Sound of Istanbul

Even if you lived in Turkey or traveled to Turkey for vacation or business, I'm hoping this music will pleasantly surprise and entertain you. There is so much ethnic and social diversity in the world. Freedom, social justice and human rights aren’t enough to bring happiness to people. Every social or ethnic community has a need to love and be loved. What I say sounds like Bob Marley's ideas but it isn't all that different from the principles of Kemal Ataturk (founder of modern Turkey) or words of Sufi poet Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi. Ideas and beliefs that come with good intentions can't always stand the test of time. Ideas must continue to evolve. Like Ghandi did, people must always try and earn appreciation and justice from the world through peace. This podcast aims to build a bridge of music that will bring the east and the west closer by creating cross-cultural dialog, new interest communities and new opportunities for positive change. I believe we need a globally integrated culture. It’s called One World. Naturally and eventually the world culture will unite. With the help of the internet, it will happen quickly if we are able to preserve net neutrality. Net neutrality means that the internet delivers my little podcast with the same priority as the media coming from rich corporations. I am not against media companies but loosing net neutrality may create monopolies and may suppress global voices. You may find it funny that I have such high hopes for this little podcast project. I am enjoying the rewarding experience of hearing from people from all over the world. I recommend that everyone should go and try to enjoy something new from another civilization. For example you could try a book, a movie, ethnic food and of course music. We are having fun during this musical journey. My Anatolian music mix often takes an ethnic-electronic route. I mix belly-dance, classical, Sufi/meditation, jazz and pop. I also play traditional acoustic music. Just as we work hard at integrating music, we need to preserve and improve traditional styles. Every type of music has a special place on this mosaic. Music, like all things within the universe, is always evolving. I am please to report that Turkey now produces music in many genres, styles and languages including Arabic, Armenian, Azeri, English, Pontic/Laz (Black Sea region), Greek, Tajik and Kurdish etc. Current Turkish music genres are too many to list and unfortunately I do not have enough music in my library to play many of the genres. In collaboration with western musicians, progressive Turkish artists are doing an excellent job integrating western styles with ethnic sounds. Popular western musicians are also taking interest in middle-eastern and Asian fusion and we are starting to see newer examples of that (i.e. Sting, Blackeyed Peas, Pussycat Dolls, Shakira, Norah Jones etc.) This podcast was downloaded 30,000 times during the first six months starting late 2006. As of early 2007, there were...