Leyla

Adir Jan brings us into a world of queer Kurdish cosmic love songs, on an album whose energy and innovation are hard to resist. On ‘Aşq û Evîn’, Adir Jan sings in Zaza, a Kurdish language, of a future where every kind of loving is accepted and ‘forgiveness is liberating,’ all to a danceable groove. The lyrics jump from general themes of universal love and tolerance to the specific (his problems with a selfish Greek lover in ‘Janaki Mou’). The overall effect is a lot of fun, mixed with a certain urgency – Berlin-based Adir Jan is clearly on a mission. He calls his music ‘cosmopolitan Kurdesque;’ it's a hugely enjoyable, knowing mix of styles where Kurdish melodies and instruments (tanbur, daf) meet upbeat rock, with elements of Western art music (moody cello) thrown in.

Kurdish music has often been repressed and as such regularly deals with common themes of resistance; this album carries on that tradition, with the added element of sexual liberation. One imagines a great live atmosphere, a festival winner, where everyone dances together deliriously, proclaiming universal love.