Lisnaholic

This thread is an invitation to comment on the album Kef, which is the latest FAIR album club winner. Has anyone been listening to it ? What did you make of it ?

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

misspoptart

Hey Lisna, I've only listed to two songs on the album, "Sepastia" and "Laz Bar." I didn't love it -- I like more melodic stuff, myself. The guys playing are obviously very talented and the sound is lovely, I wise it could have grabbed me a bit more, though.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Lisnaholic

Thanks for checking Kef out and responding, misspoptart - as you can see you`re the first to do so. Those two tracks are a bit noisy I guess.There are a couple of softer tracks on the album, I think but unfortunately I don`t have access to the album right now; my computer is being fixed.

Are you really from Instanbul ? I`ve always imagined that as being a beautiful, exotic city, but maybe you see it differently.

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

misspoptart

I'm not from Istanbul, but I have been living here for 2 years. It is indeed a beautiful, exotic city, with much more to offer than people realize.

When you get the album, I'd love to check it out further. How did you hear about Kef?

Lisnaholic

Ok, misspoptart, I won`t forget, when my regular computer comes back !

I just came across Kef on the internet. As I remember, it was voted "World Album Of The Month" somewhere; maybe on Songlines, if you know that website.

Thanks to stp, here`s some other Armenian music that you might enjoy; it`s a lot more melodic, and a lot more ethnic, than Aram Bajakian :-

__________________
"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

misspoptart

Lévon Minassian and Armand Amar's track sounds very familiar to traditional Turkish music also, but there is something much more sad about it. It gives me a very deeply melancholy feeling.

A few of my friends just got back from a trip to Yerevan. They said it was fantastic and that I absolutely had to go. Unfortunately, there are very few flights from Istanbul (you can imagine why), and the busses are not super safe/comfortable. But I'm hoping to plan a trip to both Georgia and Armenia this spring.

Have you been?

Lisnaholic

No, the closest I`ve been to that part of the world has been Greece and Israel, but I have read (and forgotten!) quite a lot about Asia Minor - there just seems to be so much to like; beautiful scenery, a unique mix of architecture and layer upon layer of history.
So if you make it to Georgia and Armenia, it`ll be like you`re living out a dream of mine, but of course you need to be careful too. I`m curious to know how you get by with language, isn`t it a huge problem ?

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

misspoptart

It can be, but I have always been attracted to foreign language (since falling in love with Japan around age 14), and I'm used to being "in the dark" about what is being said. After I went to university, I chanced upon meeting a bunch of Romanians and they became my best friends, and I would spend hours (often intoxicated) trying to understand the conversation, until, eventually, I just could. I can't contribute, but I developed a 6th sense for understanding body language, facial expressions, and just the dynamics of a conversation, without the words. In fact, it's kinda like how a baby learns language.

I studied and became fluent in Spanish, Arabic & Japanese before I graduated, and now I'm here in Turkey and the Turkish is coming to me quickly. I can have a conversation with basically anybody, but it's never all that deep. In time...

A surprising amount of people do speak English in this part of the world, and the ones that don't are incredibly friendly all the same. "Getting by" isn't really a problem...the real issues start when they simply give too much!

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Frownland

I just wrote up my thoughts on the album, but I exited the tab when I meant to check my email . I'll write them up again soon, but overall I thought that the album was slightly above average, hence my vote for good.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

Lisnaholic

Wow, that`s a impressive resume, misspoptart. It makes you sound very adventurous, and very patient - two important characteristics for explorers, I suspect.
I, on the other hand, am much more of an armchair traveller; I remember reading about a lone backpacker who decided to swim the Bosphorus, and got arrested by the Turkish police when he struggled out of the water on the far side. In a different travel book, a guy spent a cold and dreary time quizzing people in Gori, Georgia about their attitude to Gori`s most famous son - Joseph Stalin. On both occassions I thought, "Yeah, I`d rather read about this than do it myself." But if you try either of these things, don`t fail to let us know, ok ?

^ Yeah, that`s so annoying ! Hope you won`t be disheartened for long - and thanks, btw, for nominating a new album for the next FAIR club poll. Looks like you`ve found us something very unusual !

__________________
"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953