SINGLE

ELA - HAZEL

This is a poem by 17th century Alevi asik bard Karacaoğlan, with music by Olcay and arranged and produced by talented Berlin-based multi-instrumentalist Deniz Mahir Kartal. In Turkey the prolific output of Karacaoğlan is compared to Shakespeare and love and death feature strongly.  For Olcay, the voices of the past are important in helping us find our identity and a reminder that our feelings are shaped by the bards of old as much as by the vicissitudes of our life today. Love is timeless. The pulsing rhythm and breathy ney flute reference Sufi music, where earthly love points to love for the divine. Although centuries pass, love and how we perceive it does not change. Olcay gives voice to a poem written hundreds of years ago through 21st century music.