Orange Jam from Anarya by Ozan Tekin
Tekin winds his musical journey back from Cologne to Adana with a long layover in Istanbul in “Anarya”. A triangle of migration drawn by musical notation and performance. The album is composed of 14 tracks and each one of them is a sound story that echoes Tekin’s distinct memories from these three cities. “Anarya” is the end product of a process in which Tekin and his upright piano co-tuned each other. It is an artistic representation of the idiosyncratic phenomenon called 'stimmung' in German; a spectrum of tones, moods and atmospheres expressed in personal and instrumental terms.
Tekin concludes the piano conversations from his previously released EPs in 2021 (“Anarya I” and “Anarya II”). The remarkably catchy melodies and immersive melancholic arpeggios flow throughout. The transposed narrative of “Anarya” sprung up from its roots when Tekin came across with a 66-years old worn out piano in Cologne. Mesmerized by its unique sound, he felt the urge to make recordings with this piano before it fell apart. After spending months learning its mechanics, Tekin recorded his second album with the old upright piano he repaired and brought back to life.
The uneasy changes in time signatures and ambient ornamentations with gloomy synths of 80’s, lush strings and room tones set up the atmospheric stage of “Anarya I” in the first five tracks. Following six tracks of the album attempts to revisit Tekin’s emotional and episodic memories in Istanbul. His unaffected absorption into piano music in the first two parts of “Anarya” are followed by his coyishly joyful tracks later in the album: an idle “ode”, a lost “lament” and a colorful “jam”. These three tracks blend the neoclassical, jazz and ambient sounds of Cologne and Istanbul with sentiments of childhood and rascality in Adana.
The piano conversations of Tekin throughout “Anarya” are accompanied by his analogue synthesizers, vocals, bass guitar, Hanitra Wagner’s violin and Berke Can Özcan’s drums, percussions and vibraphone, and Emre Malikler’s mix and mastering. The sounds of collaboration go deeper and louder as the album’s tracks move forward and Tekin’s memories go backwards simultaneously. Anarya gitmek (“to go back”) is a vernacular saying from Tekin’s hometown Adana and Tekin makes a figurative attempt to migrate backwards via the compositions that came into being in his most recent home, Cologne. Having been born out of an upright piano, Tekin’s compositions have instrumental origins, however, due to his constantly mutating sense of belonging, his melodies can’t be pinpointed to any specific 'heimat'.
Tekin’s continuously transforming music is an invitation to his listeners to explore and experience his music in their own terms. Tekin’s personal memories that shape “Anarya” is open to new forms of sonic exploration and rearrangement. This openness lies in Tekin’s determined faith in not to be entrenched in any single genre. The immersive intimacy radiating from the collaborative piano conversations in “Anarya” is an invitation signature to his music’s current and future followers.
Tracklist
| 14. | Orange Jam | 4:11 |
Credits
Written and produced by Ozan Tekin,
drums & percussion by Berke Can Özcan,
mixing & mastering by Emre Malikler,
artwork and design by Başak Ünal.
License
All rights reserved.
Ozan Tekin is a Cologne-based composer and producer whose work spans multiple genres and artistic forms. Tekin releases his solo works both under his own name and the alias Seyrek Rifat. In addition to his solo works, he works for theater, film, and TV productions as a composer and sound designer, while assisting Academy Award-winning German film composer Volker Bertelmann, a.k.a. Hauschka.