[Sold Out] Gaye Su Akyol (TR)

Wildly acclaimed Istanbul-based artist Gaye Su Akyol returns to Romania and will perform for the first time in Bucharest – February 15 at Control Club.

Lauded for her startling, innovative mix of Turkish psychedelia and folk song, surf music and ʼ90s Western rock, a global sweet spot where Anatolian music heroine Selda Bağcan rubbed shoulders with Kurt Cobain, Gaye Su Akyol is currently touring in support of her fourth LP, Anadolu Ejderi (2022).

Everything on Anadolu Ejderi – the titles translates as “Anatolian Dragon” – breathes fire. It takes chances, the lyrics offer an exploration of politics in today’s Turkey. The personal is very much part of that.

“In a political climate where a woman’s commitment to her passion, to falling in love, to her sexual identity is revolutionary enough, she is deeply passionate and able to express her love freely,” Akyol notes. “It would have been easy to sit in the comfort zone of the past.”

Instead, she strode over all those barriers. While it can hark back to the beauty of Istanbul before the coups that changed the place, when the country shifted, Anadolu Ejderi is a record that’s filled with possibilities and dives into the unexpected. It’s there in the dancing joy of slipping a disco section into the title track or the stark beauty of the acoustic openings to “Yaram Derin Derin Kanar” and “Biz Ne Zaman Düşman Olduk,” which arrive as shocks to the system. If you thought you knew what to expect in Gaye Su Akyol’s music, things have changed.

“This is the most freeing thing I’ve done,” she observes. “The lyrics, the songs, this is music I need to hear. It’s a manifesto: I’m back with rock’n’roll, fused with post-punk, stoner rock, Turkish psychedelia, blood sweat and tears, all crowded with herds of wild horses. This is a time mission. It takes you where you want to go.”