Crossing the Bridge The Sound of Istanbul (Eng sub) (Tr Altyazılı)

Cumfukius says: " If you
want to know a civilization..."

"...you should listen to its music."

Music can reveal you
everything about a place.

Istanbul is a bridge from
which 72 people passed

It is a town of contrasts.
Beautiful-ugly, cold-warm

...old-new, poor-rich,
everything is full of contrasts.

Great Istanbul...

Arrogant town, Byzantium!

We were raised listening to
Zeki Mouren and Pink Floyd.

We didn't like any of these and
we found a common place.

There is food here, apart
from this, nothing else.

I can drive you everywhere
you want in Istanbul.

Baxilar, Bakircoi, wherever you want.

I am Alexander Hake and i play bass.

I first came in Istanbul for "Head-On".

I recorded some songs for the movie.

From that time on, this town
and its music are attracting me.

For me, Istanbul was
and remains a mystery.

I decided to capture the
sounds of this city...

...to understand them.

I was well prepared. I travel
carrying a lot of microphones...

computer, programs,
hard discs, everything.

The first band i met was Baba Zula.

It is a psychedelic underground band.

They believe that surroundings
are affecting their music.

They want to perform for a
whole day in a boat in Bosporos.

I have almost become
member of Baba Zula.

In the beginning i only
wanted to record them...

but their bassist left.

As i said, i am a bass player
and i grabbed the chance.

What makes Istanbul
different, is Bosporus.

The sea that joins the two continents.

It was probably created
after the Cataclysm.

Watch this, Retsep.

They filled it with water.

It is a classic drums, just
like the one's in the West...

but instead of the
drum, i use "Darbouka".

I play it like "Darbouka", not like drum.

I use the West rhythm, playing at 9/8

In West music they play
at 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4...

in teams of three, just like 12/8.

These also exist in Turkish music...

but we use other kinds, like 5/8.

This is called "Turkish idiom".

You split it in 9.

Example of Turkish
music, that Turks use...

...and Iranians...

It's not too connected.

Thank you very much.

What more to say about Istanbul?

It belongs to Asia and Europe.

It is East and West. But
this is an advantage.

We want to be Europeans...

but at the same time we
belong to Asia too. It is in us.

We are both, that what i want to believe.

Ahmend already responded.

Whoever tries to be European, is not.

We are Asians. We are nomadic tribe.

We are what we are.
Especially the musicians.

Station Oxygen, 95,9.

We are DJ Yakuza and Murat Onguog Lu.

Our first song is Orient Expressions.

Istanbul 1:26 a.m.

When you are DJ here...

you watch what happens
in South, East, West

...in America, everywhere.

There, things are more limited...

In the USA, the music
store is at the corner...

...stations are local and DJ's
do not have so many options.

But when you live here, you
ears are open to everything...

whether you like it or not.

For us, it is no problem
to go with West or East.

It is not something that you can't bridge.

The fact that they are two
totally different things

and that they do not meet, is nonsense!

It's a historical lie. Something that...

those who have the power are
growing, through the centuries.

Those who say these things...

...just like those in the White House...

...they mention the existence
of a political chasm.

After the dispelling of the Soviet Union...

...they had to find something
else that will cause terror...

...and it took them 6-7 years to find it...

...and they discovered a new enemy.

I don't believe that East
starts from Istanbul...

...and reaches till China.

And that West ranges from
Greece and reaches L.A.

I live in Beig Lou. That's
where everything started.

I believe that i discovered
Istanbul through Beig Lou.

The first thing you meet
, is Instical Cantesi.

The "Highway of Liberty",
which is always full of traffic.

It ranges from Taxim square, up to Tunel.

Slowly i discovered the
life in the side-roads...

all the clubs, discotheques...

...the hot part of the town.

20 years ago...

no one dared to visit Beig Lou...

it wasn't good, neither for families
nor for young people to visit.

We used to say, "We won't
go to eat in Beig Lou".

Now, everybody wants to go there.

Duman, "Smoke", is one
of the rock bands there.

Istanbul is rock.

There are many clubs
that play rock music.

The singer of Duman,
has been in Seattle.

There, he first performed
in Turkish for the first time.

The town lives with raki and
smokes many cigarettes.

The town lives in the
day and loves the night.

Men are swearing, and
the town hits women.

The town sucks our blood,
but it's worth dying for.

Istanbul kisses your hand.

One and a half year ago, the people
were wondering, if Turkish rock exist.

No one wonders anymore.
This is becoming gradually.

These are Replica... from Beig Lou too.

They like gentler noise...

Back from 90's, rock is in the town.

By the end of the decade,
more genres existed.

We live in a very weird town.

We were raised with the same way...

...like the teenagers in West.

We couldn't understand our
local music till we were 19.

Then it was the first time we saw...

...that we were ignoring Turkish music...

and we got interested with it.

Knowing where you live, you feel safety.

We play music this way.

When we understood this...

we were affected mostly by Erkin Korai.

We understood some things
, and he became our idol.

I can say "He opened every door for us"

We found the Turkish music,
and we finally understood it.

What are you saying?

He is our father.

He was one of the first.

Back then, his way of life
was disturbing the people.

They considered him suspicious.

"Don't play this kind of music,
don't offend the people".

Erkin Korai stopped his
daughter from going to school.

Am I the only one suffering...

in the dark of the night?

On my eyes, seaweeds grow.

When I started, I was all alone.

I have been the only one for years,
i still feel like this sometimes.

Now there are new bands
that play good Turkish rock.

They begin to play good things.

I was crying all night long...

...waves hit on me.

On my eyes, seaweeds grow...

in the tempo of loneliness.

From the first time
I encountered difficulties.

Even today, I can't do what I want.

I have always been a
little extreme for Turkey.

Thank you very much!

I hope to see you soon!

I am on the search of
black music in Istanbul.

That's the East coast of Istanbul.

I am going to meet a
serious man and his family.

I am going to say what i
want, for the last time.

I won't hesitate.

Whoever doesn't know himself, is boring.

What i am going to tell
you, is like a strong fist.

If you look at me, you'll
stop being so tough.

My rhythm is always right
and everything is going well.

I help my friends, I'm
knocking down my enemies.

I am like the tornado
and i have a big heart.

I fly like the wind. I am
Seza and i play good music.

The bad technique is lethal.

Look at me and grow a little bit...

My music is rap, try
it and come with me.

But first you have to see Holocaust.

Maybe my lyrics offend
you. I am sorry pal.

Some people that believe
it's Nostradamus...

they need a nightmare like me.

Show me the Holocaust.

That's hip-hop, God punished it with me.

It's a nice little shop.

That's what people like.
Downstairs is a tattoo store.

What's up bro? It's ours. The Engin.

We are making tattoos
to whoever comes here.

You got a customer. Pay attention.

Male rappers are many
more than female.

Women are not interested, or
they are not confident enough.

Or they don't like rap.

Flies go to the rubbish, just
like the American discs.

Is this rap?

We don't want young MC, girls.
Why so many people play bad rap?

A present for you. I'm crashing
everyone I don't like, like a fly.

Every fly dies, your place is in the toilet.

You have 30 seconds to get lost.

My brother is great.
We are mostly friends.

Elif knows this too.
Everybody is looking up to us.

We share everything.

He is the one and only.

Gangsta is something from America.

Gangsta rap and mafia do not exist here.

We are different.

We rap about anything.

"We are gangsta, we kill".
We do nothing like this.

We are the one's we are.

Hip-hop is money, girls and gangsta crap.

I didn't even think of it.

Sound is the same, the
topics are more serious...

...and everybody is interested in them.

My name is Caesar. I
import these wheels.

They cost 15.000.000. I
sell them for 50.000.000.

I am a Turk.

I am now living in USA. I
lived for 2 years in Dubai.

We want to be real. I am leaving!

People say, "Watch them,
they want to be Americans."

They do what they want. That's
what we do in the name of Turkey.

We don't accuse them. They
don't know anything else.

But we will eventually
make up their minds.

I am not going to change.

I don't want to accuse them.

They are like our parents.

My mother always says, watch
your pants. It's a shame.

You have to understand how they think.

The poster says...

"Sadam Hussein servant"

We want to approach the new people...

...to make them breakdance,
to avoid bad habits.

Our days are dangerous.

Pills, drugs and heroin everywhere.

Breakdance fights them.

I listened to hip-hop for the first
time when my son went to school.

I asked him, "What kind of music is this?"

We knew Eric Clapton
and Jimmy Hendrix.

For me, music comes
along with the lyrics.

These people talk nonsense,
that's how i got it.

But i came to understand,
when i heard Turkish hip-hop.

It's better than pop. It is
going to last a long time.

I think that Turkey needs hip-hop music.

Let's make this live.

You will get on stage,
when we will be singing...

...and in the end, we will sing "a capella".

They are three musicians.

Illiterate.

They are 15, 19 and 21 years old.

They take care of their family,
they survive by playing music.

What I am searching for is
the immobility in the centre.

Like in the eye of the cyclone.

You have to find this place...

where you easier go round
rather you stay still.

The time when your
body is going round...

your spirit goes somewhere else.

The black cape that i wear...

...symbolizes our tomb.

I am wearing a "sike".

It's the tombstone.

And the shirt is called "tenoure".

It symbolizes our shroud.

Right hand up, Left hand down.

With the right hand we take from
god, with the left hand we give.

We are supposed to give
what we take from God.

We are in the middle.

If we wanted to include the
whole teaching in one word...

...this would be "tolerance".

There is a big difference,
not concerning the song...

...but in the feelings, in Turkish music...

...more common...

...than in the English music...

Which are the lyrics?

From the song "Her window in the Street"

It's on the first side.

Before i came to Turkey, they
gave me one great cassette.

Old recordings of Turkish
musicians in Bulgaria...

...during 50's and 60's.

I was looking for something like this.

I had the chance to find it...

...when i was performing
with Muamar Ketansiog Lou.

One friend of mine, driveddrove
me from town to town.

...and i was asking the people.

Do you have something like this?
And they were finding for me.

It was weird.

Under the dust...

...there were many discs.

I listened to them, and
thought, "How nice songs!"

These flowers will be
out to the sun again.

I chose some of them, and
i began to work with Selim.

Her window is in the road.

Those who are passing
by, they throw stones.

My darling, with the perfect eyebrows.

Find her, and count your money.

One woman came, from Canada.

She made a long journey...

...and she tried to sing this music.

She told me, we never
appreciated these kind of things.

And you consider them valuable.

We feel shame and happiness.

The nice rhythms are weird...

...but charming too.

There is pain, but happiness in music too.

You may not understand the lyrics...

...but you feel the same,
happiness and pain.

He has got one blue truck.

I am nicely dressed.

I can't hide my happiness.

Find her, and count your money.

I know Selim Sesler for a long time.

We first met each other in "Head-On", we
worked there together for the first time.

We are heading to Kesan. Selims town.

Kesan is West, near the Greek borders.

2/3 of the population are gypsies.

They like "fazel" very much.

They meet in bars and they get drunk.

The music there is very good.

In the past, there was an
Arab in Spain that played Uti.

I think his name was Flamo
Mege or something like this.

He was playing like this.

Everybody started imitating him,
and the name was named this way.

They started playing guitar,
just like he was playing Uti.

This is Uti, that's where all
stringed instruments derive from.

He knows to play very good.

Gypsy music and Turkish
music are very different.

There is no comparison between
them. When you listen to gypsies...

you can't just sit down,
you want to dance.

This is gypsies music.

The traditional Turkish music...

you just listen to it.

When talking about gypsies, I say...

"God should have made
all people gypsies".

The summer in Kesan,
is a wedding period.

Every night, at least one wedding
takes place, somewhere.

Here, the bride is dressed in
black. She farewells her family...

They know nothing...

...because they don't want to know.

They know nothing...

...because they don't want to know.

Look at them, the world is theirs.

If you are not one of them,
they call you a bad guy.

Don't listen to them my friend.

The fact with hard drugs,
is that they are new here.

They just started to appear here.

Stop it.

- How are you Halil?
- I am fine, thanks.

Too low for me.

When you are high, you
forget how you have to live.

That's how it was.

I will tell you about street music.

We were playing in Taxim
square, then in French Institute...

...at Mis Street, Cinema Emek...

and in Galatasarai square, at Ontakoule.

They threw us out of Tunel.

We understood that street music,
matches the European style.

They left us here.

Police doesn't touches us.

It is a game though.

We play in this European game as well.

They don't understand, we want to be
in touch with the rest of the world...

...and we prefer, to play in the street.

They would like us to make
a record, and perform live.

It is of no importance what
you sing or if it has a meaning.

The things that count are the
appearance and the voice.

I believe that music can
change some things.

Music is one of these things
that can change the world.

Street is a neutral zone.

That's why it unites the people.

Whatever your social class is.

That's why it's so important.

The one who takes
drugs, sticks with us...

but our music touches the
one with the laptop too.

We bring them close.

And sometimes we
leave, letting them talk.

They have to face the situation alone.

The black boy asked,
"What happened to us?

Her love is holy for me.

I wish i could hug her for one night.

I would give my life for this.

But there is poverty.

You have to fight it.

It's hard to talk about
the cement feeling.

When Erkin Korai sings
for Agura Roads...

...and sidewalks...

...he idealizes them. Whoever
lives in the streets knows that.

Cement is cement.

When you lie on it, then you really feel it.

The sound of the river
that flows is loud...

...just like the sound of my tears.

You haven't come back for months...

...my love.

You left me suddenly...

...my love.

In Dardanellia, 250000
people were killed.

In Tsanakale, during a small battle.

According to the legend, the
battlefield was a blood lake.

That night, a star was near the moon.

Someone -can't remember his name...

...saw the image of the moon
and the star in the blood.

That's where the
Turkish flag comes from.

It belongs to everyone.

Why should only fascists use it?

To record Ainour, we visited
a 18th century hamam.

It was like a cathedral.

The excellent acoustic
help us very much.

The Kurds matter exists for centuries.

Kurds want to keep their language...

...keep their civilization,
remember their history.

We live in Turkish Republic.

The situation was not easy,
and as a result Kurdish music...

...language and
civilization was forbidden.

A new law decide after the 1980 coup.

...that was forbidding
the music of minorities.

English, French and German
music was allowed...

but music of another
Turkish tribe was forbidden.

We believe that prohibiting
native language is crazy.

Ahmet...

...i admire you...

...even if you are not teacher or judge.

My pain, is god's pain.

Spring rain...

...it's not May, neither April nor March.

I suffer in the chest of God.

10 years ago, i wanted
to go to my country.

I had my army problems solved.

The journey was endless.
Every 50km they checked us.

There was a big sign.

If you love the forest,
you love your country.

I saw it, the water,
and the forest burning.

They burned our homes,
despite we fought...

...for the liberation of the country.

How can they consider us enemies?

How they can call us enemies?

I suffer very much...

...and i am missing my country.

Whatever i feel and live, are in my music.

What makes the difference
in Kurdish music, are laments.

They talk about the pain someone felt...

...war, separation, disaster.

That's what they are about.

My love...

...this night is so dark
that i can't see you.

When i first started as a musician...

...i performed in Kurdish at Mercin.

They took my "sazi" three
times from my hands.

10 years ago it was bad,
now we perform everywhere.

The prohibition of Kurdish
language extinctedbecame extinct in 1990...

but back then, there
were no music videos.

They began to broadcast
via TV months ago.

And this because they wanted to comply
with the rules of the European Union.

Politicians should have
made these changes...

...longlong ago.

We have been living
together all these centuries.

Civilization, language and
religion should be respected.

That is what we believe in.

With eagerness we get
close to Orhan Gensebai...

...one of the biggest starts in Turkey.

Not only he has sold
thousands of discs...

...but he has also starred
in numerous movies.

Gkensebai, who have
never appeared live...

...agreed to perform for us.

Undress... or should i undress you?

Woman, I have never
sinned like this before.

Come back to your village.

Go away!

That's my organ.

It's called "Orhan Baba",
that's how kids call it.

It's 38 years old, with this i
have composed all my songs.

For me, it's invaluable.

It's the one i trust.

There is no soul without sin...

...lovelove me despite my faults.

There is no disease that can't be cured...

...pity my pain.

I am lost...

...please...

...find me.

I am tired and i don't
have more strength...

...come and hug me.

The pain dried me my strength...

...listen to me, without complaining.

For lovers sake...

...please...

...lovelove me.

Love me.

Orhan Gensebai is a very
important musician...

...and he brought music
with sazi in cities.

Before him, sazi was something local.

With him, i think that some
things really started to change.

In 1934, Turkish radio stations...

were not allowed to
broadcast Turkish music...

...and those who felt
connected with Islamic world...

...were listening to Arabic radio stations.

The word "arabesque"
means "Arabic affected".

It was established back
then and re-appeared

in the 60's, it hadn't to do only with me...

but it was disparaging and
it was always offending me.

It's just not correct.

We incorporated a technique...

...from the Egyptian
music, which is like ours...

...one technique that comes from West.

That was not very
common in Turkish music.

We wanted to make our music richer.

Of course, some people tried
to prevent us from doing this.

They wanted to keep the old traditions.

No one worked on this besides us.

When i did it, i didn't spoil our heritage.

This civilization, tradition, still exist.

We are all protecting them.

They said tables were covered with sin...

...with lovers wine.

I am drinking all my life...

...that's my sin.

Who cares?

Crazy...

...that's my sin.

Who cares?

I have been singing for 72 years now.

Me and my voice are 86 years old.

I am a woman of Istanbul.

I was born in Bursa and i have been
living in Ouskountar since i was 10.

I have been singing since
i was a child in Bursa.

But i couldn't talk till i became 10.

I was stuttering.

I had to talk fast, so that no one
understands what i was saying.

Stutters can sing, but they can't talk.

They used to call me Mouzegien Senar...

...but they have forgotten me.

Only Sezen Axou, organised
a performance for me.

It was great. I thank
her very much for this.

Sezen Axou is like a goddess,
the most famous singer.

For me, it mixes up
pop and Turkish music.

She has discovered many
new singers, just like Tarkan.

All the people in the country love
her, at least they respect her.

Brother Orxan is here!

He is so rude!

Who does he think he is? Stupid!

- She composes very good songs.
- We listen to her for years now.

I never denied playing
a song of Sezen Axou.

Never.

I admire her since i was a child.

Many important songs in my life are hers.

She is a very important singer.

She reminds me of my first years.

After many meetings,
we began to record.

We got a song of her, from the 80's...

...which is classic for
Istanbul of the past.

Rehearsal begins.

An old painting is hanging on the wall...

...maybe it's finished maybe not.

She is sitting at Markiz and stares at it...

...with the dust of time on her eyes.

What a love, what a sadness.

With this song, my soul
breaks into a thousand pieces.

Her cheeks are like withered roses...

this sadness, this moment of love.

Like a lyric she never pronounced...

...pure love.

One autumn day...

...painted in many colours...

She wants to live one day like this...

...to see the yellow leaves of her dreams.

The remembrance of Istanbul...

...is deeply inside her.

If i was a nightingale in here garden...

i would sing for you all my songs.

My soul wouldn't have
the strength for wars.

It's time for me to leave.

I couldn't understand this city.

I could only scratch its surface.

One thing is for sure. I
loved the music of Istanbul.

If I was a seagull...

...I would fly above all the seas.

I would let wind guide me...

...and I would travel far.

My soul would be free.