Aynur

Internationally acclaimed and award-winning singer-composer Aynur is set to captivate audiences once again with her highly anticipated 8th studio album, "RABE” set to release on 1st of March!

She is the outstanding, iconic voice of the Kurdish people. For a quarter of a century, Aynur has intertwined the traditional colours of her homeland, including bardic songs and the ancient and modern poetry of Kurdistan with classical, jazz, and pop from the West. Through contemporary sounds, she opens up Kurdish culture to the whole world.
Growing up with the songs and poems of Kurdish bards, Aynur moved to Istanbul as a teenager, studying and singing the lute Bağlama. From the beginning of her career, Aynur has set new standards in Kurdish and Turkish music, blending traditional instruments and strings with gripping popular arrangements. At the core is her touching, stirring, powerful, and equally melancholic voice, singing in Kurdish dialects and also in Turkish. World-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma invited her to his famous Silk Road Ensemble. In 2017, she received the "Master of Mediterranean Music Award" from the Berklee Mediterranean Music Institute, and in 2021, she received the "Artist Award" at the World Music Expo (WOMEX). Filmmaker Fatih Akın portrayed her in his film "Crossing The Bridge“. She appears in an unforgettable scene in Morgan Neville's documentary about Yo-Yo Ma.

In the last ten years, Aynur has further developed her artistic spectrum, refining the art of writing her own songs. With her eighth album "Rabe" Aynur intertwines many threads of her more than 20-year career. Nearly 20 musicians contribute to this work, recorded in Cologne and Catalonia. Aynur arranged with jazz pianist Franz von Chossy, whose spatial sound design played a significant role in the predecessor "Hedûr" (2019). With von Chossy, Patrick Goraguer on drums, and Chris Jennings on bass, a magnificent rhythm section has come together in countless concerts. Snarky Puppy's leader Michael League plays electric guitar himself and mixes the strings, while Wu Man, the most famous Chinese pipa virtuoso, is featured as a guest on two tracks. The result is a multifaceted sound landscape, exuding folklore flair, featuring meditative interludes and jazzy improvisations, as well as gripping, funky moments. The music and lyrics come from tradition, as well as from Aynur herself and icons of Kurdish, Alevi, and Yazidi culture such as Şâh Hatâî, Pir Sultan Abdal, Evdalê Zeynikê, Şeroyê Biro

In the guise of an exhilarating disco-funk, the single "Rabe Edlayê" tells a gripping story about an unattainable love between the daughter of a nobleman and a penniless farmer's son. Confidently, Aynur presents two fantastic original compositions: Jazzily bouncing drums and luminous strings paint a nighttime scene in "Remembering," and with "Ez U Bi Teva" ("You and I"), she has written an intimate song about a young man ascending into the lonely mountain world to find his beloved. The ballad "Ay Le Gule" compares Kurdistan to a rose of incomparable beauty and intoxicating fragrance. In "Nasil Yar Diyeyim," Aynur showcases her full vocal power with a text by Alevi poet Pir Sultan Abdal, and "Dervis Baba" also revolves around the healing power of Alevi-Bektashi spirituality.
"Rabe" represents a pinnacle in Aynur's previous work: With love poetry, spirituality, and unwavering determination for freedom, the album showcases a matured artist who asserts herself as the greatest Kurdish voice of the 21st century.