Guitarist and composer Marc Sinan is the son of a Turkish-Armenian mother and a German father. His work Hasretim ('My Longing') is a multi-media exploration of musical roots, and a musical search for cultural identity.
In 2009, Marc Sinan embarked on an unusual journey, its route leading from the Black Sea coast, where his grandparents lived, to the Armenian border. En route he located and filmed traditional musicians, players whose craft is dying today, capturing a music that speaks of restlessness and temperament, and bears the footprints of Anatolia's cultural and ethnic diversity. Sinan's musical findings are integrated into his own contemporary music for mixed ensemble (orchestrated and arranged by Andrea Molino) with Turkish and Armenian guests. Premiered as a "musical installation for orchestra and video documents", Hasretim received an award from the German UNESCO Commission in 2011.
The present CD/DVD package incorporates two full-length (audio and DVD) performances of Hasretim, plus the field recordings made by Marc Sinan and Dresdner Sinfoniker artistic director Markus Rindt on their journey, which open a window on a fascinating musical world. The CD was recorded live at the Schleswig Holstein Musikfestival in July 2011 while the DVD performance is the premiere at the Festspielhaus Hellerau from the previous October.
Sinan's earlier album for ECM, Fasil, likewise was an imaginative fusion of musical ideas from different cultures.
