----TURKISH PROGRESSIVE MUSIC AND INTERESTING FUSIONS PRESENTS : --------------- ---------------------------MERCAN DEDE------------------------------------------ BIOGRAPHY Mercan Dede, the Turkish born and Montreal based world-beat musician/producer, subtly fuses the Eastern spiritual traditions of Sufi music with contemporary ambient sounds to create a unique mix of old and new ' sacred and secular, East and West. An adherent of Sufi spirituality, Dede brings his holistic understanding of sound, the rhythms of nature and of the universe to his interpretations of Sufi maqams, as well as to his original compositions. Dede is an accomplished musician, playing the ney (reed flute), bendir, frame drum, zarp and tabla, and has produced and played on three solo recordings: Sufl Dreams (1997), Journey of a Dervish (1999) - on- San Francisco's world beat and jazz label Golden Hom Records - and most recently Seyahatname (2001) on his new label, Doublemoon Records. He has also worked as a producer on several other world-beat recordings for Golden Horn and has performed live with such musical personalities as Kani Karaca in Turkey, and Ihsan Ozgen in Canada. German television producers Saarlandischer Rundfunk were so moved by Sufi Dreams that they travelled to Canada to feature Dede in their documentary about Sufi Music. While filming Dede, and his alter ego technotribalhouse dj Arkin Allen, at work in Montreal and Toronto in February of 1998, the producers requested that Dede create the soundtrack for their project. The documentary was aired on German television in February of 1999 when it garnered an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response. The Mercan Dede Ensemble, founded in 1997, represents the culmination of Dede's extensive musical experience over the past decade, both in Turkey and North America. The ensemble includes a fluid, changing cast of characters, including Mohammad and Farokh Shams, Montreal-based percussionist Scott Russell and Canadian violinist Hugh Marsh. The Canadian TV station Bravo filmed a performance by The Mercan Dede Ensemble and Ihsan Ozgen at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in the Fall of 1998. The resulting program, featuring the concert as well as exclusive interviews with Mercan Dede, was aired across the country in 2000. A profoundly spiritual individual, Dede finds the traditional Sufi understanding of music as a means to uplift and harmonize the soul reflected in the rave/nightclub scenes of Europe and North America. Dede began spinning vinyl at 23 years old under the name Arkin Allen, also performing under the name Poundmaker, accompanied by hand-picked percussionists, vocalists and musicians. As Arkin Allen, he contributed a track to the compilation Interior Horizons on Interchill Records (UK), as well as producing and mixing the compilation Omniscience in co-operation with SugarMonk/Interchill. Omniscience features a diverse selection of original works by a host of artists, including a track by Allen himself, as well as co-productions with New York-based Jesse Owens-Sims and Istanbul's dj Can. The album was a promotion for the Om Summer Solstice Festival, with all proceeds diverted to Toronto's non-profit Summkidz Collective. Dede's ability to interlace the polyrhythms of Eastern music with house and techno beats has enhanced his unique perspective on the inherently inspirational and uplifting potential of music and dancing. Both as Arkin Allen and as Mercan Dede, he has performed at events as rse as the Black & Blue 98 (a world-renowned Montreal circuit party which drew 15 000 people) and a concert of improvisations on classical Turkish music at the Canadian Museum Civilization, As either DJ or Sufi musician, in either a secular or a sacred context, Mercan de is a master at touching souls and communicating the intrinsic harmony of the universe ugh his music. The inspirational force behind the work of Mercan Dede is ultimately tbc as that which has carried the message of Rumi through centuries and around the world. word "dervish" means threshold; the ultimate aim for any Sufi is to meet and be met at transforming point where one space becomes another. Recently, Dede is concentrating on performing with his critically acclaimed group Montreal al Trio, who were featured at the Istanbul Jazz Festival in 2000, as well as working with sensational Canadian violinist Hugh Marsh. Mercan Dede's last album "Seyahatname", released by Doublemoon Records (DM001201) includes pieces composed for the "Seyahatnarne 2001" project, directed and choreographed by Beyhan Murphy. All compositions and archive recordings in the album, also features Kani Karaca in "Bülbül Kasidesi" and Hüsnü Senlendirici in his exclusive clarinet, belong to Mercan Dede. July 2001, Mercan Dede performed at one of the world's most highly acclaimed jazz stivals, the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal, sharing the General Motors Big nt stage with Burhan Ögal and Jamaaladeen Tacuma, in a concert called "East Meets the st" addressing to an audience of more than 100,000 people. On that same evening, right after his concert, he appeared at Spectrum, this time performing with his project Montreal Trio, again as part of the festival program. Dede's official website www.mercan-dede.com hosts many followers from diverse Sufi ups, as well as spiritual traditions based in other cultures and regions. A Turkish paper recently, and accurately, referred to Dede as a "dervish for the modem world." an Dede lives up to this estimation, having travelled over two hundred thousand kilometers in the last year to work with Sufi groups and Whirling Dervishes in locations the world over, earning his position as one of the most influential Sufi musicians and producers of generation. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "A Sedative Sort of Man" By Yesim Cobankent Yesim Cobankent: You've got a lot of names, which is your mostly preferred? Merean Dede: Say whatever you wish, but please for God's sake, ask something different. Because everbody keeps asking me the same questions over and over again. I have eight interviews tomorrow, and another nine the folowing day. People will get tired of reading the same things. YC: It's been a long time since you've settled in Canada. Are you happy to live there? MD: Being happy has something to do with your inner world. Sometimes, you can feel extremely happy even if you're in a horrible place. Home is where your heart is. Montreal is a place that gives me this feeling. It's tremendously green, peaceful and culturally active. And when it comes to music, it's one of the best centres in the world for underground music, world music, fusion, ethnic and all other kinds of music. Each summer some ten thousand tulips are all abloom in Montreal. YC: People are mostly going to Europe or to the U. S.A, however so many are go to Canada, isn't it? MD: Yes, indeed. Canada is not the right place for people who want to be the best in their own fields. It's a country for those who choose happiness rather than ambition. Only Celine Dion was an exception, if that can be considered. Canada is a country without an army, a place where people don't complain about their lives. I also have a similar character. Otherwise, 1 could have gone to New York and speeded things up. YC: As a matter of fact, you seem to be quite pleased and very much at ease... MD: In fact, "Seyahatname" was quite a strenuous project. We were a team of forty people and sometimes they would rage at me saying, "Don't you ever get nervous?" This has to do with my character and age, but I've always been a calm person. 1 don't react as much anymore. YC: What is it that makes up your personality and your music? MD: Life itself. What you do in life, are like the pieces of a puzzle, when taken individually. They are not related to each other, yet form a unity altogether. Being a DJ, a teacher, playing the ney ... these are all the fragments of a whole. And it's Sufism that binds these together. I've never seen myself as a musician, because I'm not a musician. YC: What do you mean by saying,"I'm not a musician" ? MD: For instance, I'm not concemed with things like making a living with music and letting it become the most important part of your life. 1 never had an intention of releasing albums and making myself known. That's why I use the name Merean Dede. For me, music is like breathing. You know, nobody would come and say that his career is breathing... I do things seriously, but 1 don't take them seriously. YC: You believe in coincidences. What were some of the coincidences that changed your life? MD: For instance, having started to blow the ney. Then 1 went to Canada. When I was a student at the school of journalism in Istanbul, there was an institute close by which gave ney lessons for free. At that time, neys were hard to find, so I started with a ney made out of a plastic pipe. When 1 went to Master Süleyman's shop to get a ney, he didn't give it to me for a year. I kept going there for a while and he finally gave me a beautiful one as a present. I left for Canada with that ney in hand. There 1 tried to find a book about ney, but couldn't find any. So, I started reading Mevlana's "Mesnevi". 1 found something in common between me and the ney that moaned for having left its homeland. YC: You mean, you identified yourself with the ney? MD: Actually, we all are neys. But some of us are aware of this, while some aren't. You get that wonderful sound only when you give up evening and concentrate on your breath. YC: Is the ney more than a musical instrument ? MD: It certainly is. Even people from different cultures agree on this. First-, there's something very human to it- the breath. Besides, it's made of something which is completely, organic, the reed. And, it's something originated by Mevlana. YC: What do you do to improve your breath? MD: I exercise sports and tai chi outdoors. Fortunately, I've never smoked. I'm very careful about my sleep and my diet. YC: What do think- of the ney becoming more and more trendy nowadays ? MD: There are many reasons for that in the West. "The Mesnevi" ranks first among the most translated books in North America for the last three years. Mevlana's pivotal theme is love. Indeed, nothing else in our life is as real as love. Besides, as communication facilities get better, people get to know more about each other's culture and music. I think-music in the near future will mostly be futuristic, tribal and ethnic. As for Turkey, people got interested in the ney again, as a result of everything returning to its real essence. Westernisation was misunderstood in Turkey and caused a lost of memory. We are now starting to recall our past. YC: Mevlana is your idol, @,hile it's something like neg, age or positive thought for the Westem people. One vear Dalai Lama becomes popular and the next year it's Khalil Gibran or Mevlana... MD: I was a person lucky to be born in Turkey, to have been in the Galata Dervish Lodge and to have a tutor like Niyazi Sayin who is one of the leading dervishes. Sufism teaches a person how to become a human being and how to behave. The most crucial thing I got from Mevlana was having a better understanding of myself. Life is so full of corrupt things that we all have to turn to our inner selves. Sufism is a technique that enables this. Westem people approach Sufism rather pragmatically. Still, there's nothing bad in its becoming more and more trendv. Trends also have a function of introducing and spreading things. This way, you get the opportunity of addressing greater masses of people, some of which become lasting. For instance, viewing whirling dervishes in Madonna's clip will arouse the attention on this matter. YC: You're wondering in different worlds ... at one time you're a DJ at some underground venue and at some other time you make Sufi music... MD: I don't discriminate between places. What's important is sharing the moment. I'm nothing but a mirror both as a DJ, or when playing the ney. What matters most is, having people capture their own images on the mirror. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "You Spin me 'round like a record" Techno-Sufi Arkin Allen opens the door to enlightement at the Jazz Fest'main outdoor event By Rupert Bottenberg Many Montrealers will be familiar with the name Arkin Allen, a Turkish-born, locally based DJ/producer whose sh and lightly mystical efforts have graced CDs from Interchill and dancefloors at Sona's Free Bamboo Butte His alter ego, taking the Sufi name Mercan Dede, may not be so well known among partygoers. That'11 , though, at the Jazz Fest's main event, the free outdoor Turkish jam session with Groove Alla Turca lending jazz and Turkish classical), the Istanbul Oriental Ensemble (working the Gypsy angle) and Allen's o Dede Trio and Sacred Dance Group. The last sees Allen joined not only by shit-hot Canadian electric violinist Hugh Marsh and local percussion whiz Scott "Bucket Boy" Russell, hut by a trio of genuine whirling dervishes, acolytes of Sufism, that most abstract of Islamic mysticism. Following the main event, which ends at 1 1 pm., the doors of the Spectrum will be opened for something of an extension of the event, as the Montreal Tribal Trio--Marsh, Russell, and Allen trading the ney flute for decks-present a contemporary e-dance variation on the theme, until right around last call. Both events, of course, are absolutely free of charge. Mirror sat down with Allen in his Old Montreal loft to discuss how Medieval Moslem philosophy and space digital dance culture can be connected. Mirror : The whirling dervishes are one of the most iconic images of Islam. Show anyone a picture of the spinning in the tall hats and hoop skirts, and they'11 recognize them as dervishes. Ask what the dervishes are doing, though, and most people, at least in Western society, wouldn't know. They don't understand that they're moving the trance state, the crossing of the threshold. Allen: Precisely. Actually, before I started to play any Sufl instrument, I was raised to be a dervish--this 16, 17 years ago. And I grew up part of that belief, if you want to call it that. W: Was this from your family? A : No, I come from a working-class family. But when I started university in Turkey, 1 was very influenced by teachings of Rumi, when 1 read the books he'd written in the 13th century. He founded that specific Sufi sect. Strangely enough, or maybe not that strangely, his books are the most translated Eastern books in North America now. There's an incredible number of followers, literally millions are reading him right now. The reason is simple--what he said was timeless and abstract, not really attached to a specific time or location. So it connects to people from very different cultures, geographies and beliefs. Also, Sufism is a very wide word, because there are many Sufis, from Iran, Pakistan or wherever, with different characteristics. But the specific Sufism from which the whirling dervishes originated, which is Turkish, is as simple as this. We believe that all the answers are in our hearts, inside us. Nobody can give us the answers, but they can help us develop this discipline, a certain structure to reach ourselves. Each person can develop this by their own means. What goes around... M: Tell me specifically what function the whirling serves. AA: Physically speaking, everything turns--the world, the galaxies, the electrons of the atoms we're made of. So spinning means being in harmony with the whole physical environment. But it's a thing that, unless you've experienced, you can't really get what it's about. Almost like a dream--you know how sometimes you remember a dream, but the moment you try to tell it to someone else, it sounds flat and two dimensional? Or like a drug experience— when you're stoned, everything is three-dimensional and you're the center of everything. But again, try to tell someone else later-- M: They'11 say you were just stoned. AA: Exactly. The whirling is like that. When you whirl, you are at first at the centre of everything, but then eventually everything starts to melt away, physically. The colours of the room, for instance, turn to cream and then white. And sound also changes. After a certain time, you don't really remember who you are, or remember anything, but right in that moment, you really get that sense of how we are simply a part of what you can call the universe. 1 prefer to call it the puzzle, and in it, every single piece is equally important. It's then that you understand what Rumi meant by "unifying." That's why there's no separation. We don't, for example, like titles. Rumi offered a very good analogy for that--from a single match, you light a candle. From that candle, you light another. Then you look around the room and there are thousands of candles burning. Rumi says that, in essence, there is only one flame. What you see as separate is 'm fact from one source. That's related to the way that, when I started DJ-ing-especially internationally, five or six years ago-I'd often see the dance floor full of people from different races and backgrounds, gays and straights, blacks, whites, Orientals, rich people and suburban kids, all found on one dance floor. Right in that moment, they could feel that energy. ... Comes around M: So enlightement, in a way, can be found on the dancefloor. AA: The two things connected for me. On one side, I grew up as a Sufi musician and dervish, and on the other, I'd started DJing. Then I realized that, looking at the turntable, it was exactly like the skirt of the whirling dervish. 1 realized that the materials and instruments are just a bridge. What you do with them is what gives the meaning. It doesn't matter whether you use an electronic computer or the reed flute called a ney. What really matters is what you want to say, The moment the two are connected, we begin to progress. In the last 11 months, I've done a tour of more than 400,000 kilometres--that's quite long. It really reminded of the dervishes because I have one of my feet in Montreal, and with the other I travel around the world. Even if you repeat the same thing, when you come back to the same spot, you are not the same person. You have progressed, gone in a different direction. That's what I want to reflect with the specific place, of about a half-hour long, I've composed for the Jazz Festival's main event. We never rehearse, because I don't consider myself a musician in that sense. We just create a vibe, which works like a mirror for the audience. We just try to show them themselves, rather than tell them anything. If you can create, even for half a second, a meditative space that people can feel someth' about themselves in, then I consider it successful. M: This is what 1 was thinking--I didn't want to completely separate Arkin Allen, the electronic musician, and Mercan Dede, the Sufi musician. There's a lot of connection between the two. But if 1 was to try to explain the difference, I would say that Mercan Dede is the artist seeking out an evolution in traditional Sufi musical element, while Arkin Allen is the artist trying to show a glimpse of that. You can't explain the transcendental experience, and the vast teachings of Rumi, on a dancefloor with a turntable. You can, however, give people a glimpse of that moment, when the hairs stand up your arm and there's a rush 'm your chest, when you feel that sense of wonder. It's so exciting yet so calm at the same time. It only lasts a moment, and then the lights go on, you're thirsty, your friends are talking to you and the moment is over. When people are first exposed to that moment, whether through dance , mountain climbing, whatever--there's many ways to reach it--the door is open to seek it out again. AA: That's so correct. The word "dervish," a Persian word, actually means "footstep," the last step at the threshold. In a way, as you said, Arkin Allen is that. To give people a glimpse of that door, to let them know it's there. If you want to go inside that door, it simply opens to yourself--there's no mosque or temple, we don't believe in that sort of thing. Really, the door opens to yourself, who you are and what your aim is. We believe those things are universal. It doesn't matter who you are or what you are, in essence we all carry the same powerful feeling. I believe that, big time. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- close the window to go back if you came from review of Mercan’s CD or go to the review at http://psychevanhetfolk.homestead.com/Turkprogreview1.html