San Francisco, California, USA - Murat Aydemir and Salih Bilgin’s collaboration, Neva, is out on Golden Horn Records. It is a work of musical juxtapositions. The ney and tanbur, seldom played in duo, have very different aesthetics. The ney, beloved instrument of the Mevlevi Sufis, is often compared to the beauty of the human voice. The scholarly tanbur, on the other hand, is considered expressive of the classical Ottoman/Turkish repertoires. Yet as tanbur master and foremost expert on Turkish classical music, Necdet Yasar, remarks about Neva, “Aydemir and Bilgin successfully interweave the music of tanbur and ney.”

Murat Aydemir’s musical life is deeply influenced by Tanburi Cemil Bey. The album’s title, Neva, pays homage not only to Tanburi Cemil Bey’s “Neva Pesrevi” (the opening track), but also to the sounds and songs carried by musicians and their instruments through the generations — neva.

In keeping with neva, Aydemir and Bilgin’s repertoire presents works spanning several hundred years in traditional and modern interpretations. Cantemir’s regal “Pençgah Pesrevi,” composed in the late 17th century, represents the oldest work on the album. “Pençgah Pesrevi” makes an interesting contrast to the album’s late-romantic era Turkish classical pieces, such as the rarely performed and sadly overlooked “Neva Pesrevi” composed by Tanburi Cemil Bey. Modern interpretations of classical styles of improvisation are interspersed throughout the album, including three “Müsterek Taksim” on tracks 2, 7, and 9. The unusual performance of “Fihrist Taksim” on track 4 gives listeners a rare opportunity to hear the subtle differences between modes in the Rast family (normally, improvisations move only between modes in unrelated families). Finally, several tracks accentuate the individual instruments, such as “Ussak Sazsemaisi,” composed by ney master Aziz Dede. The tanbur used in this recording was made by master Sacit Gürel and the ney was made by Salih Bilgin. The ney and tanbur are supported by the daf (frame drum).

[Buy Neva ].