KÖY

AySay is a Danish/Kurdish/Turkish trio led by Luna Bülow Ersahin, who is known for creating pop music drawn from traditional Anatolian folk. She sings and plays saz here and is joined by drummer Aske Døssing Bendixen and guitarist Carl West Hosbond. The trio released their debut Su Akar (‘Water Flows’ in Turkish) in 2021, and now they return with KÖY (Village), this time drawing less on pop-folk mores and more from the smoking bong of classic Anatolian psych rock – as practised today by the likes of Altın Gün. The album is a mix of self-written and traditional folk songs with new lyrics, some inspired by a trip to the village Ersahin’s father emigrated from decades before, in Çorum – a photo of the village appears on the album’s back cover.

It flickers furthest into psych rock territory on tracks like ‘Dam Ütsüne’ and ‘Sen Kimsin’, while ‘Ninni’ is more trip-hop, and ‘Daye’’s musical churn raises it over and above the bouncy electropop of ‘Istanbul’ and ‘Nerelisin’. The 90 seconds of ‘Tu Cergo Melaken’ is Ersahin a capella, and an album highlight, while the instrumental title-track closes the set with layers of rainfall, guitar and saz, thickening into otherworldly atmospheres of memory and melancholy. It marks a fascinating direction for this band to go.