Anywhere I Lay My Head

An Interurban Musical Tour

The beautiful actress of Danish origin, Scarlett Johansson makes another striking move and sings Tom Waits songs accompanied by David Bowie in back vocals… The album, ‘Anywhere I Lay My Head’, was released on May 20.

This fame is something like a jelly, I guess. Once you are involved in it, you never get better of it. The singers become actresses, football players become singers; beautiful models become both singers and actresses. Some gums up the work, depressing us and herself/himself, while some become one spoon of a delicious dessert that is always to be remembered.
Albeit wealthy by birth, Paris Hilton, who is tempted by everything she sees or hears with a foolish arriviste is one of the most suitable and popular examples of gumming up the work. However, there are celebrities that can make anything they touch of gold even though their number is less then a few.
Well, how about Scarlett Johansson, one of the recent beauties of the silver screen, who has got a baby face with green eyes? This was the question on the minds when the successful actress, who hinted to the press two years ago that she would make record, finally released it.

Zombies out of Their Vaults
‘Anywhere I Lay My Head’ is an actual cover album. In this album, the Danish-origin actress sings 10 songs by Tom Waits, the living legend of Indie music, and an original composition.
Tom Waits has got an inimitable and legendary voice, granted by very few artists on the planet. His songs are sometimes like a rite and sometimes like a zombie attack coming from their vaults. Sometimes like a thunder, sometimes like a wildly babbling river; it sometimes gives peace like the affectionate arms of a father. In short, Johansson is swimming in dark waters for a debut album.
Rather than the solo album of Scarlett Johansson, ‘Anywhere I Lay My Head’ is more a project realized by Dave Sitek, the album producer. The songs are relatively colder than the originals, and sometimes even harsher, as they are transmitted to the audience from a further distance. And the beautiful actress comes round like a revue artist rather than a signer. She jumps from one role to another throughout the album. In a child dreaming childish dreams and out a coquette dame who has been through the mill...

Reflections of the Train Window
The album starts with an instrumental song called “Fawn”, borrowed from Tom Waits’s 2002 album “Alice”. The piano that occasionally accompanies a lyrical violin in the original version is replaced by an organ and a polyphonic, complex, and disordered comment including battery, guitar, and plenty of instruments in the cover version. ‘Town with no cheer’ coming after “Fawn” starts with all of the instruments heard throughout the album at the same time just like a sound check. Evidently, this sound check is a prelude needed to put the album artists on airs.
We are inside a train pulled by a locomotive, heading from Melbourne to Adelaide, the capital of Australia. While wandering the desert accompanied by the misty voice of Scarlett, we are passing through a ghost town once the trains used to have a break, hosting the passengers in its canteen. But the new trains with buffet cars do not stop here anymore. The sorrow, a reminiscent of the Victorian Era, and wronged by the modern age, is making our heath bleed. Sipping from our ice bourbon, we are listening to the next song.
‘Falling Down’ attracts attention as one of its heroines is called Scarlett. And of course, with the surprising contribution of another music legend – David Bowie accompanies Johannson in ‘Falling Down’ and ‘Fannin’ Street’.

An Interurban Tour
One of the songs offending the eye in the album is ‘Green Grass’, selected from Waits’s album called ‘Real Gone’ which was produced in 2004. The song, wrapped in a gay structure thanks to the percussions, is replaced by a deep blue again while moving along slowly.
As for ‘I wish I was in New Orleans’, which was borrowed from ‘Small Change’ album in 1976, is like a lullaby. As if we are swaddled in a bed and watching the toys rounding above us and listening to the melody coming out of it. Scarlett’s voice falls into a dreamy air just like a small child living in such a moony dream...
‘Anywhere I Lay My Head’ may not consist of the best songs of Tom Waits but it manages to perpetuate Waits’s spirit in covers. During this tour, which lasts for 45 minutes and includes 11 songs, we sometimes happen to find ourselves in a small room, sometimes in a cemetery, sometimes in the urban streets, sometimes in the middle of a green field. We are having breaks in Melbourne, Adolaide, St. Petersburg, London, Houston throughout this interurban tour.
Although it did not get a bare pass from prestigious magazines such as Rolling Stone and Uncut, you are holding an album in your hands, which was met with honor by so many critics. Leaning on Tom Waits spectacularly and without retreating from her actual profession, that is acting, there is a beautiful actress before us, who becomes a narrator. It is unknown whether the same actress will turn out to be a real singer, but it is a real fact that she proves her acting talents this time before the microphone.

Burçin Tuncer

The Year My Parents Went on Vacation

The Year My Parents Went on Vacation

‘The Year My Parents Went on Vacation’ is the story of the little Mario, who has to leave his parents at a very young age and cherishes all his hopes for the football during their absence. The film takes the unsteady Brazil of 1970s as background to recount a big world from a child’s eyes.

Directed by Cao Hamburger, ‘The Year My Parents Went on Vacation’ (O Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias) tells a warm story taking Brazil, which is smashed by the military junta of the 1970s, and the 1970 FIFA World Cup Mexico 70 as the background.
Bia and Daniel, who have been wanted by the police as political criminals decide to go for an exile. Telling their little son Mauro that they are going on vacation, they take him to his grandfather in São Paolo. However, the grandfather is a religious Jew, who does not talk to his son, so they leave Mauro in front of the apartment flat of his grandfather. While his family goes away with their blue Volkswagen Beetle, there is a surprise for Mauro – his grandfather, whom he has not seen since ages, has died just a few minutes ago.

Leaning on the Football
Mauro starts to live alone in his grandfather’s flat in a Jewish quarter, looking forward the day his parents will come back. His father had promised Mauro that they would return until the first match of Brazil in the World Cup. Mauro leans on football, his biggest passion in the world, during his parents’ absence.
His first friend in this new life, the rules of which remains puzzling for him, is an old Jewish man, called Shlomo, the next door of his late grandfather. For Mauro, Shlomo is quite boring because of his over-principled life-style; whereas, for Schlomo, Mauro is too resourceful and independent. However, soon a grandchild and grandfather relationship is about to spring between them.
Meanwhile, Hana appears. This smart young lady will come along with new hopes in his little world. His acquaintance with Irene, the popular girl of the street, is actually the first sexual experience of our little hero. Edgar, the black boyfriend of Irene, is a successful goalkeeper and soon he becomes a hero for Mauro. Ítalo, a militant college boy, is no different from a lost father’s shadow...
The biggest passion of Mauro in life is the love of football, inspired from his father. Football for Mauro, in this stage of his life, is of special importance both as a shelter against the distress he is in, and as symbolic of his parents’ arrival. As World Cup Mexico 70 draws near, Mauro’s excitement accordingly increases everyday.

A Sad Story
‘The Year My Parents Went on Vacation’ tells a turbulent period from the point of view of an innocent child. Although this is a theme very much explored by many films before, the aesthetic and narrative structure of the movie are praiseworthy. The film succeeds in giving us the littlest details about the relationships, tensions between little children and adults, adults and the old, women and men, Jews and Christians without offending the eye of the audience. What is more, it presents a spectacular visual quality and cinematography.
Even though the main tension of the film is Mauro’s reunion with his parents, this tension becomes partially less important in the middle of the film. The sub-tales and characters, the football conversations in particular, manage to enrich the film without rambling it.
‘The Year My Parents Went on Vacation’, which has comedy and drama in patches, but is never trapped in clichés and melodrama; has traces of autobiography. Just like in the film, the director Cao Hamburger’s parents, academics in São Paulo College, were arrested by the soldiers in 1970. In this period, little Cao and his four siblings had to stay with their grandmothers, one of them was Jewish, and the other a Catholic Italian. The most important reason why the film is so real and earnest is maybe the proximity of it to the story of the director...
In June, we are going to take a lively interest in football once again thanks to the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship. If you want to diminish the absence of Brazil in 2008 UEFA European Football Championship or if you are still determined to spend your time on football, you should see ‘The Year My Parents Went on Vacation’. But let me put it straight, you do not need any excuses to see a good film.

Burçin Tuncer

The Other Boleyn Girl

Passion, Power, Revenge and Blood

‘Other Boleyn Girl’ takes the crossroads of Britain history as background and depicts the tragedy of a family trying to get involved in the court of Henry VIII. As the male members of the Boleyn family are stimulated by a greed for power, the Boleyn women are propelled towards notoriety and damnation.

“You think you know the story but you only know the end. To get to the heart of the story, you have to go to the beginning.”

The popular TV series of last season, ‘The Tudors’ started with these lines. Indeed, in order to better read today’s Britain, one should go back and understand the reign of Henry VIII, which holds a special place in the history of Britain.
Tudor Dynasty stayed in power from 1485 to 1603. They came to power with the glorified victory of Henry VII over Richard III, which put an end to the War of Roses. The son of Henry VII – later to be crowned as Henry VIII, married his elder brother’s widow, Catherine of Aragon, aunt to the King of Spain.
Perhaps the biggest ambition of Henry in life was to have an heir to his throne, who will continue his blood and take over his kingdom. Unluckily, Catherine could give Henry only one child – a daughter, who is to be remembered in history as the Bloody Mary. Many other babies of Catherine and Henry arrived stillborn. Henry, at this point, would sleep with other women hoping to produce an heir. In the larger picture, we had a Europe in the 1500s tainted by wars between Portugal, Spain, and France.
Justin Chadwick’s first feature-length film, ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’, takes this picture as background and focuses on the ambivalent relationship between two sisters - Anne (Natalie Portman) and Mary Boleyn (Scarlett Johansson). The film’s narration mainly grounds of Anne’s perspective, as the title suggests, but it fails to position itself accurately, and therefore cannot establish a balance between what is told and untold.
The story evolves around the plans to get Anne into the King’s bed – a relationship which would get Thomas Boleyn (the father), and Thomas Howard (the uncle) a place in the court and some authority.
Although Anne is initially given the task to charm the King during his visit to their estate, she unexpectedly fails to attract the King’s attention. Moreover, she causes an accident during a hunting ride, as a result of which the King returns home wounded. To everyone’s surprise, the King is enchanted by Mary, the younger sister, who is sent to the King’s room to take care of him. The dilemma is that Mary is a newly-wed. However, her fresh marriage could hardly be an obstacle on the way to the court, now open wide for her father, uncle, and husband. From now on the sisters’ relationship will get tainted by the rivalry for the court, and above all, for King.
There is a huge amount of literature – novels, plays, films, etc. – inspired from this period of Britain’s history marked by love, revenge, passion, and blood. Some of them depicted Henry VIII as a womaniser, some as a pitiful creature lacking self-confidence; some as a reputation-driven King afraid of being overshadowed by the accomplishments of his father... ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’, however, apparently focuses more on the tragedy of the Boleyn family rather than Henry himself.
‘The Other Boleyn Girl’, however, features a rich number of characters, immensely varied, as they are driven by various interests. Mistress Boleyn, the mother, for instance, fails – or not even tries(?) – to restrain her husband’s greed for power. Thomas Boleyn, the father, on the other hand, forces his daughters to adultery for the sake of power. The uncle is a corrupt man enough to “use” anyone to gain his position in the court back. Anne and Mary’s brother is happy-go-lucky for his popularity, which is a result of his sisters’ adultery. And the Boleyn sisters – Mary, and Anne. The former is a young girl who is taken away from her husband’s arms and thrust to King’s bed only later to fall in love with him desparately. The latter “the other” Boleyn girl, namely Anne Boleyn, is not discouraged by her sister’s pregnancy and deep love for the King in her merciless fight to “get” him to her bed....
If you do not know already how the story ends, here it is: Henry divorces Catherine of Aragon to carve the way to Anne Boleyn’s bed. However, a devoted Catholic, Catherine does not collaborate for a divorce; instead, she tries every way to prevent this from taking place. Not surprisingly the Pope does not approve the divorce. But this hardly puts an end to Henry’s strife. Dazzling everyone, Henry goes as far as to break up from the Catholic Church and establishes the Church of England, which favours the newly rising protestant values over the Catholic ones. This rupture changes the path Britain meant to take, and a new era begins. The war is not yet over, though. Catherine’s daughter Mary tries to restore Catholicism by massacring thousands – hence, Bloody Mary. However, the golden age of Britain comes with Anne Boleyn’s daughter Elisabeth, who is crowned as Elisabeth I, who restores Anglicanism, and triggers the unimpeded rise of England as an independent kingdom.
The film is powerful with Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson, two talented and beautiful actresses. Although the film is a fest to the eyes with costumes and art direction, it fails to entertain the audiance with a quality plot. Yet if you find this period of British history appealing, or if you are curious about what might have come out of the duo – Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson –, we recommend you to watch ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’.

Burçin Tuncer

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Lazarus, go back to your ‘Cave’

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds once again salutes their worldwide fanbase with their 14th studio album “Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!”. The Australian “prince of darkness” and his musician friends “Bad Seeds”, who went to a beauty sleep with their 2004 album "Abattoir Blues", have woken up with Lazarus.

The musical journey of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds began in 1984 with their "From Her to Eternity" album. The band reached the zenith of their career with “Henry’s Dream” (1992), “Let Love In" (1994), "Murder Ballads" (1996) and "The Boatman's Call" (1997) and then decided to chill out with “No More Shall We Part” (2001) as the piano began to overshadow the guitars.
Nevertheless, the new album, which takes its name after the story of the resurrection of Lazarus told in the Bible, witnesses the return of the hard rock sound which was de-emphasized by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in recent years. Built on a strong rock infrastructure, the album is full of screeching, weird and suspensful melodies.

Lazarus, I want you to dig
Cave, who loves telling gothic and crime stories in his songs, frequently refers to such dark themes as sin, revenge, repent, and guilt, often inspired by Biblical stories. It is therefore safe to say that “Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!”, the song which gave the album its title, is a typical Nick Cave song.
The resurrection of Lazarus is one of the most interesting Biblical stories. According to the Gospel of John, Lazarus had been dead and in the tomb for four days, but was resurrected by Jesus who had the stone rolled away from the tomb and bade Lazarus to come out.
"The resurrection of Lazarus" deeply affected Nick Cave: “Ever since I can remember hearing the Lazarus story, when I was a kid, you know, back in church, I was disturbed and worried by it. Traumatized, actually. We are all, of course, in awe of the greatest of Christ's miracles - raising a man from the dead - but I couldn't help but wonder how Lazarus felt about it. As a child it gave me the creeps, to be honest. I've taken Lazarus and stuck him in New York City, in order to give the song, a hip, contemporary feel.”
The song rolls on with the chorus “Laz’rus dig yourself” accompanied by guitar riffs that sounds like asphalt diggers digging into our brains.

In praise of loneliness
The song alludes to the fact that we do not know what awaits us after death. The high tempo of the first song carries us to "Today's Lesson" in which Mr. Sandman, the starring actor of naive children tales, is given by Cave a nasty role in a gothic sexual fantasy.
With “Moonland”, we slow down and wander in a snowy and starry night accompanied by drums. After this blues song obviously written in praise of loneliness, we once again enter a mysterious world: “Night of the Lotus Eaters”. Performed along the fine line between “disturbing” and “peaceful”, the bass guitar and the echoing sound of an electric guitar make us feel in our bones the mystery of this song.
“Albert Goes West” brings us into the already conquered territory of punk and we feel relieved. This song feels like a simulacrum of Moonland. Snow is replaced with sun, but the praise of loneliness remains with a single difference. This is not a melancholic blues song, but a fervent punk song.

How to write a love song?
In “We Call Upon the Author to Explain” the dark poet of Australia greets the underdog. Cave gives us two examples: Charles Bukowski and John Berryman. Out of these two alcoholic poets, Cave prefers Berryman who followed his father’s example and committed suicide. Cave also cannot help but mention another suicidal man, the famous American writer Hemingway.
With “Hold On to Yourself”, Cave explores the terrain of love ballad the rules of which he knows by heart. We are talking about a poet who gave a lecture on “How to write a long song?” at Vienna Poem Festival. Yet Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds immediately disrupts the melancholy of this ballad by a powerful antidote: “Lie Down Here (And Be My Girl)", a song that tells a story about the ebb and flow of love. The screeching guitar is accompanied by deceivingly comforting piano tunes, and that familiar voice reflects on the hopeful dream of mending a broken love.
After this booming song comes another love ballad powered by violin and piano: “Jesus of the Moon”. The sorrow that emanates from the St. James Hotel enfolds wherever this song is played. In this song, another familiar hero of Nick Cave songs fears that his life will stay the same for ever and escapes. "People often talk about being scared of change / But for me I'm more afraid of things staying the same / 'Cause the game is never won / By standing in any one place / For too long”…
“Midnight Man”, filled with tambourine and complicated, irregular organ tunes, tells the story of a secret heroine who looks for the eternal love of her life in a series of one night stands...

More News From Nowhere...
The final song of the album, "More News From Nowhere" takes its name after an utopic socialist novel written in 1890 by William Morris. In this novel, Morris claimed that socialism must abolish not only private property, but also the division between daily life, work, and art. Nick Cave reconstructs this utopian world of Morris in order to settle old scores with his own past.
The old loves of Nick Cave parade through the song, two of which being well-known figures: Polly Jean Harvey and Deanna.
Cave psychoanalyzes himself through the women of his life and explain his feelings with these lines: “And don't it make you feel so sad / Don't the blood rush to your feet / To think that everything you do today / Tomorrow is obsolete / Technology and women / And little children too / Don't it make you feel blue?”
And calmly, “Well I gotta say / Yeah I gotta say / Goodbye / Goodbye / Goodbye”, says Nick Cave, after 53 minutes 35 seconds of great music... Does he say goodbye to us, to his women, or to a regretful past? We do not know... Thanks to him we can curse this wearisome world that did not even leave Lazarus alone in his tomb...

Burçin Tuncer

Juno

A fairy tale come true

"Juno", the latest success of the American independent cinema, is a very entertaining and passionate movie. Combining the aesthetics of comics with cinematic language, it is the product of creative art directorship and a powerful screenplay. It is no surprise that “Juno” was rewarded the Academy Award for the Best Original Screenplay.

An absurd teen movie
Written by Diablo Cody, directed by Jason Reitman, this is a small budget film that contains both comic and tragic elements and tells an absurd story of youth which fortunately does not fall prey to the cliches of the genre. The ordinary moviegoer knows Jason Reitman from his first long film “Thank You for Smoking” of 2005 which he directed like the devil’s advocate. It was an above average movie, though not as remarkable as “Juno, that was once again inspired by the aesthetics of comics. “Juno” clearly shows that Reitman is on the right track...
The plot of the movie is as follows: As many of her peers update their profiles on Facebook or march up and down the shopping centres, Juno (Ellen Page), an intelligent girl from Minnesota, is living her life according to her own principles. During a usual, boring afternoon, she decides to have sex with her boyfriend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera). Juno gets pregnant, decides to have the baby and makes a plan for the child’s adoption. She meets the couple Mark and Vannessa Loring who want to have a child. After learning that their daughter had sex with Bleeker, Juno’s parents are briefly shocked, but then they start doing their best to help her...

The aesthetics of comics
Juno’s costumes represent a visual richness, reminding the viewer of the Wes Anderson movie "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” which was one of the leading examples of the aesthetics of comics within the American independent cinematic tradition. Especially Bleeker who never removes his training clothes is a good representative of the movie's aesthetic approach.
The aesthetics of comics inside the movie is not simply due to the costumes and the colourful shooting techniques, but also because of the story-telling technique. Juno’s antiheroism is emphasized through the story of a pregnant superhero in a Japanese magna.
Juno, portrayed as a typical “Gemini” adolescent with narcissist and even nihilist characteristics, is trying to deal with the problems of an unborn child, getting the best out of her stepmother and father, and, most absurd of it all, having a child whose father is an insecure and clumsy adolescent frequently eating candies.

Music is just great
Behind this surrealist touch in the story-telling approach lies a harsh critique of the lifestyle represented by the American higher middle class. The colourful, messy, sincere and “real” nature of Juno’s middle class suburban home is contrasted with the pale, snow white regularity, fragility and artificiality of the home of the Loring couple. The wearisome smile on Vanessa Loring's face is a concrete example of this fake happiness.
This world is so fake that it does not deserve a real pregnancy and a real, living baby. Nevertheless, this fake picture gets smashed when Mark Loring, (probably yesterday’s hippie and today’s yuppie) who earns his livelihood by selling his dreams and freedom to advertisement jingles, breaks up with his wife.
Juno gets rid of her burden, a physical excess in her body and a symbol of her approaching adulthood, by giving the baby to Vanessa, whereas the audience happily gets carried with the surrealist vision and great soundtrack of a 96 minute long fairy tale come true...

Burçin Tuncer

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - 2005
This is a science-fiction comedy based on the book of the same name by Douglas Adams. “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” is an absurd, funny, extraordinary and fantastic comedy telling a story about the meaning of life. One morning, a British man named Arthur Dent awakes and find his house is going to be demolished. But for Arthur, the demolition of his house is only the beginning, Arthur's friend eccentric Ford Prefect reveals that he is an alien and saves Arthur when Earth is wiped out to make way for an intergalactic motorway. And an adventure involving a paranoid android, an spaceship called “Heart of Gold”, and a two-headed former president of the galaxy begins... This is a must see for all those people who suddenly finds the meaning of life only to immediately lose it...

La Battaglia di Algeri

The Battle of Algiers - 1966

A must see for cinema lovers, a re-release of Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo’s 1966 masterpiece “The Battle of Algiers” has just hit the market. Rewarded with a Golden Bear at the Venice Film Festival, this is a docudrama about the Algerian struggle for independence against French colonialism. Pontecorvo's film was banned in France until 2004 and it was supposedly screen at the Pentagon in 2003 after the invasion of Iraq. Shot on location in grainy black and white, “The Battle of Algiers” shows how greatly talented in making documentaries Pontecorvo is. Cinematographer Marcello Gatti's pioneering use of a hand-held camera for the crowd scenes makes it seem as if events are being documented as they happen. “The Battle of Algiers” is not simply a good docudrama, but also an honest means of showing the ugly face of war.

No Country For Old Men

What’s up in the Wild West?



The sun is rising on the plains of Southwest Texas. The old sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), who finds the recently increased crime rate in the world quite ungraspable, narrates the good old days when sheriffs would not have to carry even a gun. The sun is rising on the village, where he has been the sheriff since his twenties. As sheriff Bell counts down to retirement, he philosophies his job.
Coen Brothers’ ‘No Country For Old Men’ – winner of 4 academy awards – starts with this lyric nostalgia.
Ed Tom Bell, apparently, is not a man of his age. He is an old style western character from the films of Sam Peckinbach, John Ford, or Sergio Leone, where the good and the bad, the criminal and the innocent are two separate entities whose borders are definable.
However, ‘No Country For Old Men’ positions itself in the misty quarters of the postmodern 80ies, when people do not kill any more for a bunch of dollars but just for fun. Or, like Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), live the matter of life and death to a toss up.
Anton Chigurh, one of the main characters of the film, is a total anti-hero with his funny haircut; cool, empty, and frightening face, and an effective air pressure gun he carries with himself. Chigurh does not need a reason to kill – he kills the ones he has to, and tosses up for the ones he cannot decide.
We first see Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), another main character, a veteran soldier fought in Vietnam, hunting deer in the desert. He is younger than Sheriff Bell but older than Chigurh. Running after his hunt, Moss falls into the afterfight of a drug deal. He discovers a few dead bodies, a truck full of heroine, and the money – 2 million dollars – after a quick search. As Moss evolves from hunting to gathering, he remains unaware of the easy-money troubles.

Postmodern Western
Coen brothers, tracing the three characters on a multi-layered story, tell a postmodern tale of “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”. However, in the picture by the Coen Bros., we do not find the sort of good, bad, and ugly that we see in Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Western classique. Here we have a bad, who is a principled bloodspiller; an ugly, who messes up his life with a trace for easy money but who has a conscience; a good, who does not care.
In this film, Coen Bros., whose filmography is a blend of film noir and comedy, set out to re-produce, re-think, and re-locate the Western.
To the common knowledge, Coen Brothers love crime stories. One should not forget, though, that a Coen movie is always-and-already authentic – regardless of its content, it is told in a particular Coen-style language.
What makes a movie a Coen movie? First come the characters – meticulously worked from tip to toe. Coen characters are hardly outstanding or unusual; quite the contrary, they are ordinary characters, usually inept, and even clumsy.
Talented as they are to create exciting characters, Coen Brothers are equally successful in constructing atmosphere. It is possible to claim that the Coen Bros. cinema is atmospheric above all. ‘Barton Fink’ successfully conveys the depths of human psychology, while ‘Fargo’ effectively depicts the small-scale life of a North American village, and ‘The Hudsucker Proxy’ extraordinarily renders a Kafkaesque atmosphere.
In this sense, ‘No Country For Old Men’ conveys an authentic atmosphere and successfully created characters, though not so satisfyingly compared to other movies by Coens. Highly charged with a high tension from the first moment till the last, the film does not bring a Hollywood ending but keeps the tension at stake. Whether the reason behind is a Brecthian critic of the catharsis, or a favouring of shock end, remains a mystery.
Unfortunately, the most powerful weapon of ‘No Country For Old Men’, which tries to reposition the masculine world of the wild west, turns out to be its sole point of vulnerability – the film cannot establish a balanced narrative. Nostalgic and local, Sheriff Bell is portrayed as an old man who is born into a wrong age of which he does not want to be a part. Psychopathic and austere murderer Chigurgh stands as a metaphor for the coming age that is defined as cold and meaningless. Moss, on the other hand, is a hyphenated character who cannot belong neither to the good old days nor to the coming age. His sole aim is an escapist gesture – to take the money and live a happy life at home.
The film cannot escape a narcissistic failure that is triggered by the Chigurh character, which is stunningly enacted by Javier Bardem. Therefore, the story is not developed satisfactorily and the audience is left alone to float in the cat-and-mouse sort of plot.
As it is always the case with the battles of old and new, the lost generation turns out to be the one who suffers. Moss dies; Bell retires, whereas Chigurh walks his way down the road. A new era begins, and the realms of this new era is ‘No Country For Old Men’.

Burçin Tuncer

Mehmet Yaşın

The portrait of a poet as a father

The works of the well-known Turkish Cypriot poet and writer Mehmet Yaşın will be reprinted by Everest Publications. Mehmet Yaşın, who spends his time in England, Turkey and Cyprus, answered our questions about literature, identity and Cyprus.

Despite the fact that you were born and raised in Cyprus, it is known that England and Turkey were more crucial determinants in your development as a poet and a writer. You say that Cyprus was not directly influential in your development as an artist. What is the exact relationship between the novelist and poet Mehmet Yaşın and Cyprus?
Cyprus is more of an inspiration for me... It is not a place where I can professionally reproduce myself as a writer. My publishers have always been located in Istanbul. Therefore you cannot escape from the literary circle there which directly effects and transforms your lifestyle and perspective. You find yourself observing the island not only as an insider but also as an outsider, a foreigner. This intensifies the multilocality that is always already part and parcel of being a Turkish Cypriot. You begin to evaluate your birthplace in the light of the literary concerns in many different countries. Because it is a small place, Cyprus does not offer the professionally equipped, adequate level of literary and artistic institutionalization. Turkey and England offer more for authorship as an institutional vocation. Yet Cyprus is important in being a source, a reference point. Poetry and literature are deeply related to childhood. One's vital concerns, resources of language and culture, and inspiration come from one's birthplace. Cyprus and childhood are therefore significant inspirational materials for me. There are no professional, contract-based publishers, distributors, literature magazines and centres, research and critique institutions, literary agents in Cyprus.

Can you elaborate on observing Cyprus both as an insider and as an outsider?
I believe this holds for every professional writers and artists born in Cyprus. It is of course saddening to see the closed and isolated lives of the Turkish Cypriots in the last fifty years. This effects literature and art very negatively. Life in Cyprus is completely centered around the subject of Cyprus problem which is a very limited perspective that cannot nurture literature and art. A poem or a novel calls forth a type of reading with philosophical and aesthetic concerns that question the universal, deep and complex dimensions of human existence. This matter of "reading" is very important. Literature, with the engagement of its readers, realizes itself and attains a reproductive capacity. I analyzed the theoretical consequences of the under-institutionalized, peripheral, and minor nature of the Turkish Cypriot literature in my book “The Anthology of the Turkish Cypriot Poetry”. In “Collected Essays”, there are analyses on the meaning of the insider-perspective about the Turkish Cypriot literature which sees it as a unique literary development and the outsider-perspective which perceives it as a sub-category of the wider Turkish literature.

FATHERHOOD COMES FIRST
Since you mentioned a couple of your books, let’s talk about the portrait of Mehmet Yaşın as a writer?
I have a small daughter. If you ask me who I am, I will probably define myself not with respect to the books I wrote, but with respect to my role as a father. But of course people get to know me as a writer. This is an identity independent from the one you have in your private life. Most of the time, this identity has a life of its own, independent of the intentions of the writer. The identity as a writer is mostly shaped by the image formed by the public opinion, a process that the writer can never control. How much of this identity is formed by the works of the writer, on the one hand, and how much by the subjective and superficial readings of these works, on the other; this is uncertain. As I said, the issue of reading and readership is of utmost importance. Many of those who know your name know it from the newspapers or from mutual friends. However, if someone wants to talk about the identity of a writer, this must be derived from the works of the writer. His or her literary style, artistic approach, and worldview can easily tell who a writer is. Though a writer changes in time. With every new book, you redefine yourself.

You say that poetry is very much related to childhood. Let's return to past, then... How was your family life, how was your childhood?
My mother was a teacher who was very interested in literature. She was a close friend of Ulus Baker's mother Pembe Marmara who was a talented poet. For instance, there is a poem in Marmara’s book dedicated to my mother. She was also the cousin of Taner Baybars, a poet and writer who produced works not only in Turkish but also in English and French. My grandmother was related to the family of Müftü Raci Efendi, the famous divan poet. My father Özker Yaşın was also a poet. He wrote novels, plays, and essays. He was a newspaper owner and a publisher. I met my father’s poet, writer and published friends from Istanbul. We were not a very traditional family and we were not very close to each other. I grew up alone. I was not raised in a crowded house or in an extended family, except for the holiday times. I never showed what I wrote to my parents. I was not encouraged to do so. As I look at it retrospectively, it looks like my being a writer was something inevitable and quite natural.

How did you become a professional poet and writer in this process that developed spontaneously?
Before learning how to write and read, I made up stories and sentences that sounded like a poem. Then as I began to read poetry, I was inspired by other poets. My first poem was published in a school magazine at the age of 11. I don’t know how it developed, the poem is created spontaneously. My family probably had an influence on me... When I first shyly handed in a file of my poems to a publisher in Istanbul, I was a 25 year old postgraduate student. Some of my poems were published in several magazines in Turkey. Without thinking of the consequences of publishing a book and how this will change my life and without being prepared for the consequences, I tried to get my first book published so that I could dedicate it to my mother who were to die of cancer soon before the first print. This first book won two poetry awards in Turkey in 1985 and was reprinted in Istanbul. It was well received both in Cyprus and in Turkey. Therefore I half-consciously found myself in the world of literature. I saw my name in newspapers and magazines and it felt like “Mehmet Yaşın” was someone else, different from the person I myself had come to know. Perhaps this process of self-alienation which every poet and writer must go through happened to me earlier and harsher than it was supposed to be...

THE FIRST BOOK THAT CAME AFTER 25 YEARS
Everest Publications is now reprinting all of your works. Have these reprinted editions caused you to face the creative process of your past, have they stimulated a self-reflection? Is there anything in the past that you wish you had or had not done?
It is really interesting to reflect on the 25 years of poetry and how, why, and in what direction it developed. Of course you view your old poems from a distance and see things that you wouldn't write or you would definitely add if they were written in the present. You also think whether it was better to wait longer before the publication because you face much wider creative potentialities in your works. Nevertheless you hope that the reader will make the connections and unveil those potentialities himself/herself. In this sense, it is fruitful to read my poems in a collected edition. Therefore, the newly printed "Collected Poems" is like a finalized first book. It covers a period of 25 years and almost 200 poems. For the first time it feels like a whole...

You said that life in Cyprus is completely centered around the subject of the Cyprus problem. The TRNC is internationally non-recognized and isolated. How do you think isolation affects the Turkish Cypriots individually?
It affects them very deeply, in every sense. There are very few communities, especially in Europe, who have lived such an isolated life. Usually the political, economic, commercial, and administrative deadlocks caused by isolation are emphasized. I believe there is a psychological deadlock which is much more determining. Feeling disconnected from the world, being punished and unwanted, being surrounded by hostilities and developing very unhealthy psychological defence mechanisms in reaction to these hostilities. Individuals perceive themselves through a mirror of unrecognition, unacceptance, and exclusion and this perception makes them either very fragile or very aggressive, or fragility and aggressivity feed each other.

Isolation undoubtedly affects the Turkish Cypriot literature. What can you say about the Turkish Cypriot literature?
The Turkish Cypriot literature is under the pressure of a definition of "Cypriot Literature" in Greek monopolized by the Greek Cypriots. Only the Greek Cypriot writers can use the cultural advantages of the European Union membership. Turkish, which is one of the official languages of the 1960 Republic of Cyprus, was not accepted as an official language in the European Union. The Turkish Cypriots unfortunately have not applied to the EU courts to seek their very understandable right in this matter. Any writers association in North Cyprus could have made that application. However, the isolation of North Cyprus leads to the formation of a shallow, isolated mindset in the world of Turkish Cypriot writers... In order for the cooperative bicommunal activities between the Turkish and Greek Cypriot poets and writers to have positive results, the Greek Cypriots need to accept the Turkish Cypriots as equally rightful owners of the island. This cannot be solved with naive brotherhood/sisterhood slogans. If you think that the 3,000 year old Cypriot literature only consists of Greek elements and leave the Turkish and many other elements out of this common history, then the problem is bound to remain unsolved. Therefore the most important issue is the Turkish language... I know from my own experience that whatever I write, the fact that it is written in Turkish and I am related to Cyprus causes disturbance. They think that I subvert the image of Cyprus as a Greek island and the equivalence of Cypriot literature to Greek Cypriot literature.

TURKISH LITERATURE
The honorary guest of this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair (one of the most important literary activities in the world) is Turkey. Will you participate in this fair?
All of my Turkish books published by Everest will be there. There will also be some French, Italian, English, and Letonian translations. I am not sure whether the German translation will be completed by then.

Are you happy to be represented in Frankfurt under the category of Turkish literature? Is the literatary works of Mehmet Yaşın a part of the Turkish Cypriot literature or a part of the Turkish literature?
These categories are not mutually exclusive. A writer who was born in Cyprus can simultaneously be part of the Cypriot, Turkish Cypriot, Turkish, European and at times English literature. Moreover I consider Turkish literature to be a "Turkish language" literature. My Turkish Cypriot literary works can therefore be considered as contributions to a wider conception of Turkish literature. There are many strands of literary currents that are rooted in the wider Ottoman-Turkish tradition without belonging to modern Turkey.

Are there new books on the way?
In 2007, Everest Publications published five books of mine. This year they will publish some more. Currently most of my time is spent on following the translations of my novels and poems. They will be published, also as poem DVDs, in English, Italian, French, German, Letonian and Russian.



Mehmet Yaşın’s works
Born in 1958, Lefkoşa, Mehmet Yaşın lives in Cambridge. Several of his novels have been published in English, Italian, Greek, Hebrew magazines and anthologies. "Soydaşınız Balık Burcu" and "Sınırdışı Saatler" are being currently translated into English and Italian.

Novels: Soydaşınız Balık Burcu (1994), (1995 Cevdet Kudret Novel Award), Sınırdışı Saatler (2003)

Poetry books: Sevgilim Ölü Asker (1984), (1985 Akademi Poem Award/A. Kadir Award);
Işık-Merdiven (1986); Pathos (1990); Sözverici Koltuğu (1993); Hayal Tamiri (1998); Don’t Go Back to Kyrenia (2001); Adı Kayıplar Listesinde (2002); Collected Poems / 1977-2002 (2007)...

Essays and reviews: The Anthology of the Turkish Cypriot Poetry (1994); The Anthology of Ancient Cypriot Poetry (1999); Poeturka (1995); Step-Mothertongue - From Nationalism to Multiculturalism: Literatures of Cyprus, Greece and Turkey (2000); Kozmopoetika (2002); Diller ve Kültürler Arası Bir Edebiyat İncelemesi: Kıbrıs Şiiri Antolojisi: MÖ 9. yy. - MS 20. yy. (2005), (2005 Memet Fuat Award); Collected Essays / 1978-2005 (2007)...

R.E.M.

R.E.M. returned with their guitars...

The legendary music band R.E.M. is once again ready to speed up our musical journey with their 14th album “Accelerate”. They are returning with their guitars, which they have not used very frequently during their recent albums, and, as the title of the album suggests, they intend to rock and roll at high speed.

R.E.M., one of the most respected rock bands of the world of music, is getting prepared to honour their loyal fans with the release of their 14th studio album “Accelerate”. The band which has gained popularity on a worldwide basis due to its hit singles such as “Loosing My Religion”, “The One I Love”, “Man On The Moon”, “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” released their latest album “Around The Sun”, which was a bit of a disappointment considering their older albums, in 2004.
After a three year interval, R.E.M. seems to be returning to its roots and original style. It is told that the album is guitar-dominated and that “Accelerate” will be like “Monster”, even better.

The best of America...
The new album consisting of 11 songs will be released on March 31. The first single “Supernatural Superserious" was released last February. The new song can be listened on R.E.M.’s official website. All the songs of “Accelerate” were rehearsed in Dublin and “Supernatural Superserious” clearly shows that R.E.M. returned with the bitterness of its high-volume guitars. With the band’s more experimental musical adventures which started with the album “New Adventures in Hi-Fi" (1996) and continued with “Up” (1998), “Reveal” (2001), and “Around the Sun” (2004), the guitar-oriented rock music was replaced with a softer, low tempo, improvisational songs. Despite the fact that the loyal fans of R.E.M. found something admirable in these experimental attempts, commercially speaking the albums were not successful. “New Adventures In Hi-Fi” sold 994,000, “Up” sold 664,000, “Reveal” sold 415,000 and “Around the Sun” sold only 232,000. The declining figures were disappointing (disappointing, of course, most notably for the record company, since it is a great injustice to measure the achievement of such an album as “Up” in solely commerical terms). No doubt R.E.M.’s true accomplishment was its skillful blend of basic rock instruments like bass guitar, guitar and drums with the poetic lyrics accompanied by a definitive mix of punk, folk and rock music. An exemplary album in this regard was “Out of Time” (1991) which sold 4 million copies. It was no surprise that the famous music magazine “Rolling Stone” simply named R.E.M. as “the best rock and roll band in America”. Similarly omfortable with the grungy guitars of punk, the blues of modern times, and the folk music of a cold city of skyscrapers, the musicianship of R.E.M. was characterized by its radical openness to novelty. Furthermore, their fame did not eradicate their modesty. If R.E.M. can be said to play "alternative" music, then R.E.M. gave the word “alternative” its fullest meaning, depicting it not only with their music but also with their lifestyle. They voiced their concerns regarding a variety of social issues ranging from environmental crisis and animal rights to anti-Bush politics.

The “Golden Age” begins...
Founded in Georgia, USA in 1980 by Michael Stipe (vocals), Peter Buck (guitar), Mike Mills (bass guitar) and Bill Berry (drums), R.E.M. quickly became one of the first popular representatives of alternative rock music.
The unique guitar technique of Peter Buck and the gloomy voice of Michael Stipe influenced an audience with the first R.E.M. album "Murmur” (1983). Rolling Stone Magazine announced "Murmur" as the "album of the year" the success of which was to be followed by equally popular albums like "Reckoning" (1984), "Fables of the Reconstruction" (1985) and "Life's Rich Pageant" (1986). With the 1986 album, Stipe's vocals became more and more prominent and original. "Life’s Rich Pageant” was the first R.E.M. gold record which also stimulated a renewed interest in the band’s previous albums. In 1987, the fifth studio album "Document" was released and quickly became the most popular R.E.M. album ever. The album contained the hit singles "The One I Love" which rose to number two position in American charts and "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" which introduced R.E.M. to MTV.
The 1988 release “Green” epitomized the beginning of the golden age of R.E.M. The first two singles from the album, “Stand” and “Orange Crush”, occupied number one positions in the music charts. The 1991 album “Out of Time” was equally successful in both the UK and the USA.The first single from “Out of Time”, “Losing My Religion” was to become the best known R.E.M. song. Another single from the same album, “Shiny Happy People”, was a popular R.E.M. song as well. In the USA, "Out of Time” sold more than four million copies and became the most successful album of R.E.M. The 1992 album “Automatic For The People” with the hit singles “Everybody Hurts” and “Man On The Moon” was just another major R.E.M. achievement. Then came the 1994 album “Monster”, a true rock album which reached the peak position both in the UK and the USA.

The R.E.M. stance...
In 1997 R.E.M. signed a contract with Warner Bros for 80 million dollars; this was the most expensive contract the music industry has ever known. The same year the drummer Billy Berry left the band and the rest of the members decided to carry on as a trio.
R.E.M. was founded at a time when the 1970s’ post-punk trend left its place to alternative rock. R.E.M. managed to become a mainstream band without ever compromising its always "alternative" stance. R.E.M.'s invasion of the mainstream music scene meant that an alternative interpretation of the period's musical taste was quite possible. R.E.M. is the only band (with U2, of course) that can claim to be the best rock band. R.E.M. was included in the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" in 2007.
The band took its name after the abbreviated form of “Rapid Eye Movement”, which signifies the stage of sleep during which you dream. The magnificent 28 year old career involved 13 great albums with memorable singles. Now their 14th album is getting ready to make music lovers much happier.

Burçin Tuncer

Music of Cyprus 2

Music of Cyprus

“Music of Cyprus” is an album of traditional Cypriot music composed by Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot musicians. Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol, a Turkish Cypriot musician born in Istanbul, and Theodoulos Vakanas, a Greek Cypriot musician born in Nicosia, cooperated with two more musicians from the mainlands Turkey and Greece in this album.
The title “Music of Cyprus” completely reflects the content of this album: traditional music Cyprus. What motivated Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol to create such an album was an attempt to archive Cypriot music with the bi-communal collaboration of musicians.
The colourful diversity in Cypriot music is reflected by the wide variety of instruments used in recording the album such as ud, reed flute, lauto, horn, flageolet, tambourine, violin, fiddle, drums and percussions... Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol who is also an ethnomusicologist says that throughout the last century both Turkish and Greek Cypriots have played the violin as their main instrument. The instruments mentioned above have been played in the album in various arrangements.
The repertoire of the album includes such categories as “Wedding Songs”, “Love Songs”, “Sacred Music”, “Village”, “Reconstruction of Cyprus”, “Folk Dance” and “Music of Cyprus”. This categorization clearly shows that Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol's approach to this album is thoroughly scientific for the purpose of better understanding the Cypriot cultural identity.

“In the morning at sunrise”...
The album opens with “Wedding Songs”. The first song is “Kozan Marşı / Syrtos” sung by both Turkish and Greek Cypriots and in which almost all the instruments mentioned are played. The second track titled “To Tragoui Tou Gamou” is a Greek Cypriot wedding song. The lyrics "May this time be blessed in gold / and this ceremony be powerful / Today the sky and the day are shining bright / Today is the day an eagle marries a dove" depicts a Greek Cypriot wedding ceremony.
The third song is from the section "Love Songs”. “Sabahın Seher Vahdında” is one of the most emotional songs of the album. The lyrics goes as follows: “In the morning at sunrise / She sits reading the Bible / I don’t understand her language / So I thought a nightingale”. The song is sung by Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol who also plays the ud. This song highlights the conception of the album quite well by reflecting the view of the “other”, the struggle to understand the different and the joy of living together with the other and the different.
After this emotional love song, the same ud melodies carries us to a more joyful song: “Dolama / Na Sou Goraso Mihanin". Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol sings the lyrics "Dolama dolama / Bring over the bağlama / How did you learn / to dance like this?...”. Theodoulos Vakanas replies in Greek accompanied by violin melodies played by him: “I will buy you a sewing machine / To sew, you proud one / So that you need no one’s help / In this very neighbourhood”...

“The sema is joy, and it is good for body and soul"...
After a short Byzantine sacred music, the Greek Cypriot religious song “Ta’i Giorki” opens the section “Sacred Music in Cyprus”. Dedicated to Aya Giorgis, this epic song tells the story of a religious hero.
The sixth song is an Anatolian chant “Şem-i Ruhuna”. “Listen to what I’m saying, it’s about another way / What a dervish needs is the love of God / What the lover possesses is sacrificed for the Beloved / The sema is joy, and it is good for body and soul...” This mystic chant is important because it represents the importance for the Turkish Cypriots of the Mevlevi belief system.
“The Village” section opens with drums and horns. “Abdal Zeybeği /Aptalikos” is followed by the section “Cyprus Reconstructed”. This section displays the more traditional instruments used before the violin took its place in the Cypriot tradition as the main instruments of the islanders.
The tenth song of the album opens the “Dance Songs” section. The album presents two great dance songs that represent not only the Turkish and Greek Cypriot culture, but also the Aegean culture: "Varys Zeybekikos" and "Sarhoş Zeybeği / Ime Tze Ganomatzis".
The final section which has the same title with the album, “Music of Cyprus", presents more familiar and popular melodies. "Agapisa Tin Pou Karkias", "Feslikan/Syrtos", "Orak/To Mashairin" and "Dillirga/Tillyrkotissa” are the songs in this section that reflect the warmth of a Mediterranean island.

Listen to the music of Cyprus...
“Music of Cyprus” presents the multicultural diversity of identities on this beautiful Mediterrranean island. The name of the album itself is totally reflective of its true message: The music of Cyprus is neither Turkish or Greek. Any cultural and artistic endeavour in the name of “Cyprus” must tell the story of the bicommunal identity of the island. This is what you will hear if you listen to the music of Cyprus.

Burçin Tuncer

Music of Cyprus 1

Listen to the music of Cyprus

A collaboration between Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot musicians, the album “Music of Cyprus” sheds a musical light on the cultural identity of the island of Cyprus. This is a very precious piece of work in academic, political and cultural terms. As the songs in the album play one after the other, you can’t escape the feeling that you are sailing toward a wildly different world. A world very close to Cyprus yet so far away from it. A world of both past and present and a world full of hope where self and other identify with each other...


The island of Cyprus is known for its multicultural structure, a historical legacy of thousands of years of inter-civilizational interaction. For long years, Greeks and Turks have lived on this island together, enjoying and disliking similar things. Despite their different religious convictions and different ethnicities, Greeks and Turks of Cyprus were never deprived of a common language that can represent common joys and sorrows. There might not be too many cases of inter-ethnic marriage in Cyprus, but there certainly were recurring cases of common celebrations in which both people shared their folk dances and sang folk songs in both Turkish and Greek.
It is known that this rahter peaceful equilibrium was disrupted. The why and the how of this disruption is the subject of another, perhaps a politically more engaged article. Nevertheless the outcome is obvious: One’s joy becomes the other’s sorrow, and vice versa. Different national flags wave at each other across an entrenched border. The people of Cyprus start looking at each other from distant barricades.
What is fortunate is that this border and different nationalist sentiments did not suffice to destroy the common cultural heritage of centuries. The nearly 40 year separation of these communities could never eliminate the 400 year common tradition uniting Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots. Every cultural artifact on this island bear the mark of both communities.
One day, two children of two different historical ancestries, two different religions and languages come together and the common tradition that links them and has blessed the island of Cyprus for so long is brought to surface under the light of musical fervour. "Music of Cyprus” is an album made possible by a historical partnership.
Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol, as the child of a Turkish Cypriot family born in Istanbul and Theodoulos Vakanas, a Greek Cypriot born in Nicosia, meet in Boston, Massachusetts and discover their common cultural roots through musical collaboration...

A “bi-communal” album...
It won’t be an exaggerated claim to say that “Music of Cyprus” unites those spiritual elements of the two communities of Cyprus which have been materially separated from each other since the 1960s. Produced with academic concerns in mind and within the framework of an ethnomusicological study, “Music of Cyprus” has been released by “Kalan Müzik”. The project was first conceived when the ethnomusicologist and musician Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol, in cooperation with his Greek-Irish colleague Panayiotis League, gave a concert reflecting the Cypriot tradition in Boston in May 2006.
That an album of Cypriot music must be prepared b—communally was the sine qua non of Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol. Sanlıkol believed that music made by either Turkish Cypriots or Greek Cypriots separately never reflects the true nature of the island. Moreover, such a mono-communal album can reflect, consciously or unconsciously, a biased cultural perspective which would be anathema to an academic principle of objectivity.
“As the son of a Cypriot family, I was aware that this project lacked something essential: A Greek Cypriot", says Sanlıkol and starts telling the story of how "Music of Cyprus" was born: "I knew the right person for this project: Theodoulos Vakanas. This friend of mine was also a graduate from the New England Conservatory and I knew him from our collaboration in Boston almost five years ago in a few concerts and recording projects. As we discovered our common love for Cyprus, we quickly and joyously started exchanging stories, memories and also several folk songs. Although Theodoulos was not able to take part in the 2006 concert, this project was first conceived thanks to him.”
Of course, Sanlıkol has a powerful message in this album: Another Cyprus is possible! Sanlıkol hopes that the “Music of Cyprus” project could stimulate some Turkish and Greek Cypriots to engage in a humanist dialogue.

About music...
Despite all the social factors involved, “Music of Cyprus” is essentially about music. It is a great musical achievement. Instrumentation in line with the musical tradition and arrangements that reflect the songs’ historical nature are some of the powerful aspects of this album. It is a musical journey into the spirit of a common history of Cyprus.
Sanlıkol is intent on archiving the common musical heritage of the island. In order to form the repertoire of the album, he brought together a vast accumulation of materials that he collected from both North and South Cyprus. However, it can be safely said that personal experience was a more important ingredient than field work during the formation of this album.
Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol tells it all: "The repertoire of this album first of all reflects the past experiences of the elders of the Sanlıkol and Vakanas families who provided us with a firsthand account of the basic characteristics of Cypriot music. The two most important figures in these families are my grandmother Leman Necati Özkan and Theodoulos’s uncle Polydoris Vakanas.”
Both Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol and Theodoulos Vakanas were brought up in families that loved music. Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol's grandmother is a recognized lute player, whereas Theodoulos Vakanas’s uncle Polydoris is a professional violin player.

Repertoir...
The repertoire shows that this album is the product of a disciplined academic study. The songs in the album are presented under different categories like “Wedding Songs”, “Love Songs”, “Sacred Music”, “Village”, "Cyprus Reconstructed”, “Dance Song” and “Music of Cyprus”. This is therefore a new outlook on the traditional music of Cyprus. As Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol stresses, the common link between the music of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots is not only the Cypriot dance songs. The detailed information about the repertoire is related in Sanlıkol’s thoughts printed in the album booklet. For the most part, the selections under the sections of this album entitled “Wedding Songs”, “Music of Cyprus", “Dance Songs” and “Love Songs” are found exclusively on the island of Cyprus and are performed by Greeks or Turks or both. Some of the songs (such as, “Feslikan/Syrtos” #13 and “Dillirga/Tillyrkotissa” #15) have separate Greek and Turkish versions or are sung in a mix of the two languages.
“Section "Sacred Music from Cyprus” celebrates the great importance of both Greek-Orthodox Christianity and Islam to the history and culture of Cyprus.
“In section “Cyprus Re-constructed” we have taken an imaginative step and attempted to recapture the kinds of sounds that would have been heard in Cyprus a hundred or more years ago. By coupling the small Turkish folk lute cura with the Greek bowed lyra we wanted to bring back the sound of the tambura/lyra duo which most probably was in use in Cyprus before the introduction of the violin.

The “true” music of Cyprus...
A collaboration between Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot musicians, the album “Music of Cyprus” sheds a musical light on the cultural identity of the island of Cyprus. This is a very precious piece of work in academic, political and cultural terms. As the songs in the album play one after the other, you can’t escape the feeling that you are sailing toward a wildly different world.
A world very close to Cyprus yet so far away from it. So close, because this music belongs solely to the island of Cyprus. So far away, because it is not all about a geographical location. A world of both past and present and a world full of hope where self and other identify with each other... Listen to the music of Cyprus. There you will find both yourself and your long forgotten neighbour.

‘Kıbrıs’ın Sesi’ (Music of Cyprus)
Kıbrıslı Rum ve Türk müzisyenlerin Kıbrıs adasındaki müzik geleneklerini
birlikte sunduğu bir çalışma
Greek and Turkish Cypriot Musicians Present the Musical Traditions of the
Island of Cyprus

DÜĞÜN MÜZİKLERİ | WEDDING SONGS | TOU GAMOU
1- Kozan Marşı | Syrtos (Turkish and Greek)
2- To Tragoudi Tou Gamou (Greek)

AŞK ŞARKILARI | LOVE SONGS | TIS AGAPIS
3- Sabahın Seher Vahdında (Turkish)
4- Dolama | Na Sou Goraso Mihanin
(Turkish and Greek)

KIBRIS’TA DİNİ MÜZİK | SACRED MUSIC FROM CYPRUS
THRISKEFTIKI MOUSIKI TIS KYPROU
5- T’ai Giorki (Agios Giorgis, Greek Orthodox para-liturgical song)
6- Şem-i Ruhuna (ilahi: Sufi devotional song)

KÖY | THE VILLAGE | TO HORKON
7- Abdal Zeybeği | Aptalikos (Turkish and Greek)

KIBRIS’TA “GECMİŞE YOLCULUK” | CYPRUS “RE-CONSTRUCTED”
KYPROS: “MOUSIKI ANADROMI”
8- Kartal (Turkish)
9- Sousta (Turkish and Greek)

ZEYBEKLER | DANCE SONGS | ZEYBEKIKOS
10- Varys Zeybekikos (Greek)
11- Sarhoş Zeybeği | Ime Tze Ganomatzis
(Turkish and Greek)

KIBRIS’IN SESİ | MUSIC OF CYPRUS | TRAGOUDIA TIS KYPROU
12- Agapisa Tin Pou Karkias (Greek)
13- Feslikan | Syrtos (Turkish and Greek)
14- Orak | To Mashairin (Turkish and Greek)
15- Dillirga | Tillyrkotissa (Turkish and Greek)

Burçin Tuncer