Customer Reviews

Sufi Music of Turkey

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I don't know if this is the best, but this is a recording that just takes the top of my head off. The beautiful breathy tones of the ney seem to swirl around and around. There are pieces that are slow and almost seem to make time stop. The duets are subtle -the two neys seemlessly blending and complementing each other.I also enjoy the hypnotic and propulsive selections with the frame drum accompaniment. If you like quiet meditative music with great heart give this a listen.

A beautiful and masterful album played by two leading ney masters. This album entres you into a pure world of contemplation and sufism with the humane sound of the ney, and with some of the most beautiful classical compositions for this instrument. Recommended for those who want to feel the magic and beautifulness of Middle Eastern sufi music!

I wanted to hear more of Kudsi Erguner's playing of the ney flute after his appearance at Australia's Melbourne Arts Festival in October 2008. Although I hadn't heard him before, his playing of the ney has a quality which is both intense, yet somehow calming. My only previous brush with Sufism is confined to reading Rumi's poems, so I am don't claim to appreciate the musical origins or basis within Sufi mysticism in either this type of poetry or music. That said, the CD was a very enjoyable introduction to melodies and rhythms from a musical tradition which it seems is deserving of greater attention by Western audiences.

Having heard Kudsi Erguner in his 1992 French album "La danse cosmique des derviches tourneurs," in which he performed as part of an ensemble, I am pleased to have found his duet of neys with his brother Süleyman. Recently, I listened to a ney duet in Persian music; the instruments are clasped differently in the mouth and the timbre is crisper. Here, in the Turkish Mevlevi lip style, the sound is breathy, full of air. It haunts and penetrates. A frame drum is the only other instrument. The slow dance takes its time in capturing the listener but when achieved, the sound and rhythm enters the marrow. There is something special about a duet of flutes, whether two Hindustani bansuris or shenhais or, here, neys. Sometimes acting in harmony or as a supporting drone or providing emphasis, the second instrument helps create a larger effect. This album is unique, and even if you have other Dervich albums, where the ney dominates, these improvisations on established modes, taken from both Arabic maqams and Persian dastghah, are worth your attention. The third track, Zikr (dhikr in transliterated Arabic), is particularly powerful. My caveat is that the listerner may tire of the sound toward the end of the 67-minute album.