Bands & Collaborations

The band Urumchi was co-founded by Saadet Türköz and the late saxophonist Werner Ludi. Saadet’ Türköz‘ originality is matched by the brilliant Swiss veterans of new music playing accordion (Hans Hassler), cello (Alfred Zimmerlin) and drums/gongs (Fredy Studer). From unashamed lyricism through shaman-like incantations to controlled chaos – you’’ve never heard anything like this before.

Nils Wogram accompanies Saadet Türköz‘ improvisations with basslinds, sounds, grooves, chords on the trombone and sometimes melodica or overtone singing. It is mostly free improvised music with some traditional songs. Mostly calm and contempative.

Saadet Türköz and cellist-improviser Martin Schütz have been playing together for years, under the title «song dreaming», a kind of «folklore imaginaire». While in free improvisation Saadet Türköz repeatedly draws on her rich fund of archaic songs from the region from which she originates, Schütz improvises freely and abstractly in the here and now. The spirit inherent in this music gives the abstract the power of the archaic and the archaic the complexity of the contemporary. A kind of «simulacres» are created: dream images in which times, motifs and myths collide instead of following one another in epochs. Since a little while the fantastic drummer Lionel Friedli is the third voice in songdreaming. A deep and ecstatic musical celebration!

The music of CUSH flows freely between traditional singing, improvised music and jazz. Saadet Türköz comes from Istanbul, has kasach forefathers and combines in a unique way turkish and kasach songs with contemporary improvisation. Uwe Oberg uses the piano as an orchestral instrument and goes with preparations to faraway soundscapes. Paul Lovens is one of the most influential drummers of the free music-scene.