News

Gültekinler

In Anatolia people often utter a phrase “Burn a song” instead of “sing a song”
Did it ever cross your mind why they chose not to sing the folk songs but to burn
them?

Anatolian people tend not to express their distress to the world but chose to pour
their heart into their songs. When we put our hearts and mind into the concept of
burning songs we fall to a conclusion that suffering which burns our heart is most
likely to emerge as songs interleaved under our skin in the flesh and bones. Nothing
other than a song can soothe a burning heart.

As soon as Lütfü Gültekin opened up his eyes to the world in bitterly
saturated Anatolian land, his heart bore the burden of his wounded motherland.
His childhood began with eternal sorrows and he left for a distant land leaving his
country .

He reached Europe where he had no fortune but he made his labor and sweat in
every job as an expatriate until he reached the Belgian mines while passing through
the filter of the fence. His environment was unfavorable, the only way to find a
solace to his burning heart was to burn songs. Most of his lyrics were written while he
was beneath the earth. His way of breaking through his pain brought him
criticism from his coworkers who had their own juxtapose yet they were forced to
drown in his melodies. He never discarded tradition rather he is the pioneer in
portraying the tradition in a remarkable way in order to introduce it to the future
generation.

He was striving to survive and struggling to cope with his grief, renouncing the
material world and following the path of a musical dervish while many reached
success in the musical field following his work.

Even though he lost his youth in the ground, he emerged back from the land of coal,
shining and pure with his heart standing spirited and steady holding on to the dreams
and wish he was attached to for years. Facing extreme homesickness, he
finally renounced a secured life and his children and returned to Turkey pursuing his
dreams.

For years the exploitation of the culture and the music that he has been working for
goes heavy. The only thing that bends the heart is the faintness of the friends it
knows. This ingratitude was painful as they abuse the culture and music he created
through years of pain and grief.

During the time he was residing in Belgium a number albums were released in
Turkey. All those melodies were born out of the sorrows in his melancholic heart as
an embroidery therefore every time we listen to this songs we feel a quiver.

One can choose what to do and he has chosen to try and save the world and also its
a constant struggle to not to be frustrated by the inability to change the way the world
works. With his all efforts he continues to create the music which keeps the spirit of

this pain and hope interline together. With those difficulties to fight against all the
odds he continues his music and does not stop to produce.
This need to create is what defines Lutfu Gültekin and his culture.
He is the dervish of music and the world.

After a long period of silence, Gültekin returns to a new album and says,
“ Here I am !”. Through the songs he created, he wants to deliver a lesson to all who
haggle over their creation.

As we say all his melodies are carrying marks from his life, this new album is no
different. In this album along with his own song there are also songs of other poets,
ustads (masters). The song Fukara which has his lyrics and melodies is a
manifestation of his labor and sweat and the honor of exploiting the labor is perhaps
the sound of the hurt from the heart of the dervish.

The album comprises a total of twelve songs and these songs are taken from the life
he lived through different windows while evaluating and resolving the life through his
songs.

It is one of those works one must have in their precious archive.
May your heart never stop burning songs