Golden Horn Music CDs, produced by Ates Temeltas
To order visit www.goldenhorn.com or click on the covers for a direct link

BALKAN JOURNEYS
CLOSE TO HOME
Toronto, Ontario is a fairly un-Balkan place,but there is a historical Balkan presence in Canada. For the past hundred years cities like Toronto and the forests and mines of Northern Ontario have been the destination for thousands of immigrants from the strife torn Balkan region.s. And that's where this recording begins, with a group of Balkan folk music lovers, some music students and community folk musicians who began to sing and play together.
 

AHENK
In this recording, Derya Türkan and Murat Aydemir, two of the most talented Classical Turkish Musicians of their generation, present a colorful collection of well-known works of virtuoso Turkish composers.Their talent for performing classical forms of Turkish Music, as well as the improvisation of different Turkish Music modes within these compositions has made this album one of the most important recordings made in the last decade.
 

LINGO LINGO
Turkish clarinet king Barbaros Erköse can stir the soul with just a single hand drummer for backing. Such is the evocative power of the magical loop-de-loops of melody and rhythm that form the basis of his contemporary urban Gypsy music. And when Serdar Karacay joins in on oud, the power of Erköse's sinuous reed-work increases several fold.Give Erköse and his ensemble a chance, and you'll be introduced to a passionate, utterly rocking music that careens from melancholy to joy in the space of a couple bars.
 

CANTEMIR:
Music in Istanbul & Ottoman Europe around 1700
Our recorded recital celebrates the wondrous life of Prince Dimitrie Cantemir (1673-1723), a royal Moldavian linguist-encyclopaedist-composer who through curious fate spent 22 years as a diplomatic guest of the Ottoman court. While Prince Cantemir’s continuous presence in the orbit of four successive ruling Sultans must have furthered a harmonious relationship between the Ottoman Court and his father, the Moldavian Voivode, Cantemir himself clearly preferred music to politics, and was sufficiently gifted to play his way to fame as the greatest of classical Turkish musicians.
 

LETTER FROM ISTANBUL: Two Friends
This album draws on a carefully compiled repertoire comprised of traditional Turkish and Greek folk tunes, zeybeks, sirtos and compositions by individual artists. Unpretentious and passionate songs embellished with emotionally charged improvisations present the sophisticated melding of tradition and playing of a professional caliber, the dynamic creativity of two master musicians;
Sokratis Sinopoulos from Greece,
Derya Turkan from Turkey.
 

MASTERWORKS OF ITRI & MERAGI
Musicians: Ihsan Özgen (vocals & tanbur), Ahmet Kaya (ney), Neva Özgen (kemençe), M. Refik Kaya (rebab, kudüm, bendir), Yelda Özgen (violoncello)
Compositions of early classical masters
Hace Abdulkadir Meragi 1350? -1435 and Buhurizade Mustafa Efendi (Itri) 1640?-1712?
 

REMEMBRANCES OF OTTOMAN COMPOSERS & IMPROVISATIONS
Ihsan Özgen (kemenche)
Mercan Dede (percussion)
Compositions and improvisations from Meragi to the present day
 

LEGACY
Neva Ozgen, kemence
with I'hsan Ozgen, tanbur & rebab
Kemence player Neva Ozgen's debut album makes history with the first solo instrumental recording by a female artist in the Turkish classical music world.
Also accompanied by her father I'hsan, the album includes classical compositions from as early as Nai Osman Dede, 1652-1730 to Cevdet Caglar, 1900 -1988
 

TROUBADOUR: MESUT ÖZGEN
Folk inspired classical guitar music with influences from Turkey, America ,Paraguay, Spain, Hungary, and India