Traces of Âşık

Ulaş Özdemir is a Turkish singer and saz (lute) player, who has appeared on several discs in Songlines over the years. He's also a member of Forabandit, with the French musician Sam Karpienia. But on this solo album he is exclusively performing the aşık repertoire of the title. The aşıks are Turkey's troubadours, singing powerful songs, sometimes spiritual, sometimes challenging.
Obviously the lyrics are important and in the booklet they are helpfully written in the original Turkish with French and English translations. Breath, fire, love, sorrow are frequent symbols and themes. Most of the lyrics are taken from 19th- and 20th-century poems, with a couple of original songs by Özdemir. But, words aside, the fire in the saz playing is also crucial. It's clearly a large saz with a pretty deep sound and, like the best aşıks, Özdemir creates a powerful rhythmic and melodic backing to his songs.