In 2010, guitarist and composer Marc Sinan embarked on an unusual journey. The route went from the Black Sea, the homeland of his grandparents, to the border of Armenia.

For weeks he and his fellow travelers find and film traditional musicians, try to penetrate their art and perhaps find the last musical documents of a different present. As everywhere, traditional music is a dying art. The tradition of oral tradition is breaking down. The former Asiklar Kahvesis, clubs of the »singer-songwriters«, are now simple tea houses. Rarely do you come across young musicians like the kemençe player Mesut Kurt from Trabzon or the singer Asiye Göl from Ordu. Very few of them make a living from music, but they play with great ease and virtuosity. Their music bears witness to restlessness and temperament and, in its diversity, bears the traces of Anatolia’s cultural and ethnic wealth. In HASRETİM, the musical finds and video recordings of Marc Sinan’s journey meet his own contemporary music.

The revival ten years after the premiere is imperative in times of escalating geopolitical crises and wars in the region. Even more than in 2010, ethnic minorities and opposition forces in Turkey are under pressure. HASRETİM remains an important artistic plea for the strength of cultural diversity and the connecting power of music and art.

The new version of HASRETİM is for an international ensemble of eight musicians. Awarded the special prize “World Horizon” by the German UNESCO Commission in 2011.

An event as part of the “Studio Bosporus” festival in cooperation with the SPREEHALLE Berlin