Artist.......: Mercan Dede
Album........: Sufi Traveler
Label........: Doublemoon
Genre........: Ethnic
Catnr........: HTR 119
source.......: CDDA
rip.date.....: May-28-2006
str.date.....: Sep-23-2004
quality......: VBR/44,1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Url..........: www.mercandede.com
track title time
CD1
01. Nar-1 Ney 09:38
02. Nar-1 Mey 11:33
03. Nar-1 Yar 09:26
04. Nar-1 Ask 08:56
05. Nar-1 Sems 05:19
06. Nar-1 Can 11:28
07. Nar-1 Cem 08:34
08. Nar-1 Seher 09:07
CD2
01. Gulname 07:45
02. Semaname 07:40
03. Hayalname 06:32
04. Sahname 06:17
05. Neyname 11:59
06. Vefaname 06:43
07. Askname 07:24
08. Falname 07:46
09. Sirname 07:05
Runtime 143:12 min
Size 187,10 MB
Release Notes:
About the Artist
The Turkish born, Montreal based, world-beat
musician/producer subtly fuses the Eastern
spiritual traditions of Sufi music with
contemporary ambient sounds to create a unique mix
of old and new, sacred and secular, East and West.
An adherent of Sufi spirituality, Dede brings his
holistic understanding of sound, the rhythms of
nature and of the universe to his interpretations
of Sufi maqams, as well as to his original
compositions. Dede is an accomplished musician,
playing the ney (reed flute), bendir, frame drum,
zarp and udu drum, and has produced and played on
four solo recordings: Sufi Dreams (1997), Journey
of a Dervish (1999) - on San Francisco's world beat
and jazz label Golden Horn Records - and then
Seyahatname (2001) on his new label, Doublemoon
Records and most recently NAR (2002) Doublemoon.
The Mercan Dede Ensemble, founded in 1997,
represents the culmination of Dede's extensive
musical experience over the past decade, both in
Turkey and North America. The ensemble includes a
fluid, changing cast of artists, including Mohammad
and Farokh Shams, Montreal-based percussionist
Scott Russell and Canadian violinist Hugh Marsh.
A profoundly spiritual individual, Dede found the
traditional Sufi understanding of music as a means
to uplift and harmonize the soul reflected in the
rave/nightclub scenes of Europe and North America.
Dede began spinning vinyl at 23 years old under the
name Arkin Allen, also performing under the name
Poundmaker, accompanied by hand-picked
percussionists, vocalists and musicians. As Arkin
Allen, he contributed a track to the compilation
Interior Horizons on Interchill Records (UK), as
well as producing and mixing the compilation
Omniscience in co-operation with his own label
SugarMonk and UK/Canada based label Interchill.
Dede's ability to interlace the polyrhythms of
eastern music with house and techno beats has
enhanced his unique perspective on the inherently
inspirational and uplifting potential of music and
dancing. Both as Arkin Allen and as Mercan Dede, he
has performed at events as diverse as the Black &
Blue 98 (a world-renowned Montreal circuit party
which drew 15 000 people), a concert of
improvisations on classical Turkish music at the
Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa in 1998,
the Istanbul Jazz Festival in Istanbul, Turkey in
1999, the Divers-cite Party in Montreal (which drew
more than 300.00 people) in 2000, the Montreal Jazz
Festival's Main event with Groove Alla Turca
(180.000 people) in 2001, the International Womex
World Music Festival in Essen, Germany in 2002, and
the International Transmusical Festival in Rennes,
France in 2002. He has travelled extensively
between Kazakhistan, Bahreyn, Istanbul, Montreal
and Paris over the past two years with different
projects and names from world music festivals to
raves. As either dj or Sufi musician, in either a
secular or a sacred context, Mercan Dede is a
master at touching souls and communicating the
intrinsic harmony of the universe through his
music.A Turkish newspaper recently and accurately
referred to Dede as a "dervish for the modern
world." Mercan Dede lives up to this estimation,
having traveled over the last two years around one
million kilometres, working with Sufi groups and
Whirling Dervishes in locations the world over
earning his position as one of the most influential
Sufi musicians and producers of his generation.