Yuh Yuh

While the music of Paris-based sensations Haïdouti Orkestar dances along the path forged by their Ottoman ancestors, the band's gait is determinedly unique. Yuh Yuh finds traditional Turkish and Balkan influences skillfully wed with modern ideas; sultry-voiced singer Zéki Ayad Çölas evokes transcendental Alevi Cem ceremonies in the gentle ‘Harf’yle’, while recent recruit Edika Gunduz sings in the Kurmanji language in an ode to Kurdish culture.

A musical rerouting of the journey of Osman I (founder of the Ottoman dynasty) towards the west adds further detail to Haïdouti's already rich tapestry of sounds, with Çölas singing in French for the first time on ‘Cocorico’, a moody waltz that finds accordionist Jasko Ramic on particularly good form. Also in French is the lively ‘A l’Est’, where Toma Feterman's emphatically delivered lyrics and an energetic brass backing call the listener to dance, an unexpected segue after the slower, melancholic, ‘Sen Olasin Urgup’. There's an elegant combination of Romani and Russian romantic sounds in French trombonist Alon Peylet's inventive reworking of Tchaikovsky's ‘June: Barcarolle’ titled ‘Junska Igra’, while the title track, a stomping rallying call against political corruption and oppression, adds an undercurrent of anger to an album that swings from joy to sorrow, hope to frustration, and East to West in a masterful, emotional and cultural journey. Highly recommended.