Merve Salgar, Anil Eraslan

*50 copies limited edition. 2025 stock* Merve Salgar and Anil Eraslan are two musicians of Turkish origin who share their lives between Strasbourg, Berlin and Istanbul. Their musical practices are situated at the edge between traditional and improvised music. Merve works as well on new forms of compositions for ancient instruments (notably with SAVT or her duo with Zoe Hesselton) as with a more classical repertoire (Karmanota). As for Anil, his career as a cellist leads him from Anatolian music to free music (Fred Frith / Tom Malmendier) which flirts with the contemporary. He is currently working on a documentary about the Istanbul improv scene.

Velvele can be listened to as an uninterrupted journey. It begins with an expository unison in which the listener will be able to acclimatize to the long time of the album. Then the variations start. The instruments accompany each other then give way to each other, hiccuping and fading out in concert. On the last part of side A, the musicians stare at each other like two sides of the same coin : seemingly discordant but fundamentally united.

The whole play of Merve Salgar and Anil Eraslan is to create this crystalline bridge where the listener melts in the contrast between simultaneity and agitation, between orthodox forms and contemporary contents. The recording divides the sound space between the two instruments and the musicians will not cease to awaken and put in resonance this liminal space. Alternately, the plucked strings of the tanbur respond to the pizzicati of the cello and then embrace the movements of archers, summoning harmonics, resonances and struck strings.