Aynur

    AYNUR – RABE

    GRAMMY® CATEGORY SUBMITTED INTO:
    Best Global Music Album

    ARTIST: AYNUR

    featured artists: Wu Man, Michael League, Chris Jennings, Hayden Chrisholm, Franz von Chossy, Patrick Goraguer

    Digital Label: Aynur 32917 UPC: 198391138539

    CD Label: Dreyer Gaido Musikproduktionen, DGCD 21153 UPC: 4260014871539

    Internationally acclaimed and award-winning singer-composer Aynur is set to captivate audiences once again with her highly anticipated 8th studio album, RABE.

    Aynur is the outstanding, iconic voice of the Kurdish people. For a quarter of a century, Aynur has intertwined the traditional colours of her homeland, including bardic songs and the ancient and modern poetry of Kurdistan with classical, jazz, and pop from the West. Through contemporary sounds, she opens up Kurdish culture to the world. 
    In the last decades, Aynur has further developed her artistic spectrum, refining the art of writing her own songs. With her eighth album RABE Aynur intertwines many threads of her more than 20-year career. Nearly 20 musicians contribute to this work, recorded in Cologne and Catalonia. Aynur arranged with jazz pianist Franz von Chossy on piano. With von Chossy, Chris Jennings on bass and Patrick Goraguer on drums, a magnificent rhythm section has grown together in countless concerts. Snarky Puppy's leader Michael League plays electric guitar and recorded & mixed the string quartet live in his studio in Catalonia. Hayden Chisholm lends an intimate touch to the album with his saxophone while Wu Man, the most famous Chinese pipa virtuoso, is featured as a guest on two tracks. The result is a multifaceted sound landscape, exuding folklore flair, featuring meditative interludes and jazzy improvisations, as well as gripping, funky moments. The music and lyrics come from tradition, as well as from Aynur herself and icons of Kurdish, Alevi, and Yazidi culture.  

    ListenNow

    Aynur 1 by Muhsin Akgun

    From the beginning of her career, Aynur has set new standards in Kurdish and Turkish music, blending traditional instruments and strings with gripping popular arrangements. At the core is her touching, stirring, powerful, and equally melancholic voice, singing in Kurdish dialects and also in Turkish. World-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma invited her to his famous Silk Road Ensemble and Aynur's success allowed her to collaborate in fellowship with a wide range of acclaimed artists including Kayhan Kalhor, Javier Limón, Kinan Azmeh, Riccardo Muti, the Nederland Blazers Ensemble, the NDR Bigband and many more. In 2017, she received the "Master of Mediterranean Music Award" from the Berklee Mediterranean Music Institute, and in 2021, she was honoured with the "ARTIST AWARD" at the World Music Expo (WOMEX'21), marking a significant milestone in her career as one of the most powerful Kurdish female voices in the music scene. Filmmaker Fatih Akın portrayed her in his film 'Crossing the Bridge' and she appears in an unforgettable scene in Morgan Neville's documentary about Yo-Yo Ma. 

    In the guise of an exhilarating disco-funk, the single "RABE Edlayê" tells a gripping story about an unattainable love between the daughter of a nobleman and a penniless farmer's son. Confidently, Aynur presents two fantastic original compositions: Jazzily bouncing drums and luminous strings paint a nighttime scene in "Bîranîn" (Remembering) and with "Ez U Bi Teva" (You and I), she has written an intimate song about a young man ascending into the lonely mountain world to find his beloved. In Hekîmo, she takes the listeners on a journey to the prehistoric times of the ancient Kurdish sound with her voice.  "Ay Le Gule" compares Kurdistan to a rose of incomparable beauty and intoxicating fragrance. In "Nasil Yar Diyeyim," Aynur showcases her full vocal power with a text by Alevi poet Pir Sultan Abdal, and "Dervis Baba" also revolves around the healing power of Alevi-Bektashi spirituality.

    RABE stands as a singular achievement in Aynur's previous work: With love poetry, spirituality, and unwavering determination for freedom, the album showcases a matured artist who asserts herself as the greatest Kurdish voice of decades.

    Press:

    The title of this album, RABE, means 'stand-up' or 'rise-up' in Kurdish and Aynur Doğan has been standing up for her people for 20 years since her Kalan Müzik debut 'Kece Kurdan' in 2004. This is her eighth album and one of her strongest. ... RABE certainly reinforces her role as the leading contemporary female Kurdish voice.
    Simon Broughton in SONGLINES

    RABE represents a triumphant culmination of over two decades of artistic evolution. Recorded with the collaboration of nearly 20 musicians in Germany and Spain, the album features a diverse sound palette, elegantly, proficiently and beautifully mixing traditional Kurdish music, dance music, meditative interludes, and jazzy improvisations. Notable guest appearances include Michael League of Snarky Puppy on electric guitar and Wu Man, a celebrated Chinese pipa virtuosa.
    Sonia Keller in WORLD MUSIC CENTRAL