming…Fri, 19 Aug 2022 09:36:41 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/it-must-be-love-shantel-on-istanbul/https://berlinbazzar.com/it-must-be-love-shantel-on-istanbul/For some years now Anatolian rock has established itself as the grooviest sound on World Beat dance-floors. Taking a tip from Turkish folk rockers from the 70s like Bariş Manco, Erkin Koray and Selda…Mon, 15 Aug 2022 14:44:14 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/squeeze-it-like-lemon-kolektif-istanbul-on-the-new-istanbul/https://berlinbazzar.com/squeeze-it-like-lemon-kolektif-istanbul-on-the-new-istanbul/I have to say that Kolektif Istanbul was one of the reasons I moved to Istanbul in 2011. A year or two before I packed up and left I caught a gig of theirs at Kreuzberg’s Ballhaus Naunyn, which was…Mon, 15 Aug 2022 01:00:37 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/3465-2/https://berlinbazzar.com/3465-2/Kreuzberger Nächte sind lang, as the song goes. Kreuzberg nights are long. And nowhere was this truer than at Zigan Aldi’s “X-berger Nächte” parties every Saturday night at the Cake Club on…Fri, 12 Aug 2022 03:24:57 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/the-black-panthers/https://berlinbazzar.com/the-black-panthers/Snow dusts the ground on Ada Ciganli, Gypsy Island, a popular get-away on the banks of the Sava river, a short taxi ride from the center of Belgrade, where, after a brief walk through darkened woods…Fri, 05 Aug 2022 11:23:27 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/when-its-for-the-balkans-you-cant-bullshit-an-interview-with-peter-stan/https://berlinbazzar.com/when-its-for-the-balkans-you-cant-bullshit-an-interview-with-peter-stan/How did you get your break? My first break, after playing the local Balkan stuff in the hood, you know, was playing a klezmer gig. That was what broke me. That was with Harold Seletzky. He brought me…Wed, 03 Aug 2022 08:44:05 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/a-pack-of-drinas/https://berlinbazzar.com/a-pack-of-drinas/Yesterday I biked around the Wannsee, to Potsdam and back to Berlin. Then I went to Isigym, boxed a little and rode my bike to Centrala just as the bar was beginning to get crowded. I pulled up on my…Sun, 31 Jul 2022 13:53:49 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/kod-zoran/https://berlinbazzar.com/kod-zoran/I had only intended to make one trip to the Balkans, but so many questions had cropped up on that first journey that it was a torment to leave them unanswered. And so I made further trips to the…Sun, 31 Jul 2022 03:08:15 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/edirne-gateway-to-the-balkans/https://berlinbazzar.com/edirne-gateway-to-the-balkans/We had just passed the border and were still twenty kilometers from our destination, but as the Orient Express neared Edirne, the Selemiyi mosque with its floodlit dome and 70 meter high minarets…Thu, 28 Jul 2022 11:25:57 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/american-james-bond-in-the-sumadija-part-1/https://berlinbazzar.com/american-james-bond-in-the-sumadija-part-1/Right here, at the very tip of Belgrade, on the Kalemegdan fortress promontory overlooking the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, is where Central Europe ends and the Balkans begin. Ahead…Wed, 27 Jul 2022 01:54:39 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/a-pkk-member-comes-clean/https://berlinbazzar.com/a-pkk-member-comes-clean/What can you say? Maybe a little bit about yourself to begin with. I am not a Gastarbeiter. I came to Germany with family when I was twenty. What is it when you come with family? My husband invited…Mon, 25 Jul 2022 09:38:47 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/this-is-not-a-playground-its-the-balkans-balkan-beats-in-new-york/https://berlinbazzar.com/this-is-not-a-playground-its-the-balkans-balkan-beats-in-new-york/Much has been made of the similarities between Balkan Beats and punk rock. There are, admittedly, a few parallels. Serbian kafana behavior, whereby drunken bećari (revelers on a spree) smash glasses…Sat, 23 Jul 2022 13:31:07 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/high-times-on-the-cakor-pass/https://berlinbazzar.com/high-times-on-the-cakor-pass/I had come to northeastern Montenegro from Novi Pazar because I wanted to take the 1849 meter high Čakor mountain pass from Montenegro into Kosovo, winding through the Rugova gorge and ending up in…Wed, 20 Jul 2022 12:12:29 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/the-two-sided-allure-of-istanbul/https://berlinbazzar.com/the-two-sided-allure-of-istanbul/You could say that all big cities are, by their very multifaceted natures, places of contrast. This holds true about New York, London, Berlin… The list goes on. And yet it appears to me that Istanbul…Thu, 30 Jun 2022 05:49:06 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/on-being-a-macho-douchebag-robert-soko-talks-with-gypsy-box/https://berlinbazzar.com/on-being-a-macho-douchebag-robert-soko-talks-with-gypsy-box/Robert Soko: Here we have water and wine. Gypsy Box: Water is important. Water brings life. Robert Soko: Abel, for the record, can you just tell me a few short words about yourself – who you are…Thu, 19 May 2022 18:34:10 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/among-the-alemancis-in-a-kurdish-village-in-south-east-turkey-where-everyone-has-left-for-berlin/https://berlinbazzar.com/among-the-alemancis-in-a-kurdish-village-in-south-east-turkey-where-everyone-has-left-for-berlin/The dolmuş – a Turkish minibus share taxi – jumps and bumps along the uneven road while furry dice with the word “Mashallah“ on them dangle from the rear-view mirror. Outside, there are arid, parched…Wed, 18 May 2022 04:47:25 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/a-night-in-berlin-with-jugotonka-and-dzej/https://berlinbazzar.com/a-night-in-berlin-with-jugotonka-and-dzej/Back when Balkan Beats was all the hype and each weekend there were at least two of three Balkan parties in Berlin, I used to follow Jugotonka from Tacheles, to RAW Temple, SO36, Kaffee Burger and…Sun, 15 May 2022 12:14:17 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/ghosts-of-kotti/https://berlinbazzar.com/ghosts-of-kotti/Not a whole heck of a lot has changed here at Kottbusser Tor – or Kotti, as it is affectionately called by Berliners – over the past twenty years. People have come and gone, some new places have…Wed, 11 May 2022 17:40:44 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/neki/https://berlinbazzar.com/neki/A Serbian pundit of the nineties once said if you want to get to know the Oriental mindset, you needn’t travel to Turkey and make the acquaintance of any exotic Mehmet or Ahmed. Rather you need look…Mon, 09 May 2022 02:34:05 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/rakija-roll-billy-gould-from-faith-no-more-on-the-balkans/https://berlinbazzar.com/rakija-roll-billy-gould-from-faith-no-more-on-the-balkans/Robert Soko: We are about to compose a book in the next year or two. Something similar to “Please Kill Me”. Robert Rigney: The Balkan version. Robert Soko: Yes, the Balkan version. Let’s say thirty…Sat, 07 May 2022 15:20:43 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/the-balkans-are-not-enough-an-interview-with-vedran-mujagic-of-dubioza-kolektiv/https://berlinbazzar.com/the-balkans-are-not-enough-an-interview-with-vedran-mujagic-of-dubioza-kolektiv/It was a tough call. Amsterdam Klezmer Band with Yury Gurzhy Djing the after show or Dubioza Kolektiv at Festsaal Kreuzberg. I opted for Dubioza – and I didn’t regret my decision (though I am sure…Fri, 29 Apr 2022 23:07:30 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-cuneyt-sepetci/https://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-cuneyt-sepetci/Robert Rigney: So basically I would like to know about your beginnings. Also about living in Tarlabaşı in Istanbul, and differences between playing Roma and gadjo weddings. So the first question is…Mon, 25 Apr 2022 16:25:18 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/interview-with-gino-srdan-jevdevic-of-kultur-shock/https://berlinbazzar.com/interview-with-gino-srdan-jevdevic-of-kultur-shock/Gino Srđan Jevđević is the lead singer and founder of Kultur Shock, a multicultural Balkan-style rock band that blends certain Bosnian oriental melodies and folk elements with a hard-rock and punk…Sun, 24 Apr 2022 06:23:32 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/von-kamchatka-bis-angola-alle-kennen-coca-cola/https://berlinbazzar.com/von-kamchatka-bis-angola-alle-kennen-coca-cola/Although she hates to hear it, Olga has got to be one the last of the unrepentant Communists in Berlin. Originally from Varna, in Bulgaria, she came to East Germany to study genetics in the late…Tue, 19 Apr 2022 01:39:25 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-amira-medunjanin/https://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-amira-medunjanin/How did it come about that your English is so perfect? I don’t know. I picked it up over the years. I worked for the British military service in Croatia. And before that, I worked for UNPROFOR, and…Wed, 06 Apr 2022 23:16:05 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/lalalar-bi-cinnete-bakar/https://berlinbazzar.com/lalalar-bi-cinnete-bakar/While it is true that young people in Turkey are getting clued in on their 70s Anadolu psyche heritage through international acts like Altin Gün (if the Westerners like it, then it must be good), one…Tue, 05 Apr 2022 13:23:53 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/montenegro-land-of-heroes/https://berlinbazzar.com/montenegro-land-of-heroes/The train line from Prijepolje in the south Serbian Sandžak to Podgorica in Montenegro is perhaps the most dramatic in Europe. You go through tunnel after tunnel, skirting the precipice of one of the…Sat, 12 Mar 2022 10:17:55 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/satellites-oriental-rock-roll/https://berlinbazzar.com/satellites-oriental-rock-roll/Şatellites are at one and the same time a brilliant Tel Aviv Turkish-psyche cover band – and much more than that. Some of their catchiest songs are originals, like the first track “Big Baglama” an…Thu, 17 Feb 2022 23:46:58 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/anadol-felicita/https://berlinbazzar.com/anadol-felicita/Anadol claims to be influenced by traditional Turkish pop, “such as Anadolu rock and Arabesk music from this country where I grew up. There is a connection to Folk and also French pop or Flamenco…Mon, 07 Feb 2022 04:26:46 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/islandman-godless-ceremony/https://berlinbazzar.com/islandman-godless-ceremony/Islandman supplies slick multi-layered atmospheric down-tempo electronica with an ethno touch. Featuring musicians from all over the globe, the title of the album “Godless Ceremony” gives one pause…Fri, 04 Feb 2022 10:25:15 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/dem-trio-anatolian-dances/https://berlinbazzar.com/dem-trio-anatolian-dances/It is interesting to see and hear how Turkish wedding dances have changed over the years – from slow and decorous, to high-octane “turbo folk”. These 20 tracks offer a rare glimpse of – mainly –…Fri, 04 Feb 2022 09:27:41 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/risar-kupa-4/https://berlinbazzar.com/risar-kupa-4/These songs stem from a perilous time in Turkish history when ethnic strife between Turks, Greeks and Armenians was beginning to make itself manifest. Oddly, perhaps, the precarious mood of the day…Thu, 03 Feb 2022 18:40:29 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/kolektif-istanbul-kismet/https://berlinbazzar.com/kolektif-istanbul-kismet/Kolektif Istanbul haven’t changed all that much since their first album Krivoto, which came out nearing the peak of the Balkan hype in 2008. These 13 mostly infectious dance tunes are still keeping…Mon, 24 Jan 2022 04:53:07 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/alec-kopyt-hedonist-to-the-core/https://berlinbazzar.com/alec-kopyt-hedonist-to-the-core/Prior to the Soviet Union, Odessa was a kind of New Orleans on the Black Sea. It was a duty-free haven with a thriving black market and teeming port-side taverns where you could hear a variety of…Tue, 21 Dec 2021 12:27:36 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/bjonko-enigma/https://berlinbazzar.com/bjonko-enigma/Although he was born in Copenhagen, both Bjonko Stosic’s parents hail from Macedonia, and it is there that his sound is inextricably rooted. The title of the album is Enigma and suggests something…Tue, 03 Aug 2021 00:13:48 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-ciguli-translated-by-raffaele-cataldo/https://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-ciguli-translated-by-raffaele-cataldo/One of my favorite musicians is the Bulgarian/Turkish accordionist called ‘Ciguli.’ Unfortunately, he passed away in 2014. After he died, the Istanbul based Roll Magazin re-published an extensive…Sat, 24 Jul 2021 14:29:16 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/tallava-the-sound-of-the-balkan-underground/https://berlinbazzar.com/tallava-the-sound-of-the-balkan-underground/The guy that worked the hotel reception desk looked at me, as if to make sure he had heard correctly. “Tallava? You want tallava?” he said, like I wanted a dose of the clap. “Are you sure you really…Sun, 18 Jul 2021 09:49:30 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/derya-yildirim-and-grup-simsek-dost/https://berlinbazzar.com/derya-yildirim-and-grup-simsek-dost/Derya Yıldırım doesn’t like to be pigeonholed. “I do what comes out of me. And if that is for some ‘psychedelic rock’ then so be it,” she says. Oft compared to Turkish neo-psyche rockers Altın Gün…Thu, 15 Jul 2021 14:04:00 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/confessions-of-a-turkish-wedding-crasher/https://berlinbazzar.com/confessions-of-a-turkish-wedding-crasher/The shriek of the clarinet cuts the air and suddenly all the young bucks hit the floor, linking pinkies and dancing halay (Turkish circle dance). As the wedding band runs the gamut of popular wedding…Sat, 10 Jul 2021 10:57:58 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/der-abtrunnige/https://berlinbazzar.com/der-abtrunnige/Erol Ünal, a young German Turk from Esslingen, near Stuttgart, has come out with a scathing anti-Muslim exposé entitled, Der Abtrünnige – 15 Jahre in Moscheegemeinden. Meine Einblicke in eine Welt…Sun, 04 Jul 2021 20:18:03 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/lee-fry-music-kalipe/https://berlinbazzar.com/lee-fry-music-kalipe/Now, with corona, more than ever, musicians don’t have to leave the privacy of their homes to cut an album. They hook up over Facebook or Fiverr and trade samples over Reason, while tracks are…Thu, 17 Jun 2021 02:54:05 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-taner-akyol/https://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-taner-akyol/The first I had heard of Taner Akyol was in connection with Derya Yıldırım, the young saz player and vocalist fronting Grup Şimşek, an international band, which have made some waves both here in…Sat, 12 Jun 2021 08:05:14 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/sufi-soul-festival/https://berlinbazzar.com/sufi-soul-festival/We were about to set off by car from Berlin across Germany with Isa Martin, a German convert and whirling dervish at the wheel and Hamza Altinok, a Sufi teacher and mystic, whose father had founded…Fri, 04 Jun 2021 07:59:43 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/gay-turkish-and-muslim/https://berlinbazzar.com/gay-turkish-and-muslim/I had a spot of trouble at Gayhane once. This was during those crazy five years between 2005 and 2010, when I was riding the Balkan wave, living out my midlife crises with large quantities of booze…Mon, 31 May 2021 20:41:38 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/crimi/https://berlinbazzar.com/crimi/Raised in Lyon with the tunes his Sicilian grandmother sang to him, Julien Lesuisse set out in search of his “Sicilian soul”. Along the way he picks up on the sound of the Maghreb, incorporating a…Mon, 31 May 2021 09:21:25 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/muslim-reverts/https://berlinbazzar.com/muslim-reverts/One Friday not long ago I met with Ero Behrić and Alen Hebilović – two erstwhile figures in Berlin’s Balkan party scene – in a Turkish café on Oranien Straße, half an hour before cuma – Friday…Sat, 29 May 2021 07:44:50 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/introducing-balkan-taksim/https://berlinbazzar.com/introducing-balkan-taksim/The new Balkan sound departs from the clean, straight, beat-laden Balkan club tracks of yore, insofar as the new stuff is looser, fuzzier, deeper, more distorted, less distinct – subtler even…Thu, 27 May 2021 13:19:04 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/invisible-archives-w-max-weissenfeldt-philophon-records/https://berlinbazzar.com/invisible-archives-w-max-weissenfeldt-philophon-records/I still remember the time when I first visited the HQ of Philophon Records in Berlin. Situated on the top floor of an old industrial building in Kreuzberg, the place where all the Philophon magic was…Mon, 05 Apr 2021 06:23:12 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/a-german-turkish-culture-of-neurosis/https://berlinbazzar.com/a-german-turkish-culture-of-neurosis/There are two Turkish worlds in Germany today. The first – the world of the old Turkish Gastarbeiter, ex-guest-workers who came to fuel the German Wirtschaftswunder, and who, for whatever reason…Tue, 23 Mar 2021 04:08:24 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/we-are-the-fame/https://berlinbazzar.com/we-are-the-fame/It’s a nice thing to be able to walk through the streets of a Turkish neighborhood and not have people stare at you all the time or mob you for autographs. David Bowie must have felt this way in…Fri, 19 Mar 2021 21:40:22 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/alpas-story/https://berlinbazzar.com/alpas-story/It was the year 2013. The Turkish rapper Alpa Gun, author of one hit single, who had had his near-brush with fame but who was now, by all accounts, a has-been in the rap business, was thinking of…Mon, 15 Mar 2021 23:54:36 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/escape-from-berlin/https://berlinbazzar.com/escape-from-berlin/Berlin is a swamp: literally, figuratively, and etymologically (Brlo – old Slavic for swamp). It will suck you down if you are not careful – and sometimes you just need to escape to save your soul. I…Sat, 06 Mar 2021 04:40:20 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/life-in-istanbuls-most-famous-slum/https://berlinbazzar.com/life-in-istanbuls-most-famous-slum/At five in the morning a wailing comes up from the valley below as one mosque after another broadcasts the call to prayer, a coagulating chorus joining up together in one unified lament – Allāhu…Sun, 28 Feb 2021 09:31:45 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/derya-yildirim/https://berlinbazzar.com/derya-yildirim/Derya Yıldırım takes the stage at a packed house in Berlin’s Gretchen club one night in November 2019. “It feels like a home-crowd tonight,” she says before launching into her hit, Nem Kaldı (“A…Fri, 26 Feb 2021 06:30:57 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/dogs-bark/https://berlinbazzar.com/dogs-bark/FIVE-MAN LA CARAVANE PASSE, led by multi-instrumentalist, multi-linguist Toma Feterman, returns with Nomadic Spirit, their sixth album, a dizzily euphoric, Babylonian mix of Balkan Gypsy, flamenco…Wed, 24 Feb 2021 06:49:23 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/getting-down-with-the-sufi-dub-brothers/https://berlinbazzar.com/getting-down-with-the-sufi-dub-brothers/There is something rather tongue-in-cheek about the very idea of Sufi Dub Brothers. How else to imagine bass heavy dub electronica juxtaposed with classical sitar raga – the sedentary formality of…Sat, 13 Feb 2021 08:49:09 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/remembering-jalaluddin-gerd-rebler/https://berlinbazzar.com/remembering-jalaluddin-gerd-rebler/Jalaluddin Gerd Rebler, Chairman of the Royal Ottoman Society in Ludwigshafen, is dead at 74. Rebler’s ambition was to unite Sufi Islam with high German culture, working towards a sense of spiritual…Thu, 28 Jan 2021 02:55:46 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-farhot/https://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-farhot/A boy cries out in Dari, exulting over the body of a dead soldier, followed by rapid snare drums approximating gunfire. So begins Kabul Fire 2, Farhot’s second album to date, which he describes as a…Sun, 24 Jan 2021 00:57:34 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/a-momumental-mission-torhaus-and-thf-radio/https://berlinbazzar.com/a-momumental-mission-torhaus-and-thf-radio/With club life coming to a grinding halt in 2020, radio has regained some of its importance. This might be one reason why over the last year the small internet radio station THF radio grew from a…Sat, 23 Jan 2021 02:02:01 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/altin-gun-yol/https://berlinbazzar.com/altin-gun-yol/Altın Gün have a new musical direction. Just as we were getting used to their flanged-out, groove-charged restylings of Anatolian rock and folk numbers , the Dutch sextet has taken a radically new…Fri, 22 Jan 2021 12:31:20 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/47soul-semitics/https://berlinbazzar.com/47soul-semitics/It’s been said 47Soul is a band that is “rooted in the Palestinian Diaspora”. Surely “uprooted” would be more to the point. 47Soul, which consists of Tareq Abu Kwaik, Ramzy Suleiman and Walaa Sbait…Sat, 16 Jan 2021 22:32:08 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/a-letter-from-jaffa/https://berlinbazzar.com/a-letter-from-jaffa/Interview with Muhammad Qundous from Qarar band. When I think about bands that represent “our area”/Palestine/Israel/ how ever you wanna call it, I think about Qarar. A non-profit project which was…Fri, 15 Jan 2021 00:05:08 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/mogollar-antolian-sun/https://berlinbazzar.com/mogollar-antolian-sun/Moğollar – the Mongols – were the original Anatolian rockers and coiners of the term “Anatolian Pop”. Back in the late sixties and seventies when Americans and Europeans followed the hippy trail east…Tue, 12 Jan 2021 02:29:14 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/rip-birol-unel/https://berlinbazzar.com/rip-birol-unel/Birol Ünel (18 August 1961 – 3 September 2020) is dead at 59. His death is not exactly breaking news. He died three months ago of cancer. I found out about it only now, and I can hardly believe it…Sat, 09 Jan 2021 16:27:24 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/egypt-isnt-just-another-foreign-country/https://berlinbazzar.com/egypt-isnt-just-another-foreign-country/A GERMAN-EGYPTIAN MEMORY OF EDWARD W. SAʿID Edward Said loved music, and I loved his love of music, as well as the musicality that characterized everything, he did. Teju Cole, “A Quartet for Edward…Wed, 06 Jan 2021 02:54:07 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/taksim-in-the-good-old-days/https://berlinbazzar.com/taksim-in-the-good-old-days/Whenever I visited my grandmother in Istanbul, Aksaray, I simply had to check out the scene on Istiklal Caddesi. Mostly, I walked there. Back then there was no tram and I didn’t really fancy taking…Wed, 30 Dec 2020 04:10:05 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-big-baba/https://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-big-baba/“Nothing passes Schöneberg 30,” raps Schöneberg rap star and Lokalmatador Alpa Gun. It’s just a couple of blocks, but between Kleistpark and Kurfürstenstrasse, Yorkstrasse and Pallas, stretches an…Tue, 29 Dec 2020 07:44:34 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/easys-gym/https://berlinbazzar.com/easys-gym/I grew up in deep West-Berlin, right where the city peters out into suburban villas and pinewood forest, on the outer fringes of Wilmersdorf. This was as far away from the “ghetto” as you could get…Mon, 28 Dec 2020 14:47:12 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/remembering-dzej/https://berlinbazzar.com/remembering-dzej/It is with genuine sadness and regret that I heard the news today of the untimely passing of Džej Ramadanovski, who died December 6 of a heart attack at the unripe age of 55. Džej’s death is but one…Sat, 26 Dec 2020 02:53:52 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/berlin-in-the-70s/https://berlinbazzar.com/berlin-in-the-70s/I am sitting with my mother on the top of a double-decker bus in Schmargendorf. It is night and the streets are wet with puddles of glittering lights and autumn leaves, and I am eating Chinese rice…Thu, 24 Dec 2020 10:04:51 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/balkan-bump-osmanity/https://berlinbazzar.com/balkan-bump-osmanity/Like rats jumping a sinking ship, World Beat DJs have ditched the Balkans in favor of sounds further afield — mainly from Turkey or the Middle East. Having said this, there still seem to be places…Wed, 23 Dec 2020 04:40:54 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/instrument-of-the-year/https://berlinbazzar.com/instrument-of-the-year/Several new and upcoming re-issued records feature the sound of the African thumb piano mbira, from traditional to contemporary. And in at least two cases, Berlin plays a special role in the current…Tue, 15 Dec 2020 19:16:20 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/hamed-abdel-samads-aus-liebe-zu-deutschland/https://berlinbazzar.com/hamed-abdel-samads-aus-liebe-zu-deutschland/GERMANY’S FAVORITE ARABIC Uncle Tom – Hamed Abdel-Samad – has just come out with a new polemic, Aus Liebe zu Deutschland – Ein Wachruf(Out of Love for Germany – A Wakeup Call). After such books as…Wed, 18 Nov 2020 06:57:39 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/like-the-revolution-never-happened-an-interview-with-liraz/https://berlinbazzar.com/like-the-revolution-never-happened-an-interview-with-liraz/Liraz Charhi (42) – or Liraz, as she is commonly known – is a popular Iranian-Israeli singer, who made her musical debut in 2004 coinciding with the kick start of her film career with the flick Turn…Thu, 15 Oct 2020 05:24:17 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/nemanja-cosmic-disco/https://berlinbazzar.com/nemanja-cosmic-disco/**** Nemanja’s Cosmic Disco – from a World Music perspective – isn’t what we’d expect from Croatia – specifically Istria, an historically contested region in the Adriatic, with its own special…Fri, 09 Oct 2020 02:59:08 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/sabreen-death-of-the-prophet/https://berlinbazzar.com/sabreen-death-of-the-prophet/**** Readers of Berlin Bazzar may be familiar with Parisian oud player Kamilya Jubran for her collaborative work with Swiss based trumpeter and electro-pioneer Werner Hassler. Back in 1982, while…Thu, 08 Oct 2020 02:34:02 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/slamming-the-muslims/https://berlinbazzar.com/slamming-the-muslims/How can someone so outright islamophobic hold a post as integration officer in Neukölln? This is the gist of the current critique by Green and Left politicians regarding Güner Yasemin Balci’s…Sun, 04 Oct 2020 03:57:03 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/ali-sonnenallee/https://berlinbazzar.com/ali-sonnenallee/Scene: Friday afternoon on Sonnenallee, otherwise known as the “Gaza Strip”. I am sitting at a table outside an Arabic baklava joint, drinking a thin coffee out of a paper cup. The sidewalk is…Sun, 04 Oct 2020 02:29:10 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/alhousseini-anivolla/https://berlinbazzar.com/alhousseini-anivolla/Shortly after the release of his last album, Afropentatonism, I met with vocalist, guitar and bass player, Alhousseini Anivolla at Alexanderplatz for a Berlin Bazzar photo shoot. It was a bright and…Sat, 03 Oct 2020 20:46:12 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/kosovo-polje-revisited/https://berlinbazzar.com/kosovo-polje-revisited/Over and over again I would hear the famous date 1389 bantered about. For the Turks it was the date of a decisive battle on Blackbird Field in Kosovo, which paved the way for their ultimate incursion…Tue, 29 Sep 2020 03:19:43 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/baba-zulahayvan-gibi/https://berlinbazzar.com/baba-zulahayvan-gibi/**** The intimacy of hearing – and seeing – Baba Zula live has lately surpassed the experience of listening to some of their latest studio albums. As time has gone by the songs of Istanbul’s…Mon, 28 Sep 2020 19:12:39 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/djclick-y-colelo-identidad-mapuche/https://berlinbazzar.com/djclick-y-colelo-identidad-mapuche/No Fridge (30 min) **** Well-known for his self-described “crazy global meetings”, DJ Click has lately teamed up with Colelo Identidad Mapuche, a punky-protest group devoted to promoting the culture…Sat, 26 Sep 2020 08:08:37 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/enemy-at-the-gate/https://berlinbazzar.com/enemy-at-the-gate/“Asia begins at the Landstrasse.” — Prince Metternich In 2017 I made it down to Austria from Berlin for a long weekend in March to research the Balkans in Vienna. I stayed in Ottakring, Vienna’s…Wed, 23 Sep 2020 05:34:05 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/welcome-to-belgrade/https://berlinbazzar.com/welcome-to-belgrade/From Budapest to Belgrade is eight hours. You travel along the Pannonian plain; the great plain of Hungary; Transdanubia; the westernmost steppe in Europe; all flatlands and fields, and the heat…Tue, 22 Sep 2020 18:08:28 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/dunkelbunt/https://berlinbazzar.com/dunkelbunt/In 2001 Ulf Lindemann, who goes by the nom de plume of Dunkelbunt, moved from Hamburg to Vienna. That was his first journey eastward – his first Morgenlandfahrt, as it were. Over the course of the…Tue, 22 Sep 2020 03:35:37 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/arsivplak-turkish-disco-folk-mirror/https://berlinbazzar.com/arsivplak-turkish-disco-folk-mirror/Arşivplak (45 mins) **** Arşivplak, meaning “records from the archives” has come out with an eleven track instrumental compilation of popular Anatolian psyche tracks, mainly from the seventies, that…Sun, 23 Aug 2020 02:22:03 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/rust%C9%99m-quliyev-azerbaijani-gitara/https://berlinbazzar.com/rust%C9%99m-quliyev-azerbaijani-gitara/These nine weirdly wonderful tracks put out by Bongo Joe of Azerbaijani guitar legend Rüstəm Quliyev (1969-2005) spanning the length of his career, untimely cut short by lung cancer, can sound by…Sun, 16 Aug 2020 07:40:50 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/rap-story-ethnique-punch/https://berlinbazzar.com/rap-story-ethnique-punch/I first heard Ethnique Punch rap seven years ago when he grabbed the mic after a live set of 2/5 BZ who is something like a father figure to many electronic producers from Turkey. That night, the…Mon, 29 Jun 2020 03:10:48 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/shiran/https://berlinbazzar.com/shiran/I wonder if you can introduce yourself to the readers of Berlin Bazzar. My name is Shiran, and I am a singer and a songwriter. I’m from Israel. I have Yemeni roots and Iraqi roots. How did you start…Sun, 28 Jun 2020 02:18:53 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/the-jewish-monkeys-at-the-ufa-fabrik/https://berlinbazzar.com/the-jewish-monkeys-at-the-ufa-fabrik/The Jewish Monkeys was a hot tip from Balkan pop personality Shantel. “The Marx Brothers on acid; the nightmare of Benjamin Netanyahu,” was how he described them. “They are freaks, millionaires on a…Fri, 26 Jun 2020 08:33:30 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-zenobia-the-so-called-kraftwerk-of-the-levent/https://berlinbazzar.com/an-interview-with-zenobia-the-so-called-kraftwerk-of-the-levent/Snaking synth lines and exotic chord sequences collide with vigorous bass-laden beats and housy bedrock foundations, as East meets West in irresistible, unpredictable Levantine soundscapes. Zenobia…Wed, 24 Jun 2020 08:04:23 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/gal-kadan-locks-horns-with-orientalism/https://berlinbazzar.com/gal-kadan-locks-horns-with-orientalism/On a cold Saturday evening in January, the Israeli DJ, Gal Kadan gives a talk on Mizrahi music (Oriental Jewish music) at Lefter Records, a basement record shop in Kreuzberg. Around him, a mixed…Fri, 19 Jun 2020 04:12:11 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/prague-taxi/https://berlinbazzar.com/prague-taxi/On my third day in Prague I found a job lead of sorts. I was sitting in the Led Zeppelin Bar when I came across a copy of an English language publication catering to Prague’s expat scene. It was…Fri, 12 Jun 2020 04:12:11 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/rock-the-townships-so-african-punk-in-the-80s/https://berlinbazzar.com/rock-the-townships-so-african-punk-in-the-80s/It’s somewhere in the early Eigthies Johannesburg and I’m on my way to see National Wake. My grey and blue-flecked box cut zoot suit with its pleated baggy pants may have been a slight overdress –…Tue, 09 Jun 2020 01:20:27 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/guitar-factotum-of-croatian-psychedelic-pop-scene-luka-sipetic-aka-nemanja/https://berlinbazzar.com/guitar-factotum-of-croatian-psychedelic-pop-scene-luka-sipetic-aka-nemanja/“Squeezed in by Croatia, Slovenia and Italy, we Istrians pass much better as chameleons” Luka Šipetić is from Pula, a city on the northern coast of Croatia renowned for its festivals of electronic…Thu, 28 May 2020 23:40:31 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/gothenburg-bazaar/https://berlinbazzar.com/gothenburg-bazaar/The Gothenburg Balkan scene is a wild fusion of many different styles of music from Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. I have visited numerous arenas, clubs, venues and forgotten dance-floors during…Wed, 20 May 2020 19:12:31 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/crossing-into-albania/https://berlinbazzar.com/crossing-into-albania/One day during one of my trips to the Balkans I found myself in the historical town of Ohrid on Lake Ohrid in western Macedonia. My idea was to go to Sveti Naum on the border to Albania, an ancient…Tue, 19 May 2020 10:54:15 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/interview-with-frank-london/https://berlinbazzar.com/interview-with-frank-london/Your latest release with Piranha Records is with The Glass House Orchestra, how did this project come out? Six years ago was the 70th anniversary of the Holocaust in Hungary. What I didn’t know…Sun, 17 May 2020 23:06:43 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/shantel-cumbus-cemaat-istanbul/https://berlinbazzar.com/shantel-cumbus-cemaat-istanbul/It must be love! by @denizdenden This production is a utopia in dystopian times. Shantel & Cümbüş Cemaat’s album “Istanbul” open up a utopian space between Frankfurt-on the-sea and Istanbul on the…Sun, 10 May 2020 17:30:29 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/postzionist-music-thoughts-about-etnoise-and-fakelore/https://berlinbazzar.com/postzionist-music-thoughts-about-etnoise-and-fakelore/#postzionist music. Thoughts about etnoise and fakelore. In a letter from Tel Aviv I have arranged this interview with Ensemble of Love and Terror as part of an exploration of the local music scene…Fri, 08 May 2020 11:30:21 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/dakhabrakha-alambari/https://berlinbazzar.com/dakhabrakha-alambari/At first glance there is something suspiciously “arty” about DakhaBrakha. Attired in exaggerated folk costumes and oversize black lamb-fur head-gear – they play on ethnic stereotypes while at the…Wed, 06 May 2020 02:35:09 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/the-mysterious-veil-of-omar-souleyman/https://berlinbazzar.com/the-mysterious-veil-of-omar-souleyman/My name is Rafi, a Syrian-Palestinian musician. Growing up, I knew about Omar Souleyman, but in the Middle East his music is considered cheesy, or maybe only for weddings. After moving to Berlin I…Tue, 05 May 2020 01:45:28 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/islandman/https://berlinbazzar.com/islandman/“Kaybola” means something like “Let’s get lost” in Turkish. It is the second album of Istanbul trio Islandman. The idea is to create for the listener rich soundscapes, layered with elements culled…Mon, 04 May 2020 10:19:15 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/gastarbeiter-express/https://berlinbazzar.com/gastarbeiter-express/And so it was that — filled with a tremor of excitement — I embarked on another trip to Belgrade, that wild, loud, brawling, lawless and free city in the Balkans, where the kafanas flowed with rakija…Sat, 02 May 2020 05:57:55 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/marko-markovic-and-his-trumpet/https://berlinbazzar.com/marko-markovic-and-his-trumpet/In Vladičin Han, the South Serbian town, where Marko Marković hails from, nearly everyone plays brass . “Growing up I didn’t have a choice,” says Marko. “The trumpet chose me.” Marko Marković (30) is…Sat, 02 May 2020 03:49:37 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/taksim-an-obituary/https://berlinbazzar.com/taksim-an-obituary/When it comes to Istanbul’s nightlife, many usually think of Taksim – that stretch of European Istanbul, north of the Golden Horn, intersected by the Istiklal Caddesi a pedestrian thoroughfare which…Thu, 30 Apr 2020 23:58:21 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/keeping-the-source-an-interview-with-aynur/https://berlinbazzar.com/keeping-the-source-an-interview-with-aynur/Martin Scorsese, Keith Richards, Johnny Depp and Robert De Niro are impressed by her voice.Aynur Doğan — or Aynur, as she is popularly known – is probably one of the most famous Kurdish singers…Tue, 14 Apr 2020 19:41:39 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/an-enemy-of-the-people-a-corona-virus-diary/https://berlinbazzar.com/an-enemy-of-the-people-a-corona-virus-diary/I am at home. Or to be more precise, in my country home. Staying in the countryside, I see no one. In the city, I’ve met many friends in the streets who I haven’t seen in ages. Everyone has returned…Mon, 13 Apr 2020 03:08:53 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/wheres-the-message-erci-e-on-rap-and-outrage/https://berlinbazzar.com/wheres-the-message-erci-e-on-rap-and-outrage/In my neighborhood in Wilmersdorf the black-and-white photocopied portraits in memory of the ten foreigners who were killed cold bloodedly on 19 February in Hanau by a gun wielding neo-Nazi terrorist…Sun, 12 Apr 2020 23:25:50 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/cowboys-and-indians-and-gypsies/https://berlinbazzar.com/cowboys-and-indians-and-gypsies/Pavel was one of those Czech Western freaks you came across now and then in Prague. He wore an oversize Texas belt buckle, tooled cowboy boots and listened to Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams Jr. to…Thu, 09 Apr 2020 16:12:06 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/kebab-project/https://berlinbazzar.com/kebab-project/Was the döner kebab really invented in Berlin? Or is this just an urban myth? Çağan Okuyan’s art-book, “Kebab Project” goes some way towards answering this question. In the end, however, the search…Sun, 05 Apr 2020 20:59:39 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/the-good-old-and-funky-iran-with-ramesh/https://berlinbazzar.com/the-good-old-and-funky-iran-with-ramesh/For a long time now, it has been possible to make interesting discoveries thanks to Pharaway Records and their extensive catalogue. In addition to a great variety of psychedelic and Anatolian Pop…Sun, 05 Apr 2020 20:14:54 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/amsterdam-klezmer-band-fortuna/https://berlinbazzar.com/amsterdam-klezmer-band-fortuna/For a band which makes the bold claim to being the (one and only) Amsterdam Klezmer Band, the outfit has rarely been about straight-up, unadulterated klezmer. While the core remains so, AKB has…Sun, 05 Apr 2020 17:46:38 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/party-politics/https://berlinbazzar.com/party-politics/Who owns Arabic music? Who owns Arabic music? Who should get to play it? Who should get paid for it? Palestinians or Israeli-Jews? What about cultural appropriation? Are Israeli DJs playing Arabic…Sun, 05 Apr 2020 00:35:37 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/yurovision-records-from-ussr/https://berlinbazzar.com/yurovision-records-from-ussr/“Children’s Records from the USSR” As a kid, I was often sick and stayed home for weeks. My parents had to work, so in the absence of someone to entertain me, I was spending my time with a monophonic…Sun, 05 Apr 2020 00:02:21 GMThttps://berlinbazzar.com/holding-pattern/https://berlinbazzar.com/holding-pattern/Coming at the end a long and exhausting European tour, we reached Adalaide, Australia after a 16-hour flight. What kind of hick-town was this that we had landed in? It was outrageously hot and, well…Sat, 04 Apr 2020 21:42:14 GMT