51st installment of the Joyful Union Select series.

Tracks by Flying Squares, DJ Underworld, Predznanie, Hello Meteor, Recipe Morado, Mike G Feat. Lil B, Memo, Harris Cole, Bria, and more.

Joyful Union Select 051

Kick It

Artist: Saadet Türköz & Beat Keller
 Album: We are Strong 
Format: Digital / Tape 
Cat.No: CHI034 
Master: Beat Keller Studio 
Artwork: Saphy Vong 
Release Date: 06/08/2021

Saadet Türköz, voice, lyrics Beat Keller, E-Guitar, A-Guitar

Experimental musician Saadet Türköz joins Chinabot to release We are Strong, an exploration of her unique fusion of classical avant garde and jazz with the traditional sounds of her Turkic Uyghur roots. An improvised collaboration with Swiss guitarist Beat Keller, We are Strong showcases her vocal talent and the enduring strength of Uyghur culture.

Türköz was born in Istanbul to refugee parents who fled the Chinese government’s repressive treatment of the Uyghur people in their home of East Turkestan, also known as the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. 

Although beginning new lives in Turkey, her parents made sure to pass the rich musical traditions of the central Asian highlands to their daughter. “With the tales of their faraway country and their journey to Turkey, the elderly people of the Kazakh community influenced my imagination as a musician,” Türköz says. Their influence too is felt on We are Strong, in Türközs expressive, rich melisma, which twists and explodes into staccato over Keller’s sparse guitar melodies.

As a child Türköz wanted to be a hodja, a teacher of the Koran. “I was fascinated by the Arabic language and the melodious texts of the Koran which gave me my first opportunity to deliberately improvise without paying attention to sense and correctness,” she says. Moving to Switzerland aged 20 introduced her to free jazz, improvisation and an openness towards experimentation which paralleled the freeform approach of the musical traditions of her origins.  
Each song on We are Strong is named after a city in East Turkestan, and the cover art shows a typical countryside scene. As a displaced person, Türköz uses her Kazakh culture to reach back to the land she has lost. “In my improvisations and performances of Kazakh and Turkish songs I am looking to transform memory,” Türköz says. 

“Memory is everywhere and every time the same – not changeable – but the expression is different. Individual perception develops a universal impression of cultural life.” Both Türköz and Keller intend the album as a tribute to the East Turkestan culture, as well as an appeal for worldwide human rights.

About Saadet Türköz
A well-known fixture of Zurich’s avant garde jazz scene, Türköz has worked with Okkyung Lee, William Parker, Carl Stone and Bobby McFerrin. She released her first album in 1994 and has been performing and releasing music ever since.

About Beat Keller Beat Keller is a Swiss musician making avant garde jazz, experimental and improvised music. Through the exploration of extended playing techniques, guitar tunings and the use of the electric guitar feedback and the acoustic guitar, he has developed a distinct musical language.

We are Strong

Saadet Türköz & Beat Keller - Aksu

Emotion Engine

Caprica (OUT NOW)

From the KID MANIA album "SNAG"
https://illuminatedpaths.bandcamp.com/album/snag
https://kidmania.bandcamp.com

SNAG

It's Where You Came in Right?

It's Where You Came In Right?

Catalog: INNER159
Format: Tape Cassette // Streaming // Digital

Limited Edition Tapes // 100 copies worldwide 
https://fanlink.to/fleetingdream

After meeting in a Hong Kong cafe last fall, Metic and Norvik floated the idea of a collaboration that’s become A Fleeting Dream in Waking Life. Blurring the borders between Norvik’s masterful ambient soundscapes and Metic’s expressive bluesy guitar, the album frames four beautifully paired-back instrumental beats with three graceful ambient pieces. What we hear is what we feel: powerful memories and emotions that override our conscious. Almost like a dream. 

The seven-song collaboration stands as a source of pride and joy for the two artists. And for the listener, a source of solace that emanates in waves of emotion. The high-tide may be A Fleeting Dream, the most groovy of the beat-driven ambient compositions, with Adrift in Time and In Waking Life the most calming. The album ends with an expansive deja vu in the form of A Familiar Moment, gently waking us from a state of reverie, renewed and refreshed. Until we all meet again.

Caprica (OUT NOW)

Sferro (Official)

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