Onur Aymergen - Lunar (CD)

Release Date: 06/09/23

Electric contemporary swinging and melodic jazz from some of Turkeys best jazzmusicians. Music somewhat inspired by Pat Metheny

Aymergen has obviously been after a coherence that surpasses the notes when inviting such stars as Tolga Bilgin (trumpet), Can Çankaya (piano), Apostolos Sideris (double bass) and Turgut Alp Bekoğlu (drums) to his album, which I am very impressed with. Impeccable tonal harmony has turned into a key of the quintet's total sound, in fact, incorporating even silence as one of the crucial elements. Undoubtedly, the central aspect of this musical architecture has been Aymergen's intense care in assembling his compositions.

Aymergen apparently has produced a formula that would shine each musician's executional aspects. Tolga Bilgin's trumpet, when coupled with Aymergen's guitar, comes up like a different shade of the same tonal color while Can Çankaya's keyboards turns into a contrast of that duo. The tone-on-tone trio styling, which appears to be devised in the compositions from the beginning, works pretty well. «Yeditepe» is a very significant example in that regard. While Sideris's bass and Bekoğlu's cymbals raise the rhythmic pulse, they help this initially steady flow reach the end with an climactic intensity.

Can Çankaya's piano playing is one of the most distinguished of its kind in Turkey. His idiosyncratic work permeats the whole album, especially being felt on the tune 'Northern Lights». After the atmosphere set by Tolga Bilgin's trumpet, Çankaya's free flowing piano gets a hard job done very well. I also must emphasise the drumming of Turgut Alp Bekoğlu, where not only on 'Northern Lights» but throughout the whole album, displays one of his best ever performances. Onur Aymergen has successfully been able to merge these musicians, each of whom I've been attentively following for years, in a new and unique narrative of a quintet.