Photo: Mehmet Kandemir
With:
(click to the biography)
John Snauwaert: sax, compositions, arrangements
Hendrik Braeckman: guitar, compositions, arrangements
François Taillefer: percussion
Melike Tarhan: lead vocal, compositions
(Melike is a Belgium-based band)
MELIKE, Inn of Love, Homerecords (Belgique)
Inn Of Love ontstond uit de ontmoeting van Melike Tarhan en jazzsaxofonist John Snauwaert, die in het verleden zelf ook met Turkse muziek experimenteerde. Op Inn Of Love brengt Melike eigen teksten, maar vertolkt ze ook enkele gedichten van Turkse dichters als Yunus Emre, Eşrefoğlu Abdullah Rûmî of Kenan Rifaî en staan in de tracklist ook nog enkele Turkse traditionals. De arrangementen van Snauwaert, Hendrik Braeckman (gitaar) en Françios Taillefer (percussie) geven het geheel een jazzy ondertoon.
English
Turkish music, refreshed by a breeze of improvised jazz or even free-jazz. The quartet Melike modernizes traditional Turkish melodies and rhythms, like oriental designers use old techniques such as marquetry of wood or hammered copper to create design objects with a temporary touch.
We were quite fascinated by that challenge, in which the singing and the voice of Melike Tarhan – Belgian singer with Turkish roots – play the central role and the instruments are a musical foundation from which the voice can bloom because the lyrics are important in oriental songs.
The first track sets the tone of the album: the free flight of a sax and a percussion rhythm that could accompany belly dancers during their act! Next to traditional tunes that are revised and rearranged, half of the tracks on the record are original songs composed by saxophone player John Snauwaert and guitarist Hendrik Braeckman and driven by the finesse and lightness of percussionist François Taillefer.
Altogether a very successful album of which the lyrics, whether traditional or written by Melike, tell us stories about lovers chatting underneath an apricot and beautiful women with a milky complexion. They go perfectly with the free-jazz melodies of the sax and the guitar. The album has already got the attention of the Belgian critics and hopefully its echoes will reach Istanbul!
Muzzika – by Nadia Khouri-Dagher