RUSAN FILIZTEK

Kurdish artist Ruşan Filiztek presents his new album Exils (From Mesopotamia to Andalusia). A virtuoso instrumentalist and accomplished singer, Ruşan pursues his path as an Eastern troubadour, blending his hypnotic melodies with the multiple sounds of the Mediterranean, from Andalusian flamenco to Mesopotamian maqâm!

As a player of the saz, the long-necked lute from Asia Minor, singer and musicologist, Ruşan Filiztek has long journeyed through musical realms, from his native Anatolia to the Istanbul of his adolescence, then through Iraq and Syria, whose music he explored, before arriving in Europe via Andalusia and heading for Paris. “This album could only have been made where all these musicians are gathered together,” he says: for Exils unfolds a weave of friendships and complicities that extends beyond the contours of a ‘standard’ band – Flamenco guitarist François Aria, percussionist Juan Manuel Cortes, Celtic flautist Sylvain Barou, Armenian duduk player Artyom Minasyan, viola player Marie-Suzanne de Loye, Greek singer Dafné Kritharas, flamenco singer Cécile Evrot, jazz bassists Leila Soldevila and Emrah Kaptan.

On the album’s first track Çoxê Mino (My Coat), Ruşan Filiztek invites two flamenco musicians, François Aria and Juan Manuel Cortes, on a joyous celebration of Kurdish heritage, singing in kurmandji the praises of a traditional costume emblematic of the nomads of yesteryear. There are other traditional Kurdish songs arranged by Ruşan Filiztek and François Aria, as well as original compositions by Ruşan, including Exils, Nomades and Neighbours, evocative instrumentals that serve as the common thread of this journey. The album closes with Zyryab, a double tribute to Paco de Lucia, who composed this track, and to the legendary IX^e century musician Ziryab born in Kurdistan, who gave the oud its fifth string and revolutionized both music and the desire for music, before dying in Cordoba.

We hear electro-acoustic saz, keyboard layers and electric bass, as if to convey that the journey doesn’t end at the landscapes crossed till here but remains worthwhile only if it ventures further afield. “I was born in 1990, around the same time as house music. I love the mystery of electric and electronic sounds…”. But it also recalls a childhood memory, when Kurdish wedding musicians would play in the streets of Istanbul, plugging their saz into house music drum machines.

One day, Ruşan Filiztek will explore electronic music further, as well as the European chamber orchestra, and also jazz, just as he crossed paths with music from Brittany on his previous album, Sans Souci, or worked with Jordi Savall, Catalan master of Baroque and Renaissance music, on his Orpheus project, which mobilized diaspora musicians. Ruşan Filiztek can only exist in this flow of sharing, discovering, traveling, and generosity.