Melike – Inn Of Love (Homerecords.be)
‘Inn Of Love’ sprouted from the meeting of Melike Tarhan, a Belgian singer of Turkish origin and jazz saxophonist John Snauwaert, who in the past had also already experimented with Turkish music. It’s also this musical mix of cultures you’ll hear on this album. On ‘Inn Of Love’ apart from her own lyrics, Melike also performs poems by Turkish poets like Yunus Emre, Eşrefoğlu Abdullah Rûmî and Kenan Rifaî, and the track list also contains a few Turkish traditionals. Partly because of the instrumentation used (tanbur, kemençe, ney, oud, bağlama, kanun…), Turkish music can sound overly melancholic to Western ears, but the arrangements of Snauwaert, Hendrik Braeckman (guitar) and François Taillefer (percussion) give the music on ‘Inn Of Love’ a jazzy undertone. If, like yours truly, you’re not fluent in Turkish, a lot of the poetry in Melike’s lyrics is lost, but to make up for that fact, the liner notes of the album include a short summary of each song in English. Sensitive ode to love for poetic souls.