You might think of Xavier Thomas' most recent album, d bruit & istanbul, as a musical travelogue. For Thomas, who records adventurous electronic music under the name D bruit, the record is as much a portrait of Istanbuls diverse, colorful music scene as it is a recollection of a crazy two-week trip to the city on the Bosphorus.
Every time I needed to meet someone in the city, I'd be discovering the city at the same time, Thomas recalls. It was always a journey, an inspiration. That's why I called [the album] d bruit & istanbul - because the city was a collaborator. Every collaboration was a little journey, an exchange, and a way of fitting worlds together.
On commission from Belgium's Europalia Arts Festival, Thomas - who is originally from the Brittany province of France, and currently resides in Brussels - took two weeks to traverse Istanbul, arriving on the doorsteps of both veteran and younger performers, encouraging them to play whatever music felt natural while he rolled the tape. He took those recordings and worked them into the album.
D bruit & istanbul spans droney psychedelia ( Duman, featuring saz master Murat Ertel), rustic folk ( Dalga, featuring Romani clarinetist C neyt Sepet i), and murky percussion ( Galata, featuring eccentric jazz fusionist Okay Temiz) all under Thomas' brooding, crackling electronic umbrella.
For the KACIYORUM video, director Yaniv De Ridder manipulated found footage using analog techniques. | Yaniv De Ridder
The track Kaciyorum is a collaboration with Gaye Su Akyol, a singer from the city's younger generation who channels Turkey's rebellious folk-rock tradition. Director Yaniv De Ridder made the music video for the song using old-school analog techniques, recording found footage off a computer monitor with a film camera and then manipulating that footage with an analog mixer.
When De Ridder heard the track for the first time, I could totally feel and imagine the colors and the vibe for it, he says. The lyrics [talk about] running in Istanbul, and I had pretty cool footage of a person running, which became the key scene in the music video.
D bruit & Alsarah - Jibal Alnuba - . , from their 2013 album Aljawal. | Soundway Records
Like De Ridder's video, Thomas' music has a vintage, 70s inspired sound. He also has a globally-attuned ear, which in the past has bent toward whatever the occasion demands. On the marvelous Aljawal album, for instance, he collaborated with Sudanese-American singer Alsarah for a sound both crisp and lively; on the Afrobeat-inspired From the Horizon, the mood is ecstatic and hyper-rhythmic.
On a recent visit to Los Angeles, Thomas stopped by the studio at dublab and DJ'd a selection of the Turkish music that inspires him. Below, stream the set and read Thomas' thoughts on a few of the tracks.
D bruit & istanbul Tracklist:
Selda Ba can - nce nce Bir Kar Ya ar
Okay Temiz - Denizalt R zgarlar
Ay e G zin Sokullu & Baha Boduro lu - Olamam Ki
Arif Sa - Lambaya P f De
Ne e Karab cek - ayelinden teye/Yali Yali
Mustafa zkent - Bur ak Tarlas
zdemir Erdo an - Gurbet
Mo ollar - Hitchin
Ar ivplak - Volga Nehri / Coban Yildizi
D bruit feat. Gaye Su Akyol - KACIYORUM
Selda Ba can - nce nce Bir Kar Ya ar
In the 70s, Selda was a very politically engaged singer, and she did a lot of protest songs - she's a very strong woman, Thomas says. I didn't collaborate with her, unfortunately - she's too big I think. But I love her music.
In fact, it was Ba can's music that largely sparked Thomas' foray into Turkish music. [U.K. label] Finders Keepers did a reissue of Selda' [Ba can's 1976 album] and I got into that. It's folk and it can be a bit psychedelic, and there's a bit of synthesizer. This record was really an inspiration, and I needed to hear more straight away.
Also an inspiration to Thomas is Ba can's uncompromising activism. There's a famous song where she tells journalists to write about what's happening in the country, [saying] don't shut your mouth.' There's a parallel with what's happening now in Istanbul, with freedom of speech. The city needs a young Selda to activate people, to bring people together with one voice.
Denizalt R zgarlar - Denizalt R zgarlar
Okay Temiz, a Turkish jazz fusion percussionist who once collaborated with American trumpeter Don Cherry, was the hardest collaborator for Thomas to pin down on his recording trip to Istanbul. While I was there, I tried to convince him to be on the record - which he knew about, but he pretended he didn't, Thomas recalls. I had to go back three times to his studio and convince him. He just made me prove myself and he tested my motivation. Now, I visit him every time [I go to Istanbul]. It was a very special encounter.
Thomas considers Temiz's contributions to d bruit & istanbul to be more like field recordings rather than studio creations. I didn't want to influence him too much, he says. I've tried to do that before, and people just try to play something they think you want. I just want their style, as deep as it can be.
Of Denizalt R zgarlar , Thomas says: I really like synthetic sounds, and there's a bit of that here, and a bit of fusion. Temiz plays the cu ca, this Brazilian percussive instrument. I just like the sound of it.
Xavier Thomas, AKA D bruit, spent two weeks in Istanbul recording local musicians. | ICI
Arif Sa - Lambaya P f De
One of the key sounds on d bruit & istanbul is the saz - a guitar-like stringed instrument that features prominently in both traditional and alternative music in Turkey. For the record, Thomas collaborated with saz player Murat Ertel, founder of Istanbul rock group Baba Zula.
The saz has a magical sound, says Thomas. The wa
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You might think of Xavier Thomas' most recent album, d bruit & istanbul, as a musical travelogue. For Thomas, who records adventurous electronic music under the name D bruit, the record is as much a portrait of Istanbuls diverse, colorful music scene as it is a recollection of a crazy two-week trip to the city on the Bosphorus.
