Esmerine – Dalmak

LP, Released in 2013 on Constellation Records

Style: Chamber Rock, Turkish Folk Music, Post-Rock

Vibes: Sombre, Suspenseful, Determined, Adventure, Melancholy, Mysterious, Epic, Exploratory, Mournful, Focused, Contemplative, Moody

Musical Qualities: Modal, Lush, Instrumental, Percussive, Orchestral, Atmospheric

Instrumentation: Cello, Marimba, Drums, Tenor Banjo, Saz, Glockenspiel, Violin, Cornet, Upright Bass, Electric Bass, Electric Guitar, Meh, Barama, Darbuka, Erbane, Bendir, Music Box, Voice

Whilst in Istanbul for an artist residency, the adventurous Montreal chamber rock group recorded Dalmak with an ensemble of Turkish musicians, augmenting their core sound of cello, marimba, and drums with the saz, darbuka, bendir and several other instruments used in Turkish and Arabic folk music. Epic, modal themes emerge from watery beds of minimalistic polyrhythms and suspenseful string arrangments. While often sombre, mournful or foreboding, the musi seems driven by a collective sense of spiritual determination and hope.

Press Release
“Dalmak is a Turkish verb with many connotations: to contemplate, to be absorbed in, to dive into, to bathe in, to rush into, to plummet. As a title for Esmerine’s new album, “dalmak” refers in a literal sense to immersion in the culture and music of Istanbul but also appropriately evokes the range of music that emerged from this immersion: a collection of songs that shift between meditative pulsing and enveloping restraint to headlong flights into rhythm and groove. With Dalmak, Esmerine presents some of its most richly minimal and intimate music alongside what is surely its most explosive, energized and ornate. The album is a tour-de-force of cross-cultural music-making, emotive but unsentimental, deeply textured and detailed but never precious, superbly guided throughout by a balance of DIY rock, new folk and modern classical/contemporary sensibilities.”