Vor einem Monat war der Regisseur Fatih Akin noch Mitglied der Jury bei den Filmfestspielen von Cannes. Jetzt startet sein eigener Streifen in den Kinos, diesmal kein Spielfilm a la »Gegen die Wand«, sondern eine musikalische Liebeserklärung an die brodelnde Stadt Istanbul. Und wie der Name Crossing the Bridge schon andeutet, geht’s um Brückenschläge, aber auch um die Verbindung zwischen Ost und West, zwischen Asien und Europa. Stefan Müller stellt den Film in der Machtdose am Donnerstag, 16. Juni vor. Ausserdem gibts Musik aus Kuba vom Madeira Limpia aus dem Soundtrack von Paraiso.
Interview with Mercan Dede, Moersfestival Germany, 15th of May 2005.
Mercan Dede has just finished an amazing concert at the Moers Jazz Festival in the area of the german »Ruhrgebiet«. Short after the show he found time to talk to Musicjournalist and Radiohost Stefan Mueller from
Frankfurt. It’s the weekend where Fatih Akin’s great documentary» a href=“http://www.crossingthebridge.de“>Crossing The Bridge — The Sound of Istanbul« had it’s premiere at the filmfestival of cannes.
Stefan: Let’s first talk about Fatih’s movie…
Mercan: Oh, brilliant. What do you think about it — you tell me…!
Stefan: It’s really great!! Especially I love the parts with Selim Sesler and Aynur…
Mercan: Oh yes. Aynur is an amazing singer! Thats shot in a haman actually, I like it very much. The whole film is magical. In one layer it’s about music. But underneath that it’s about turkey and cultural references. I think Fatih is one of the most creative dirctors of his generation. His perpective about life is really wide open and very sincere. So i am happy to be a part of it. I like to see it again!
Stefan: Can you tell us more about the dancers part, about Mira?
Mercan: When Fatih came to Istanbul, i was rehearsing with my whirling-dervish-dancer. And he came to the place and could not believe it. And he said: is it okay if i film this?! And I said: yeah, of course! Then he started to film everything. The more he was connected to this, we realized, that we have something in common. I am living in canada for almost 16 years now and he lives in germany. But we always come back to
Turkey. And the turning of the dancer in a way symbolizes that. One of your feat is in the center, the other feat you turn back. You always come back to where it is. We were both inspired by this culture and we were
keep coming back. And I think thats the main reason, he wants that turning to be part of that. Not only the spinning and turning of the dervishes as part of our culture. But also personally it reflects what we are passing
through.
Stefan: Is there any criticism from religous people about your combination of sufi-tradition with electronic music on stage?
Mercan: At the beginning there was much more. And I’m sure, it will be always because in a way it’s a very controversial thing to them, mixing something sacred with electronic music. And then having a woman, female
dervish – instead of male dervishes. But more and more people realize that we are honest. We believe what we do and the race doesn’t matter. Whenever somebody askes a question, i say that the essence of sufism is about acceptance. It doesn’t matter if someone is white, black, muslim or jew or gay or straight. We are all human beings and we share that. That the most important part. And if you believe that, you cannot really judge someone. Rumi says that the temple, the holy place, is your heart.
Stefan: Where did you find your really young musicians like Ismail Darici, Hüseyin Ceylan and Aykut Sütoglu?
Mercan: I always look for young musicians, because one of my missions is really to give them the opportunity, which I myself haven’t had. I come from a poor family. We didn’t have money to buy instruments. I made my first flute out of a water-plastic-pipe. I want young peope as my audience. Because I’m really hopefully for the young generation more than our generation. This three musicians are a very good example of that. When I met them, they where like 13 years old. As we travelled around they started to realize that they are brilliant musicians. They started to get confidence and if they become succesful worldwide that is a very good example for others.
Stefan: Can you tell us a little bit more specific about the three guys?
Mercan: I knew the father of the 16 year old clarinetplayer Aykut Sütoglu and he told me that his son is really shy and when i met him first, he didn’t talk. He was so shy… I asked him: why don’t we play some music?!
When he started to play, i understood: every single thing in his heart was coming out from his instrument. And it was magical! He has never been in any airport or plane. I asked him: would you come with me to New York?!? He thought I was kidding! But then we went to New York and it was magical for him, when he was starting to play at Joe’s Pub in New York. The next day the New York Times said: ‚He is the Don Cherry of Turkey‘. The other young guy’s uncle used to play in my band, he is a legendary percussion player. Thame thing: first Ismail was so shy and didn’t feel he was a good player. The third guy, Hüseyin, is 19 years old. He was born in a small town, someone told me about him, that he played music with tea-cups, carbage-bins… I could not believe it, how amazing he is! The most difficult thing to work with them is to convince them, they are good musicians! They had no selfconfidence and felt excluded. One of the common thing about them is: since they don’t have education, people doesn’t tell them how great musicians they can be. Especially in gypsy-culture in Turkey: they are always excluded, they are treated like sidemusicians. Noone really respected them. So we broke this boundaries. Now they are well known in Turkey, they play solo concerts and I feel great about it!
Stefan: Your live concert has more energy then the »Su«-album, which is more on the ambient side…
Mercan: In general, you are 100 percent right. My music is much more chilled, ambient and laid back. My liveperformance is a momentarily thing I look at the audience and based on the energy I chose the performance! Sometimes it’s even more ambient then on my albums. Today we began really slow, but i looked at the energy in the audience, they where responding to the percussion-players so well. And we are inspired by the whirling dervish, she was spinning so fast that we wanted to catch her. The energy was really good!! For each song I have like multitracks, so I can play the ambient-version or block any sound I don’t want.
Stefan: What are your next plans?
Mercan: We are doing a worldwide tour including Spain, Italy, Australia. After the tour I have to start a new album. And i’m the musical director of the Turkish National Modern Dance Group — I write music for them. As
well as for the Izmir International University Olympic Games. There are some filmprojects as well — it will be busy!
Stefan: Whats your opinion on the EU-Discussion?
Mercan: I think it’s a very positive step that Turkey wants to be part of European Union because not only of the economy but also the human rights. They were a lot of changes, i which they would do that not only for being in EU. The last five years the changes were in a good way more than in my lifetime. If Turkey becomes part of the EU there will be benefits for both, Turkey and Europe. Europe will not be christian-club a any more, it will be a perfect example for muslim countries to see that such a country can be democratic. It will creat huge changes away from radical islam to the liberal, open minded society.
Stefan: Whats your connection-points to other artists on the Doublemoon-Label??
Mercan: We became a family. This is the only label in Turkey with a vision, they are independent. They changed the turkish music scene. They knew that they had to create an audience for the music they love. All the musicians are friends and our vision is similar!
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DIE ZEIT 09.06.2005 Nr.24
Jungle World Nummer 23 vom 08. Juni 2005