Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek

In the organizer's words:

Derya Yıldırım sings a song that she knows from her grandmother - an Anatolian folk classic: "Hop Bico", which means "Hop around, Bico". Derya's grandmother interpreted the song in her own way, Derya's version is similar - and yet completely different. This is no coincidence, but a concept, because Derya is convinced that if you play an old folk song, you have to add something of your own to it, "otherwise you might as well put on the old record".

As a musical archive of collective experiences, the new album "Yarın Yoksa" comprises original compositions and features three traditional Anatolian folk songs. Derya Yıldırım gives her voice to the cultural
voice to her family's cultural heritage, a folk song heritage that was there yesterday and will be there for a long time to come. She carefully and respectfully transfers the songs into the present, colors them psychedelically and underlays them with hypnotic vocals. In this way, something new is added to the existing, which contains the experiences of generations, including those of today's society.

Born and raised in Hamburg, Derya began her musical journey at a young age at home, playing traditional Anatolian folk songs with her family. Her father
encouraged her to learn various instruments - starting with the bağlama, a seven-stringed Turkish lute. Derya also played the piano, ud, guitar and saxophone from an early age
saxophone and became a versatile multi-instrumentalist. However, she has remained particularly attached to the bağlama - "there's just something very magical about it, it's my companion, it tells my story and carries my voice".

Derya condenses all these influences into her own musical language, which draws on the Anatolian sound world and is both contemporary and universal. During a theater project in 2014, she met the French musicians Graham Mushnik (keyboards) and Antonin Voyant (guitar, flute) from Catapulte Records and founded the band Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek with them. In 2021, they are joined by drummer Helen Wells, who comes from the DIY and psychedelic scene in Cape Town, South Africa.

The new album "Yarın Yoksa" by Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek captures this soul and gives space to its poetry and resistance - both central themes in the Anatolian musical tradition: "Some of these poems were written hundreds of years ago, but they are still relevant. This music is important because it is still the voice of the people, the minority and the oppressed". After self-producing several albums, they signed to New York label Big Crown Records in 2024 and collaborated with Grammy award-winning producer Leon Michels (El Michels Affair) for "Yarın Yoksa".