Istanbul. The city of cities.
My friends left me in their apartment in Üsküdar for a few days, alone with a talking cat and a piano. I'll feed the cat in the morning and then play the piano 'til noon, having no idea how that instrument works but enough time to make errors and more errors until uncontrollable sounds turn into melodies.
The balcony overlooks the Bosphorus.
I have dinner watching ferries cross from Asia to Europe and back, hear seagulls screaming, unaware of continent borders. Back home, over there, in the West there are things waiting for me, unresolved stories, but I keep lingering over here, far away and out of reach from everything.
Istanbul is the loudest city I know, the most restless one, crowded, big and dirty and unbearable, but I love it more fiercely than any other. I've thrown myself right into its very core, got lost in the maze of its streets, talked to people in a language I don't understand. To then come back to a place I call my temporary home, my ivory tower, with the talking cat and the piano, and cast current desires and confusions into songs.
These are the first songs I ever made on that instrument which I still cannot play, right in that city I cannot shake. Istanbul, you‘ll have me back. Soon.
Istanbul, June 2011
My friends left me in their apartment in Üsküdar for a few days, alone with a talking cat and a piano. I'll feed the cat in the morning and then play the piano 'til noon, having no idea how that instrument works but enough time to make errors and more errors until uncontrollable sounds turn into melodies.
The balcony overlooks the Bosphorus.
I have dinner watching ferries cross from Asia to Europe and back, hear seagulls screaming, unaware of continent borders. Back home, over there, in the West there are things waiting for me, unresolved stories, but I keep lingering over here, far away and out of reach from everything.
Istanbul is the loudest city I know, the most restless one, crowded, big and dirty and unbearable, but I love it more fiercely than any other. I've thrown myself right into its very core, got lost in the maze of its streets, talked to people in a language I don't understand. To then come back to a place I call my temporary home, my ivory tower, with the talking cat and the piano, and cast current desires and confusions into songs.
These are the first songs I ever made on that instrument which I still cannot play, right in that city I cannot shake. Istanbul, you‘ll have me back. Soon.
Istanbul, June 2011
download is free, but donations help pay my rent. if you give 5 euros, i will send you an actual postcard from some place I am visiting this month (there are a few..). if you give ten, that postcard will be handdrawn.
Coming up: the next postcard will come to you from a bedroom in Cologne. if you want to make sure to stay up to date you can sign up to my newsletter.. you'll find the subscription form as well as more info about this and other projects on the actual website. And here is the last release..
these tunes were crafted in early June 2011 in the city of Istanbul. Performed and recorded, mixed and arranged by Julia Kotowski aka. entertainment for the braindead, then released a long time later as the second in a series of audio Postcards in October 2012. Released under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-SA.
Very special thanks to Kamucan and Alper for their house, the piano and their friendship..
