Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA – Turkish musician Latif Bolat has released a new recording, Gul: The Rose.

One of the most well-known Turkish musicians in the United States, Latif Bolat plays Turkish Folk Music and devotional Sufi songs, called Ilahi and Nefes, from the Anatolian peninsula. Accompanying himself on baglama (Turkish long-necked lute), Bolat sings of love and spirit, with many songs featuring the lyrics of the great 13th century mystical poets Rumi and Yunus Emre.

Bolat gives more details about the new album: "Gul" is the Rose, the symbol of unfolding in the mystic Sufi tradition. Life starts in a bud and it unfolds to a magnificent beauty with a long painful journey regardless of all those thorns surrounding the flower, like "cooking oneself thru the difficulties of life. However, once the unfolding is completed, you get the most magnificent of all flowers.

Rose is also the symbol of innocence in Turkish folk and court poetry, often depicting the beloved. I even catch myself calling a stranger "gulum", "my rose" when I want to be sweet to the person. However, practically the title of this CD comes from a song I am singing in this very recording, a poem from the great 16* Century poet Ummi Sinan. He dreams of a world where everything is rose. The idea of a world made of roses -esonated with me so well that as soon as I learned this particular song, the name of -ny next CD became Gul: The Rose. As a wonderful linguistic coincidence, Gul also means "smile" in Turkish language? So may universe be filled with Roses of all kinds!

Since the 11th Century, Turkish people from the deserts of Samarkand to the mountains of Anatolia recited poetry in search of the ultimate Truth and union with the Beloved. With their strong shamanistic background, my ancestors blended Islamic and many other local rituals of Anatolia, creating the wonderfully Turkish ways of Sufi mysticism like the Bektashis, Mevlevis and many others.

For me the most important aspect of these poets from the past thousand years is their strong anti-materialistic attitude. As true mystics, these poets and troubadours let go all the comfort and facilities offered to them by the Sultans, and kings of their times. Instead, they pursued a relentless struggle to reach the Truth.

Such an anti-materialistic attitude is so much in line with my own world philosophy in these times of rampant selling out of everything sacred and profane that I had to put this wonderful poetry in music. That's why this recording is especially special to me since most of the songs are my own compositions from the last two years. Due to the wonderful nature of this mystic folk poetry, composing was almost a natural progression of reading them out loud. You'll hear the sounds of the Iraq war in these compositions since they are also the impressions of the war in the Middle East. Therefore I consider this CD as my very own child, coming from my deepest passion for beauty and ever-growing desire for a peaceful and love-filled universe."

[Buy Gul: The Rose].