A Thousand Cranes

Çiğdem Aslan is a Turkish-born, Hackney-based singer who first came to my attention when she joined She’Koyokh, the fabulous Balkan klezmer band who enliven London's live music scene. Aslan remains a member of She’Koyokh but on her solo albums – 2013's Mortissa and this follow-up – she shifts direction, remaining in the Balkans but exploring rebetika, the music of Asia Minor that once delighted listeners from Athens to Anatolia. Since Greece's failed invasion of Turkey in 1917 (and the subsequent exchange of populations) rebetika has often been termed ‘the Greek blues’; Aslan, aware its roots are mixed, lets Middle Eastern flavours seep into the music and, in doing so, creates extraordinarily beautiful music. Where her debut album Mortissa was a very capable introduction, here she sounds far more confident, a singer working at the top of her game, and the sublime musicians dig deep to create exquisite textures.

All the while Aslan sings up a storm, equally capable of skipping through a fast tempo on ‘Lingo Lingo Şişeler’ or brooding intensely on ‘Kardiokleftra’. Recorded at Athens’ historic AntArt studio and beautifully packaged, A Thousand Cranes is a magnificent gesture towards proving Greek-Turkish culture is more similar than different; it is also an album of wild, haunted beauty.