Gaye Su Akyol
Singer, songwriter, composer and producer Gaye Su Akyol combines the opposites of traditional Anatolian music, classical Turkish music, psychedelia, surf rock and post-punk with her futuristic approach. Gaye Su Akyol, who released her debut album Develerle Yaşıyorum (I Live with Camels) in 2014, defines her music as »universal in concept, local in spirit«.
In 2016, she released her first international album Hologram İmparatorluğu (Hologram Empire) with German record label Glitterbeat and Istanbul-based Dunganga Records, which she founded together with Ali Güçlü Şimşek, and expanded her audience with numerous concerts and festival appearances in Turkey, Europe, North America, the Middle and Far East. The album received rave reviews from The New York Times, Pitchfork, The Observer, The Guardian, The Wire and many other major media outlets. The lyrics and music of her third album, İstikrarlı Hayal Hakikattir, released in 2018, which she describes as »a practice of dreaming«, are her own; as with her first two albums, she took on the roles of producer in the production, arrangement and recording phases and art director in the visual world.
In 2016, she released her first international album Hologram İmparatorluğu (Hologram Empire) with German record label Glitterbeat and Istanbul-based Dunganga Records, which she founded together with Ali Güçlü Şimşek, and expanded her audience with numerous concerts and festival appearances in Turkey, Europe, North America, the Middle and Far East. The album received rave reviews from The New York Times, Pitchfork, The Observer, The Guardian, The Wire and many other major media outlets. The lyrics and music of her third album, İstikrarlı Hayal Hakikattir, released in 2018, which she describes as »a practice of dreaming«, are her own; as with her first two albums, she took on the roles of producer in the production, arrangement and recording phases and art director in the visual world.
This album was the first time a Turkish musician was featured on the cover of »Songlines«, one of the UK's most important music magazines, and was awarded the »Best Artist« award in 2019. With the same album, she stayed at number 1 on the Transglobal World Music Chart Europe list for months. The album combines a trio of guitar, bass and drums with percussion and rich instrumentation, Anatolian music and classical Turkish music scales with subgenres of rock such as psychedelic, surf, punk and electronic infrastructures.
Gaye Su Akyol is responsible for the music and staging of the pop-psychedelic space opera consistent fantasy is reality as part of the festival for brand new music theater at the Komische Oper Berlin Schall&Rausch.