Mircan Kaya

Mircan Wurde In Einem Bergdorf Am Schwarzen Meer In Der Türkei Geboren. Ihre Eltern Sind Megrelen Die Von Georgien Ausgewandert Waren. Ihr Leben Ist Die Vorrangige Quelle Ihrer Hingebungsvollen Musik. Von Klein Auf Hörte Sie So Intensiv Auf Die Geräusche Der Natur Dass Sie Am Liebsten Still Dasaß Bis Ihre Familie Schon Dachte Sie Wäre Stumm. Schon Als Kind Sang Sie Eher Erwachsenen- Als Kinderlieder Und Mit Dem Orchester Auf Der Hochzeit Zu Singen War Alltäglich Für Sie. Mit Zwölf Kaufte Sie Sich Die Ersehnte Gitarre Und Nahm Gitarrenunterricht. Zu Der Zeit Ging Sie In Istanbul Auf Die Nisantasi Mädchenschule. Mit Sechzehn Nahm Sie Unterricht Bei Einem Jüdischen Gitarrenlehrer. Mit Siebzehn Schrieb Sie Ihre Ersten Songs Auf Englisch. Während Ihres Studiums War Sie Im Klassischen Türkischen Chor In Einer Traditionellen Folktanzgruppe Und In Einer Symphonischen Rockgruppe. Sie Ist Die Mutter Zweier Kinder. In Den Letzten Jahren 2005-2009 Trat Sie Mit Traditioneller Musik Auf Und Brachte Mehrere Alben Heraus Bizim Ninniler Auf Dem Überlieferte Wiegenlieder Zu Hören Sind Kül Mit Traditionellen Stücken Und Kompositionen Von Neset Ertas Sala Numinosum Und Outim. Zusammengefasst Und Übersetzt Von Philip Wienand Originaltext Born In A Mountain Village In The Black Sea Region Of Turkey The Daughter Of A Megrellian Family Who Had Migrated From Georgia Mircan’s Life Is The Primary Source Of Her Passionate Music. She Spent Her Early Childhood Years In Exotic Natural Surroundings And Her Relationship With Music Started In Those Years When Captured By The Sounds Of Nature Around Her She Went Through A Period Where She Listened So Intensely That Her Family Thought She Could Not Speak. Ever Since Mircan Has Preferred Sitting In Silence So She Can Call To Mind The Sounds Of Nature – Of Human Voices Rivers And Streams The Winds Leaves Fireflies Cicadas Cows Horses Wood Fire A Rocking Cradle A Crying Baby The Sound Rising From Milk Being Churned Rhythmically In Earthenware Pots To Make Butter And Ayran The Sound Of Deep Darkness And Silence Praise And Prayers The Sound Of The Ezan And Of Hymns Of Mournful Women Singing Dirges And The Sound Echoing From The Far Mountains Of Megrellian Women Improvising Ethnic Tunes...
Mircan Started Singing Very Early In Infancy When She Would Rather Sing Adult Songs Than Those For Babies And Children. Singing With Orchestras In Wedding Ceremonies Gradually Became An Ordinary Activity For Her. At An Early Age The Way She Sang Classical Turkish Music Would Bring Smiles Of Surprise To The Faces Of Her Listeners. At Age Twelve Mircan Went To The Local Music Shop And Bought The Guitar She Had Longed For. She Asked The Owner Of The Shop Who Was A Music Teacher For Guitar Lessons. The First Melody She Tried To Play Was Asik Veysel’s “Uzun Ince Bir Yoldayim – I Am On A Road Long And Narrow.”
By The Time She Was Studying At Nisantasi Girl’s High School In Istanbul She Felt The Desire To Work On More Demanding Songs. At Age Sixteen Having Seen An Ad On The Door Of A Big Music Shop She Used To Walk Past Every Day She Took Down The Number Of A Jewish Guitar Teacher Called Him And Said She Would Like To Take Lessons. Not Long Afterward The Teacher Took Her To Tunel To Buy A New Guitar. To Buy That Brand New Black Jazz Guitar She Had To Sell The Gold Medallion Her Father Had Given Her For Being The Best Student At School. When She Bought The Guitar She Had To Beg Forgiveness From Her Father’s Soul.
Mircan’s Songs Became More Colorful With Her New Guitar. At Seventeen She Wrote Her First Song. That First Song Was In English Probably Because Of Her Correspondence With Pen Pals Over The Years “I Love You Very Much I Know Impossible To Touch” And “My Village Smells Gently Violates Oh My Heart Is Burning...” When She Started Going To University Her Goals Were To Read All Essential Art And Literature To Learn To Play The Guitar Very Well To Reach An Advanced Level Of English And Arabic To Walk Down All The Roads She Had In Mind And To Dance. So She Worked Hard At Classical Turkish Music Chorus Traditional Folk Dance Aesthetic Gymnastics The Library At The British Cultural Center The University Library The Libyan Consulate And A Symphonic Rock Group. She Had Many Sleepless Nights Full Of Music... She Made Her First Overseas Journey During These Years – To Jordan Where She Went On A Scholarship Given By The University. There She Saw Petra The Mysterious Desert Atmosphere And The Dead Sea. The Tunes She Improvised Along The Path To Petra Were To Pave Future Roads For Her. The Night Before Her Departure She Was Invited Onto The Stage By The President Of The University Of Jordan Where She Sang “Yesterday” With Trembling Fingers On A Guitar Someone Brought Out Wearing The Indian Headband She Refused To Give Up In Those Years. She And Her Friends Formed A Rock Band And Produced Dozens Of Cassettes Of Songs That They Had Improvised. Their Keyboard Player Had Studied English Literature And The Drummer Had Studied English Language And Literature While The Guitar Player Who Was A Mechanical Engineer And A Painter Had Also Written Songs From Poems By Edgar Allan Poe Gulten Akin Metin Eloglu And Others. During This Period Mircan Also Studied Under Erguder Yoldas Who On First Hearing Her Playing Guitar And Singing Decided He Would Be Her Manager. He Tried To Introduce Her To The Theater And Music Communities But That Environment Was A Distraction And Interrupted The Development Of Her Instrumental Skills – Transforming The Act Of Playing Guitar Into Accompaniment For Her Vocals. Although It Stayed Together More Than Six Years The Group Disbanded Without Producing Any Albums. Mircan Was The Mother Of Two Children When She Decided To Do A Masters Degree In Earthquake Engineering At Bogazici University. During That Time She Was The Lead Engineer At A French Company That Built A Computer-Based Mathematical Model Of Istanbul’s Drinking Water Network. Then She Did Three Years Of Work And Training With Another French Company On Advanced Civil Engineering Technologies During Which She Had A Training Session On The Chevire Bridge In France. She Has Submitted Papers To International Conferences And Has Organized Seminars On The Technologies She Works With. A Passion For Journeys Discovery And Learning Has Been At The Centre Of Mircan’s Life From Her Early Childhood. Academically Gifted She Has Always Had A Holistic View Of The Life Of Mind And Body. Mircan Makes No Distinction Between Art And Science And She Is Fully Dedicated To Her Work Believing That Creativity Is Not Only For The Arts. During The Last Three Years She Has Performed Ethnic & Traditional Music. BIZIM NINNILER An Album Of Traditional Lullabies Reflects Her Experience Of Motherhood. Her 2005 Album KÜL Brings A Unique And Beautiful Sound To Traditional Songs In A Musical Journey Through Love Loss And Pain To Peace And Joy. Along With Songs By Neset Ertas The Album Has Songs From Different Regions Of Anatolia And A Song Performed Acapella. The Album Ends With A Peace Song Entitled “Dunjaluje Golem Tý Si” Meaning “The World And Its People You Are Great” A Song From The Wounded Nation Of Bosnia. Released By KALAN MUSIC KÜL Was Produced With Contributions From Such Masters Of Traditional Music As Muammer Ketençoglu Derya Türkan Emin Igüs And Birol Topaloglu. While Recording The Album Mircan Spent Her Nights Working On Her Music And Her Days Working On A Treatment Plant Project Which Required Her To Go To Algeria To Make A Three Dimensional Structural Analysis. She Currently Works As The Exclusive Representative Of A Company That Is A World Leader In Seismic Technologies. She Frequently Travels To Italy Where She Often Finds Herself Chatting With Her Italian Colleagues About Traditional Italian Music. She Can Sometimes Be Seen Accompanying Street Musicians After Presenting An Engineering Paper In The Conference Hall At Padova University. Her Office Desk Exhibits A Variety Of Publications On Engineering And Literature/philosophy/arts Adorno Sontag Canetti Sartre Mahmud Dervish Edward Said... Mircan Has Turned Her Lack Of Formal Musical Education Unhindered By Any Limiting Precepts Or Proscriptions To Her Advantage. As A Person With A Passion For Free Improvisation Her Desire Is To Create Her Own Music With Her Own Musical Philosophy. All The Back Vocals In KÜL Are Improvised They Were Added After All The Recordings Were Done Without Any Planning Or Notation. Her Next Dream Is To Create A Musical Work Produced Collectively By Different Musicians Playing Intuitively Without Any Dictation. Her Musical Originality Springs Out Of Her Unique Life Journey From Her Unique Megrellian Subculture And Flows Outward Into Her Universal World Citizenship. Mircan Is Intensely Proud And Grateful To Have A Gift That Enables Her To Lift Her Sub-Culture To Prominence Through Music. Between 2005- 2009 She Produced Five Internationally Acclaimed Albums. After KÜL Comes Sala Which Was Described As A Pre-Raphaelite Tapestry By FOLK ROOTS Magazine In UK. This Album Was Followed By NUMINOSUM And OUTIM Once Upon A Time In Mingrelia . These Albums Were Produced Collaboratively With UK Based Post Jazz Group Limbo. Mircan Is Currently Carrying Out An Advanced Master Study On The Structural Analysis Of Historic Construction In Europe. At The Same Time She Is Studying Music In UK Which Will Be Continued As A Post Doctoral Study In Ethnomusicology. read less