Kar Yagar

Derya Yildirim & Grup Şimşek - which translates as Ocean Lightning and the Thunderbolts - is a trul international band built around the considerable talents of Turkish singer and saz player Derya Yildirim. The band includes Italian Andrea Piro, German Graham Mushnik and French Antonin Voyant from L'Orchestre du Montplaisant, and British drummer Greta Eacott from G-Bop Orchestra. Yildirim's voice is flexible and impassioned, soaring over an intense instrumental background. There's prominent electric organ and synth, often in improvised dialogue with the electric saz, propelled by Eacott's percussions.

The repertoire includes original compositions in a folk vein and traditional songs. There's the spacey ‘Űç Kiz Bir Ana’; ‘Ey Şahin Bakişlim’, an Alevi traditional; ‘Dom Dom Kurşunu’, by the legendary aşik Mahzuni Şerif and the epic ‘Hekimoğlu’. The ingredients are not exactly novel - Turkish folk and psychedelia, strange bedfellows at first look, but now joined as a timehonoured genre - but here they're mixed in a concept of outstanding quality, honed through collective work. It's a hugely enjoyable heartfelt tribute to Anatolian folk music and poetry in contemporary sounds.