Thursday, April 26, 2012

Şivan Perwer | Lê Dîlberê



Listen to "Mala Min"

Get it all here.

I don't know why haven't posted this one yet. Raw, beautiful, sit-up-in-your-seat powerful, this 1986 album by the world-famous Kurdish protest poet and singer Şivan Perwer is one of my all-time favorite recordings. I found it at least a decade ago in a Turkish music and DVD store in Manhattan that I'm almost certain no longer exists.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say:

"Şivan Perwer (pron: Shivân Parwar) (born on September 23, 1955 in Sarıdam (Sorî), Siverek, Turkey as İsmail Aygün) is a Kurdish poet, writer, musical teacher, singer, and performer on the tembûr (lute). Şivan lives in exile after fleeing Turkey in 1976 because of his music.

"For many years, his songs were banned in Iraq, Syria,and Turkey because they are sung in Kurdish and often cite the oppression against the Kurdish people in the Middle East.

"Şivan's homemade recordings were smuggled over the border, while thousands of people came to see him perform live. Fearing for his life and the welfare of his family and after calls from Turkish authorities demanding his arrest, he fled Turkey and settled in Germany in 1976. There, Şivan recorded his first official album of traditional Kurdish songs. ..."

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