Olcay Bayir - Rüya

The Guardian 60

(Arc Music)
Bayir’s second album adds her own compositions and feels uplifting and exquisite

With her second album, Olcay Bayir proves that she is one of the finest, most intriguing singers on the British world music scene, with a style that reflects her complex history. She was born in the troubled Kurdish region of southern Turkey, a member of the Alevi minority religious group and the daughter of an ashik, a singer and musician who performs at religious and social ceremonies. In 2000, when she was 16, her life changed dramatically. Her father moved his family to London “for a better life”, and Bayir, who initially spoke no English, studied for a music degree and trained as a classical soprano. Then she began to blend her new skills with the Anatolian folk tradition, helped by members of London’s cosmopolitan music community. Her 2014 debut Neva (“Harmony”) included folk songs in five languages, while the new Rüya (“Dream”) is even bolder, including her own compositions for the first time, in a set thoughtfully produced and arranged by Giuliano Modarelli and Al MacSween from that eclectic jazz-world collective Kefaya. It begins with a song by a celebrated ashik, the late Veysel Şatiroğlu, with Bayir’s cool, soulful voice matched against Modarelli’s gently driving guitar work, and saz lute played by her brother. Elsewhere, MacSween provides lilting piano backing for a song by the Kurdish musical hero Şivan Perwer, there’s rousing violin on the traditional Turkish dance tune Dolama Dolamayi, and gloriously mournful duduk woodwind on the lament Elif. But the best tracks are those written by Bayir, from the pained piano-backed love song Yar Dedi to the gently exquisite and uplifting title track. Her lyrics are influenced by Sufi poetry, and in Turkish, with translations provided.

• Rüya is released on 29 March