Influences: Kit Sebastian

We found this 45 for a Euro at a vide-grenier in rural France, returned home, listened to it twice and immediately wrote Yan?mda Kal. With nothing but an album cover, a band name, and no info online apart from a hefty Discogs market price, it was the mix of the ostinato Bossa guitar and the mock-Zurna soprano sax that inspired us.

We maintain this is the best album ever made, and a great introduction for Western ears to Mugham and the music of Azerbaijan. We have the greatest respect for Vagif not only as a composer and pianist, but also for his aesthetics and his genuine musicianship. It is rare to carry well-crafted pop songs flowing into demanding jazz improvisations echoing Modernist Europe and traditional Azerbaijan.

Müzeyyen Senar, known as the Diva of the Republic, is one of the most important Turkish female singers. She is one of the performers who made classical Turkish music accessible to everyone thanks to her unique voice and style. The beauty and elegance of this track and its lyrics had a great influence on the lyrics of Kuytu and Yanimda Kal. They all talk about an ideal and powerful love that transforms the perception of one’s own self and the world that surrounds her even after the disappearance of their object of love.

Since the mid-20th century, the West has engulfed the East into its pop canon, and the East has been partly seduced by Western forms of composition. With the latter being more successful, there are few Western musicians who have succeeded in mixing the two worlds without trivialising its culture and engaging in Saiid’ian Orientalism. We believe Dr Lloyd Miller is one of the musicians who hasn’t fallen for this. He possesses a discipline that is often accompanied with Middle Eastern classical music and rarely replicated.

The mixture of Samba (all be-it faux) and poignant anti-imperialist poetry seems a powerful blend here. Spoken word is often ignored in music, even though it removes the distance between the band and the listener which so many Rock musicians hide within. One may say that the mystery that is contained within this distance has lost its authenticity today.

Remember hearing this off the Pomegranates compilation and still is one of our favourite tracks. Farsi is one of the most beautiful languages that exists and is a vehicle for some of the most beautiful poetry that exists. The melange of ney and traditional singing with Western horns and funk beat makes it a perfect hit.

It is a style of music once dismissed as cheese, but now regarded to be situated at the height it should be. Italian 70s soundtracks boast some of the best arrangements, rhythms and production. Both our love of Italian cinema, and Merve’s time living in Rome I think subconsciously meant our music flirts with Morricone-esque textures in our music. This track, whilst we have not seen the film, really affected us during the recording period, and we ended up having to abandon a track for fear it sounded too similar.

Possibly one of the most special videos on YouTube. Martial Solal (of Bout De Souffle fame) with Wes Montgomery, Ronnie Scott and some European jazz greats play, talk and smoke in a studio. For half the recordings sessions we refused to use a plectrum because we were in love with Wes’s thumb.

Eldar Mansurov was an amazing Azerbaijani producer who really showed us how to mix European pop with the rich heritage of mugham and maqam. This music video quality is quite typical in 90s Azerbaijani music and something we enjoy nodding our heads to when working with our camcorder to make online content.

Caetano Veloso is the man. Poetic and humble. Abstract and refined yet potently aggressive. The ability to paint a million emotions with his music or his lyrics without the two relying on each other. The LP of which this song came from was spinning every evening after the recording sessions and still brings a melancholy to all the summers we have and have not yet experienced.