Customer Reviews

Infinite Beginning: Devotional Songs of Turkey

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This CD is filled with deeply devotional and inspired mystical music of the Sufis. The music orginates primarily from ancient Anatolia (Turkey) although there is one in the makam Kurdi from Eastern Turkistan. The CD contains worship type songs called, 'zikr'. The liner notes explain these are based on the "remembrance of the Friend". Most of the tracks are in the musical form called, "ilahis", which are hymns, based on poems set to music ... in the Alevi-Bektashi they are called "nefes". The music is intense, spiritual, and personal. It possesses awesome beauty and powerful splendor. There are magnificnet vibrational frequencies that resonate with the heart and soul of the listener.

Latif Bolat plays the baglama (long-necked flute) with heartfelt technical precision and soulful artistic expression, along with his sincere and strong vocals. His piano solos are spine-tingling and splendidly masterful. The passion and aesthetic beauty of this CD is difficult to express in words. In some tracks there are ethereal violin strings that capture the listener ... unaware ... mystical, haunting, awe-inspiring. Emam adds the all important percussion which contains a primeval, trance-inducing element. The different makams included on this CD are: "neveser", "nihavend', "kurdi", and "ussak-karcigar". There are different medleys of songs included in each makam. The music flows with the voice of Latif Bolat and his magnificent lute-playing. This is indeed infinite mystical worship music ... at its finest. Erika Borsos (erikab93)

I had the good fortune to catch a live performance by Latif Bolat when he visited my school last year. I picked up a copy of Infinite Beginning after the show and it immediately became one of my favorite albums. The vocals are superb, and the music (mainly saz, oud, and tabla) is brilliantly composed. Simply put, it's a beautiful album.

I saw latif's concert here last year and he is amazing!!
He has a soothing voice and what i really like is that he is still very rooted to his culture.... He brings poetry a new light especially to people like me who nver really enjoy poetry.
His music is so therapeutic and is a MUST buy for the music enthusiast more like mid eastern music.

This album is perhaps his best work, with long trance-inducing instrumental interludes and mesmerizing vocal technique. Turkish never sounded so beautiful. You will not stop playing this CD once you own it.

This recording consists of five excellent tracks that showcase Latif Bolat's musical talents (his baglama/saz, his voice, his drum). Each track is quite lengthy (shortest one is over seven minutes), but each actually consists of several sub-songs/notes/melodies that together weave an inspiring, meditative atmosphere. By combining folk makams (or melodic scales), devotional lyrics from Yunus Emre and Rumi, and his classically-trained voice, Latif Bolat has produced a record that belongs on the shelf of all lovers of music, be it classified as Turkish, devotional, or simply amazing.