"The Ritual of Music: The Freedom of Creation" KARA (A.K.A. ELECTRO DERVISHES )
- AWL MAG
- May 9, 2024
- 4 min read
In integrating different genres in your music to create a unique style, what challenges did you face in the process of incorporating this diversity and how did you overcome them?
I can describe my process of combining different genres in my works like this:
Whatever comes to me in that moment, the initial form of the melody, rhythm, and story intertwining. This source serves as a starting point for me in the production-composition process. The feelings and intuitive expressions of experiences take the forefront. Analyzing accumulation is quite difficult. I surrender completely to the depth of genetic memory and the unknown in music. Sometimes it's about lyrics, sometimes about sounds. I express what cannot be conveyed with words through sounds. Dreams cannot be fully expressed with words. The words of dreams become sounds and transform into visuals. Then, I give birth by blending these dream-visions with what I have been nourished with in this life. Sometimes they don't blend. Stories are important to me. In short, this is how the birth occurs. Naturalness is also very important to me! My endless journey is in search of the pure, the raw, the unadulterated. This journey that keeps me alive enables me to create music that comes entirely from within me. If you cannot enter a trance state while making music, know that there is a conflict between your heart and mind. This state of ecstasy creates a limbo. There are no signs of distress, anxiety; you are in a pure state. In other words, you are neither here nor elsewhere. You take the gift from your inner universe and present it to reality, which we call truth. There is no "mine" or "yours," the gift belongs to everything and nothing. I am quite sure that this is not a job, it's a ritual. By allowing music to flow through you with complete freedom, sharing your unique ritual with everyone there. You feel that you are vibrating with everything in the universe all at once. This is the starting point of "creating" music for me! If it is like this, then I naturally start creating. And then, I believe that I must reflect the love I feel for humanity and the nature I live in, to the universe that needs the light. The return of the gift! Everything is not just about sound, lyrics, and visuals. Emotions, feelings become light, like water and food, a necessity for all spiritual beings. This radiance with pure love, this sharing, forms the basis of mysticism. This is called love. This love is what I need to complete my music! The work part starts after these stages. Transforming the essence, reality, and the labor of production back. For what? To be able to create again. Because it's a cycle.
All movement sounds dependent on the wind and water flow, breath, air pressure noises, birds and all anima lia (animals) I can hear, cosmos, my dreams, my loves, children, all plantae (flowers, plants, trees, and single-celled organisms), city noises, all natural human sounds (non-verbal), musical tones, all natural events I witness, all sounds at the moment of contact between everything - at that exact moment - and my unique nature. I take a great artist as an example.
2. As the founder of Electro Dervishes, what dynamics and collaboration methods do you prioritize when working with group members? Could you tell us a bit about the harmony and creativity process within the group?
Electro Dervishes has completed its journey as a "music group." The name was too much for a music group, more of a surprise idea as a music genre. Let's see when it will happen. This year, I will share my personal works under the name "Kara A.K.A Electro Dervishes."
3. In your music, you blend Sufi music, shamanic rhythms, and electronic sounds. Drawing inspiration from these different musical influences, which cultural and musical roots do you draw from, and how do you integrate these influences into your own style?
My paternal side is from Altai.. And I have been researching Sufism for 25 years and walking the path of dervishes. But I do not define myself as either a shaman or a Sufi. I am an artist, a ritualistic collagist. I have lived and obtained these. And I have a long history of musicological education and research.
I can give the same answer to this question as I did to the first one.
4. You also incorporate traditional Anatolian folk dance forms in your music. While drawing inspiration from these traditional forms, how do you interpret the musical heritage that spans from the past to the present, and how do you create a synthesis with the musical trends of the modern era?
I have worked on Anatolian folk dances and music for many years. I consider them very valuable. Electronic music becomes a universal language when tradition is blended with technology in a revolutionary way for this century (not EDM, see: İlhan Mimaroğlu). And by experimenting with unconventional approaches outside the usual popular music genres, I create my originality. It's a tremendously enjoyable, exploratory, and exciting process.
5. Your lyrics in music often have a structure that does not rely on choruses and is filled with repetitions. When writing lyrics and composing, what themes and emotions do you emphasize, and do you have any messages you want to convey to the listeners?
I usually have existential and awareness-inducing lyrics. Or love lyrics, I always feel like someone else is saying the love poems I write. Chorus is a method used in popular music forms. It's not a genre I particularly listen to. I don't think I make popular music. I can say that breaking the mold is inherent in original music.
6. Could you give us a hint about your future musical projects and collaborations? What kind of new works and surprises can listeners expect from you?
There are 4 tracks to be released. The first one was released in April.. With Alp Bekoğlu and virtuoso Ali Deniz Kardelen. We are making joint tracks with dear Majnoon. We also released a performance video with the master Turgut. The others will come in May and June.. We have new arrangements with our dear friends Ali Deniz Kardelen and Ömercan Sakar. These tracks will be released in May and June. This year, we are working with the record company Rist (Radio Istanbul). I am very pleased with this enjoyable production process.
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