Murat Ses & Agri Dagi Efsanesi (Legend of the Mounth Ararat) :
"Cicekleri" / "Fasulye Disli Adam" are 2 instrumentals :
strange moog mith elements of psych, eastern and absurdity.
"Murat Ses is still the most active person among the pioneers of the Moog synhesizer. (Born in Bayrakli,Izmir in 1946) The first instrument that he played was a Harmonium which had micro-tonal properties. In the Fall of 1963 he formed his teenager group, "Meteorlar" (Meteors) with his friend Aziz Azmet.They covered the songs of Animals, Dave Clark Five, Del Shannon etc.In 1967 Aziz and Murat joined Siluetler, then comes again covers,but this time with better musicians.In 1968 he formed "Mogollar" and created his minimal,melodic and transforming fusion view from the traditional music to the music which he heard from the west and became also one of the formers of the postmodern age taste.He won Charles Cross Academy Prize of the French Ministry of Culture with the L.P named "Danses et rthymes de la Turquois aujourdhui" After returning Turkey he favored several Tukish bands with his Hammond organ.In 1976 he made his first solo single inwhich he used Moog Soniq synthesizer.It was also the last thing that he did in Turkey.The single was named as "Bean Teeth Man".It had an inspiration of Eric Von Daniken's books that seek relations with human civilization with probability of a help from other civilizations in the cosmos.But Ses uses another argument from a folkloric resource. He displays a strange dance that is performed in Yunt Mountain of Kütahya which inspires us an unknown world in our cosmos. This use of synthesizer prepared a new career of Murat Ses as an Austrian-Turkish new music artist,this time a modulating digital synthesizer master who can reflect the sound,bending and other properties of traditional instruments like ney,mey,sipsi,kanun in a synthesizer.More over he does what he thinks for his music called Electric Levantine... The digital but anologue touch part of Murat Ses music can be overviewed with the parameter of his trilogy which he planned to finish till the year 2000...The first part of the trilogy is 1990 album Automaton dedicated to Cezari, the inventor of the first mechanical robot ; the second is 1995 album Binfen, dedicated to unknown heroes of aviation history including Lagari, Hazerfan Ahmet Celebi, Firnas and the third is named Culduz which is dedicated to Piri Reis the great Turkish-Ottoman Navigator... Culduz means "star" which helps navigators find their directions. The last part of the trilogy perfectly summarises the route of Ses between the periods and the soundscapes of Automaton and Binfen...It has the rthymic booms of Automaton and the touch of minimalism of some type of western touch...Therefore it is between west and east interpretation of minimal and human touch of Murat Ses music." Munimonde
Murat started in Amateur group times with Meteorlar early 60's, followed by participation in Siluetler and Mogollar (late 60's early 70's) with psychedelic Anatolian sound and Anadolu Pop; and the legendary group Agri Dagi Efsanesi and short but veryproductive periods of co-work with Baris Manco, Edip Akbayram (Garip) et al. He released also various solo singles with keyboard improvisations / experiments.
I heard a very interesting home recording (bootleg LP ?) of Murat Ses with Nejat Teksoy (singer from Mavi Isiklar). This contains some covers (Uriah Heep,..) and jamming like the incredible "Play with fire" (Rolling Stones) with wonderful organ and another 15 minutes Hammond organ ? improvisation with saz ? and electric guitar solo accompany. This seems to be part of the project under the name Agri Dagi Efsanesi. Highly recommended !
Murat decided to leave Turkey because of the big crisis in terms of Art and Politics in Turkey. After his studies of econmy he became a doctor in Economic and Social Sciences (with an interesting Master's thesis about the Interaction between Economic and Social Structures with Reference to Turkey (1299-1979) and a Doctorate on a specific trade) he remained there ever since. His later work is very different. More like soft ethno electronic music. It is supposed to create new sounds New based on microtonal properties and synthesizers (Electric Levantine) and this since the 90's. Then Murat evolved to more electronica/world dancey sounds since early 2000's. He published four albums so far : Automaton, Binfen, Culduz,Automaton Square.
I heard (beside the singles with Mogollar,Siluetler and the Agri Dagi Efsanesi project) his latest album "Culduz". This album has been reviewed on the Review Page. As soon as his new album will be out I'll review that one too.
His music there are nice sounds with synths, completely different from main Turkish synth sounds. Links to reviews and soundfiles are included.
Discography of early Murat Ses cooperations :
* There must be 2 singles with METEORLAR : Cover songs from Del Shannon,
Dave Clark Five etc. Webpage in English here
* with SILUETLER an LP;
* with MOGOLLAR first LP in France, rereleased in Turkey
Singles with early MOGOLLAR :
Kaleden Kaleye Þahin Uçurdum / Ilgaz
Eastern Love / Artýk Çok Geç
Mektup / Lazy John
Everlasting Love / Hard work
Sessiz Gemi / Ýndim Havuz Baþýna
Dað ve Çocuk / Ýmece
Aðlama / Yalnýzlýðýn Acýklý Güldürüsü
Garip Çoban / Berkay Oyun Havasý
Ternek / Haliç'te Güneþin Batýþý
Behind the Dark / Madýmak / Lorke
Hitchin / Hamsi
Alageyik Destaný / Moðol Halayý
Çýðrýk / Sýla
* with AGRI DAGI EFSANESI:
It's allright/
deli gonul neylersin/dusenin dostu olmaz
* with EDIP AKBAYRAM :
Garip / Kaslarin Karasina
* with BARIS MANCO/Mogollar:
Ýþte Hendek Ýþte Deve / Katip Arzuhalim Yaz Yare Böyle
Binboganýn Kýzý
* with BARIS MANCO/Kurtalan Ekspres:
Ölum allahin emri/Gamzedeyim deva bulmam
Lambaya puf de/Kalk gidelim Kuheylan
Gonul dagi/Hey koca topcu genc Osman
Nazar eyle Nazar eyle (gel yanima pazar eyle)/Gulme ha gulme
Bir bahar aksami/Estergon kalesi
Thank you, Murat Ses for helping me out with this list.
