A thousand cranes
Çiğdem Aslan
Keywords
Reviews (2)
Jazz Weekly
d. 29. July 2019
By
By
George W. Harris
d. 29. July 2019
"Maria Farantouri and Cihan Turkoglu figure if politics can't get Greeks, Armenians and Turks together, maybe music will. The Greek earth-toned vocalist joins with Anatolian Cihan Turkoglu on sax, kopu and voice along with Armenian Meri Vardanyan (kanon(zither)) [a.o.] on music that spans the Eastern Mediterranean. The allure of this music is at its height when it is unrushed, thoughtful and contemplative, and that is the atmosphere here. Brooding strings are plucked and bowed along with pastoral flutes with rich nasal voices on the flowery "Trinatafylia" while meditative reflections evoke images of Byzantine icons during "Wa Habibi" ... Timeless and reflective like light shining through a stained glass window".
Songlines
2019 August/September
By
By
Maria Lord
2019 August/September
"This project brings together the Greek singer Maria Farantouri and Anatolian saz player and composer Cihan Türkoğlu, who arranged all the tracks and contributed four songs. They also have an excellent cast of musicians, including Meri Vardanyan on kanun and Christos Barbas on ney, and together they interpret the traditional music of Greece, Turkey, Lebanon and Armenia. The delicate kanun accompaniment on 'Triantafylia' is beautifully done and, in general, the arrangements of the traditional songs are sensitively handled. What is impressive is that the new songs composed by Türkoğlu - such as 'Dyo Kosmoi Mia Angalia' - stand up well alongside the ones from traditional sources. When he does step out a bit more there is a minimalist feel, especially on 'Ta Panda Rei'. The music veers towards the contemplative, which suits Farantouri's voice, but (...) an extra buzz of excitement would have been welcome".