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Kolektif Balkananatolia proposes music based on traditional repertories of Eastern Europe, where Anatolian and Balkan cultures and civilizations meet. "Kolektif balkananatolia" grew up from the meeting of musicians Asli Dogan (vocal), Richard Laniepce (saxophone), Talat Ahmed, Tamer Ahmed, Recep Sirpoglu, Safak Velioglu, Ertan Sahin, Ediz Enver Nehat, Tamer Kum, Serif Kum and Izzet Kizil from villages and usually playing at fetes and marriages, and from musicians with improvisation backgrounds. "Kaval" (oblique flute), "gayda" (Bulgarian bagpipes), "kaba zurna" (large rustic oboe), "baglama" (Turkish lute with long neck), clarinet, saxophone, accordion, tuba, percussion, all these instruments make this a unit with a...

The Istanbul Oriental Ensemble is a Turkish band playing traditional Turkish music in an oriental gypsy style. The band's leader is Burhan Öçal. Though he is a multi-instrumentalist, in this band he generally plays the darbuka drum, which provides a rhythmic backdrop for improvisations by violin, clarinet, oud, and kanun. Öçal started the band (only one of his projects) in the mid-1990s to revive the old Turkish tradition of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century gypsy music. In Istanbul and Thracia, the European part of Turkey, gypsy music has played an important role in the Turkish music scene dating back to the tenth...