Rough Guide To The Music Of Turkey (2003)

"There's been very little exploration of Turkish music in the West, and on the basis of this you have to hope there'll be a lot more in the future. This disc covers the waterfront, from the pop sounds of Sezen Aksu and Ebru Gündes to the tortuous (yet playful) time signatures of Laco Tayfa & Hüsnü Senlendirici and the brooding sound of the Barbaros Erköse Ensemble, with Erköse, one of the country's leading musicians and a stunning clarinetist, at the helm. It's a carefully sequenced disc, moving slowly from straightforward Turkish pop -- which is no copy of Western sounds -- through gypsy music to Sufi sounds. Truth to tell, there's not a bad track on here, and compiler Dan Rosenberg has done an excellent job of illustrating how the different styles of music in Turkey have influenced and bled into each other, and the way both the Middle East and Europe have shaped it. A fascinating journey through an underexposed culture." (Allmusic)