This album of 12 new pieces culminates two years of reflecting, creating and composing. Inspired by life’s twists, turns and ever changing rhythms, the album took me down an illuminated path of fully being where I am, as a composer and a human being, and noticing what can be learned and created from that. The recordings that emerged from this period are like a collection of intertwined short stories of survival, growth, adaptation, introspection, grief, acceptance, love, joy and compassion. It’s my sincere hope that these pieces will touch the listener in an emotional way. Each of the musicians on the album brings an individual musical sensibility, creativity and virtuosity to interpreting and performing the compositions, and collectively they make the whole much more than a sum of the parts. The album features a blend of music styles and traditions that stem from the musical influences that I enjoy and appreciate while performing around the world with my ud. Although the ud is a melodic instrument, the fact it is plucked gives every note a rhythmical value as well. There is a certain freedom found in diverging from simple time signatures into the complex ‘odd meters’ like the 5/4, 7/4 and 9/8 found in non-Western music. These time signatures are used in most of the songs on this album. The drums and double bass provide the rhythmical fundament for melodic ud, piano, and on selected tracks, also ney, duduk and trumpet. The range of timbres contributed by this rich set of instruments brings out the soul of the melodies and harmonies.

Credits

Mehmet Polat - ud Mike Roelofs - piano Daniel van Huffelen – double bass Martin Hafizi - drums Guest musicians: Gijs Levelt – trumpet, track 7 Vardan Hovanissian – duduk, track 8 Şükrü Kirtiş – ney, track 11