A Hawk and A Hacksaw’s LM Dupli-cation label announce next release: maestro Cneyt Sepeti

 
Music
A Hawk and A Hacksaw’s LM Dupli-cation label announce their next release: a set of extraordinary recordings of Turkish clarinet maestro Cneyt Sepeti and his band Orchestra Dolapdere. 
“In Istanbul, close to the city center, lies a district not often visited by tourists. It’s called Dolapdere, and it is populated by the Roma of the city, many of whom are originally from Thrace. They supply the music for the city’s weddings, circumcisions, parades and parties.
Dolapdere is the home of clarinet virtouso Cneyt Sepeti and the Orchestra Dolapdere- some of the great musicians of Istanbul. They specialize in a modern take on classic Turkish Roma (gypsy) music, as well as folk songs from Albania, Macedonia, Spain, and elsewhere that they have adapted to their own inimitable style.
On days when Cneyt is not working, you can find him in the cafe, drinking chai, and waiting for the highest bidder to hire him for the night’s concert. We (A Hawk and A Hacksaw) met Cuneyt in the summer of 2012, and agreed to get the under-recorded master into a studio and release his first album. Cneyt has chosen all the tracks: many are hits from the Turkish Roma repetoire, but many have not been heard in the West.
Cneyt Sepeti comes from a family where music has been a traditional career for generations: he lives his life as a clarinet maestro, just like his grandfathers and uncles. As he explains:
Grandpa As?m, my fathers grandfather, used to play the clarinet. They came from Thessaloniki to Istanbul during the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, and settled in Istanbul. 
While the Sepeti  family experienced geographic instability, music became one of the most stable elements of their lives. 
The Orchestra Dolapdere are all Roma from the same neighborhood.  Aside from clarinet and violin, and oud, there are two drummers- darabuka and tapan (a large bass drum tuned low on one side and to a high pitch on the other) and kanun, an ancient  string instrument that is played like a harp played on a table, struck with fingerpicks. Levers on the sides of the  kanun enable the player to add or take away microtones while playing.”
L.M. Dupli-cation label boss and A Hawk and A Hacksaw founder Jeremy Barnes

The album is out July 8th on L.M. Dupli-cation

Listen to the track ‘Drt Beygir’:

Watch a clip of Cneyt Sepeti live on the streets of Istanbul: