Etkin Çekin's Berlin-based cassette label Kinship Records just restocked on Anadol's third album "Uzun Havalar" and it is pure lo-fi bliss. Named after an old-fashioned Turkish automobile brand, Anadol is the nom de plume of an instrumental synth-pop project by equally Berlin-based artist, DJ and keyboard player Gözen Atila.
"Uzun Havalar" is a term used to describe traditional Turkish folk music (halk müziği), but listening to the album's seven, intoxicatingly drawn-out tracks, the title could also be understood as a series of extended moments, musical molasses, viscous sounds transcending time and space. "Recorded and mixed in 2015 the album is built around three long synth tracks referring to the improvised unmetric folk songs 'uzun hava' in Middle Eastern music. You can hear drummers laughing and playing guitars, composers howling, screaming, record collectors playing synths, actors mumbling and tuning in to the geography of Anadol's synth compositions," the description reads.
There is no pigeonholing the boundary-pushing, instrumental experimentations of Anadol, rich in playful curiosity, humorous hues and cosmic capacity, combining influences from Turkish folk, French movies, surf rock, jazz and so much more. You can buy/stream "Uzun Havalar" in full on Bandcamp or listen to her previous 2017-released album "Hatıralar" via Ankara's Inverted Spectrum Records. "Uzun Havalar" is also (finally) set to see a vinyl release on May 17th via Pingipung/Kinship.