Thursday, May 18, 2006

Kudsi Erguner, Musical Archaeologist

Sometimes you follow a small trail and find something truly delicious ...

I was reading through my July 2005 copy of the Turkish Airlines magazine called 'Skylife' when I found a feature article on Kudsi Erguner.

I read of a man who studied both architecture and musicological research in Paris, who writes books, composes music and teaches.

Curious to know more, I searched for his music online and loved the two pieces I found ... Ney Taksimi and Ud Ve Kanun Ta.

He has some 92 albums to his name and is regarded as one of the world's leading representatives of sufi music. Yet to be searched are the compositions he has created while researching classical Turkish music, mixing Ottoman music with western rhythms and improvisational jazz.

Kudsi 'expresses mystical philosophy through his 'ney' (reed flute), an instrument he learned while following in the ney playing footsteps of his father and grandfather.

France gets more than it seems to deserve in these days when he talks of the multi-cultural aspect of his projects. He says, 'Let's say it's a spinoff of living in Paris. Because Paris is a world city; you meet a lot of artists there.'

He has a book ... 'The Fount of Seperation: A Ney Player's Journey'. It's intended to be autobiographical but is more of a first-hand account of the period in which my generation lived.

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