Freitag 27.07. | Winzer Krems - Hofbühne | 19:00
AYNUR | Turkey
Aynur Dogan | vocals, baglama
Neriman Günes Akalin | violin
Cemil Kocgün | tembur, baglama
Yasin Boyraz | kaval
Baris Boyraz | percussion, E-bass
Yilmaz Yesilyurt | percussion
“Kurdish girls, rise and let your voices be heard. We are the roses of Kurdistan. We stand up against ignorance. Where is our home, where is liberty? Where are the orphans’ mothers?” goes Aynur’s probably most well-known song “Keçe Kurdan”.
Aynur Dogan was born in 1975 in the Turkish province of Tunceli. After her studies of music in Istanbul she recorded her first CD “Seyir” in 2002. It was the 2004 album “Keçe Kurdan” which gained her international reputation due to its vocal power of expression, refined and danceable arrangements between pop and traditional music, as well as Aynur’s own lyrics and some created by the Kurdish integration icon Şiwan Perwer who also composed the cover song for her. In the same year the renowned magazine Folk Roots and in 2005 also the London Times brought Aynur’s portrait—she sang part of the soundtrack to the film Crossing the Bridge – The Sound of Istanbul” by Fatih Akin. At the same time, “Keçe Kurdan” was phased out Turkish record stores after a regional court had decided Aynur would motivate women “to go into the mountains and engage in separatism”. The sentence was retracted in September 2005. As a further comment on the lot of the Kurdish people Aynur released a remix of “Keçe Kurdan” on her next CD “Nûpel” (comeback). “The fact that I sing my songs in Kurdish language is a statement itself”, she says. Yet, above all Aynur is convinced of the artistic power behind her language and her music. In the end, there doesn’t seem to be a way around political issues for any Kurdish artist.