Altın bir kafes (A golden cage)
Jul 15, 01:22 PM
"When I was a kid, we used to visit an open-air animal market in Kadıköy, İstanbul. It was a part of our daily routine before taking a shared taxi back home. An opportunity to see different species of animals was an excitement for a little one. I am familiar with various birds from there. However, all were caged and imported from another part of our world to my hometown.
"Maria Margaronis captured a similar soundworld from Chios, however its backstory is completely different. In her documentation, we are hearing the birds in restriction. Chirps, shrieks, and other sounds of the birds are loud. The engine noises of the vehicles resonate the cage that they are inside. As if she intentionally recorded a memory snippet from my childhood years.
"I listened to this field recording while awaiting a residency permit for yet another time. From a long way from my hometown. Along with bureaucracy, paperwork, administrative unit visits, trips to foreigners' office, translated documents, criminal record prints, notarization procedures, months in uncertainty, different legal statuses, restrictions, having limited rights, communicational difficulties, cultural differences … and grief, hüzün, homesickness, ambivalence, loss, longing, sense of belonging, hope, nostalgia, friendships, phone calls with family members… sometimes as an expatriate, an exile, a migrant, a legal alien, a border worker … for new beginnings.
"Maybe with some similarities with the people in Chios.
"The title "Altın bir kafes" which means "a golden cage" in English.
It refers to a Turkish proverb: "They put the nightingale in a golden cage, and it still sings the tunes of its homeland." This proverb expresses the value of freedom and the longing one feels for their homeland. It conveys that even if the nightingale is placed in the most beautiful cage, it still misses its homeland, emphasizing that a person is happiest where they are free.
"I used concatenative synthesis to imitate flocks of birds, and granular synthesis to create various textures. A cura saz (long neck lute) and bendir (frame drum) that are two instruments from Turkish culture are also represented within the composition."
Composition: Görkem Özdemir
Mastering: Şafak Ekmen | Görkem Özdemir
Part of the Migration Sounds project, the world’s first collection of the sounds of human migration.
For more information and to explore the project, see https://www.citiesandmemory.com/migration
"Maria Margaronis captured a similar soundworld from Chios, however its backstory is completely different. In her documentation, we are hearing the birds in restriction. Chirps, shrieks, and other sounds of the birds are loud. The engine noises of the vehicles resonate the cage that they are inside. As if she intentionally recorded a memory snippet from my childhood years.
"I listened to this field recording while awaiting a residency permit for yet another time. From a long way from my hometown. Along with bureaucracy, paperwork, administrative unit visits, trips to foreigners' office, translated documents, criminal record prints, notarization procedures, months in uncertainty, different legal statuses, restrictions, having limited rights, communicational difficulties, cultural differences … and grief, hüzün, homesickness, ambivalence, loss, longing, sense of belonging, hope, nostalgia, friendships, phone calls with family members… sometimes as an expatriate, an exile, a migrant, a legal alien, a border worker … for new beginnings.
"Maybe with some similarities with the people in Chios.
"The title "Altın bir kafes" which means "a golden cage" in English.
It refers to a Turkish proverb: "They put the nightingale in a golden cage, and it still sings the tunes of its homeland." This proverb expresses the value of freedom and the longing one feels for their homeland. It conveys that even if the nightingale is placed in the most beautiful cage, it still misses its homeland, emphasizing that a person is happiest where they are free.
"I used concatenative synthesis to imitate flocks of birds, and granular synthesis to create various textures. A cura saz (long neck lute) and bendir (frame drum) that are two instruments from Turkish culture are also represented within the composition."
Composition: Görkem Özdemir
Mastering: Şafak Ekmen | Görkem Özdemir
Part of the Migration Sounds project, the world’s first collection of the sounds of human migration.
For more information and to explore the project, see https://www.citiesandmemory.com/migration