Once Upon a Time in Mingrelia

Mircan Kaya’s new album ‘Outim’ offers experiments with tradition
Those who follow Mircan Kaya as she grows and develops through each successive album should be happy to hear that her latest work, "Outim," an ode to eastern Black Sea culture and Mingrelia, is one of her most personal albums.
Since releasing her debut album, Kaya has touched the hearts of her fans with her intimate voice, which brings together sadness and an impassioned cry that no one can remain indifferent to. This album is the one in which she touches her own Mingrelian roots musically, and that is why I see it as being so very personal.
"Outim," her fifth album, is the result of two years of work, in which she wrote the stories of the songs, and gathered thoughts and inspiration and recorded in a studio in Bristol. One can say "Outim" is really a precious gift given to Mingrelian language and culture, because the Mingrelian language, an unwritten language, and the Mingrelians, one of the most populous ethnic groups in the eastern Black Sea region, find their voice in its songs. All the songs are composed by Mircan and Limbo, the Bristol-based jazz band that accompanied Mircan on her last two albums. The musical harmony that Mircan and Limbo create is clearly audible on "Outim," as on the previous album, "Numinosum." But, in "Outim," Limbo seems to have truly understood the traditional features of eastern Black Sea music. The rhythmic and harmonic blends Limbo makes, as well as the use of bagpipes in the place of the tulum (bagpipe-like instrument used in the Black Sea region), match well with Mircan's idea of "playing with" the traditional and somehow going beyond it.

Furthermore, it must be recalled that Limbo is an experimental jazz band. Hence, when combined with Mircan's inclination toward experimenting with music, words, melodic phrases and cadences, one can only remark, "No wonder they understand each other and fit in so well together."

The most interesting feature about "Outim," though, is that it is at the same time a book of stories written by Mircan. The stories are included in the album notes. Those stories all reflect "how it feels to be there, to live there among the pear trees and mountains and lush green of the Black Sea forests." It is a typical feature of the singer-songwriter tradition to stand halfway between music and literature, as Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen did. So when Mircan blends stories and music together, the literary part feels like an organic ingredient of the whole album, where Arzu Başaran's paintings, Pelin Özer's haikus and Mircan's handwritten songs and stories are found in perfect harmony. Being such a multidimensional artwork, it sets an example as to what one would miss if one were to simply download it from the Internet.

To take a closer look at this multi-talented songwriter, one should explore her discography. On "Bizim Ninniler" (Our Lullabies), her first album, she sang lullabies from all over Anatolia and had a many fans among babies and mothers. Her second was a türkü (Turkish folk song) album titled "Kül," which was remixed and remastered very recently. On Kül, she sings the türküs in their appropriate regional styles and hearing her sing so close to an authentic performance has been a surprise to many türkü lovers. Then came "Sala," where she sang her own songs in Turkish, English and Mingrelian. From "Numinosum" onward, she started to work with Limbo and it seems "Numinosum," and now "Outim," are the albums that reflect her ability to balance freedom and structure. The brass section, especially Roger Mills' trumpet, renders an interesting interpretation of the abundant use of wind instruments in Black Sea music. It is as if the volume of the cry remains, but its character is changed into a more melancholic tone.

All the tracks on Kaya's latest album were recorded in Bristol, and she did her own musical direction. The third song, "Karmatte Gola Gza," is in the form of a Central Anatolian song in terms of its rhythm and melody, and it continues to resonate in your mind long after you listen to it. "Xopurepes" reflects a more Western form, and songs such as "Mu Phat E Skhiri," throughout which a loud, passionate bagpipe is heard, appeal to enthusiasts of both Black Sea music and Gaelic music.

The most striking feature of Kaya's singing is her ability to adopt many different voices. In other words, it feels as if she sings each song with a different character according to what the genre calls for. When asked about this, she answers that each song has a particular story and emotion and that, throughout each song, she feels those stories as her own and tries to reflect them in her singing. If one were to summarize "Outim," it could be said that it is music that reflects the feeling of being Mingrelian or from the eastern Black Sea in a "Mircanesque" way, just as we feel in her lullaby titled "Mircanişi Nani" (Mircan's Lullaby). (Mircan Kaya, "Outim," September 2008, UCM Productions)

Comes with 144 page booklet