"The re-issue of the first self-titled LP of Selda from 1976 comes out in a very opportune moment. It is not only because the original record is a rarity and an expensive gem. And it is not because the first re-issue from 2006 on Finder Keepers was a huge success. It is more of because it is the most optimal time since 1976 when we can understand the music and the artist in a better and more objective way. In 2020, 44 years after the first pressing of the album, we can revisit Selda Bağcan and listen to her fantastic album with new knowledge, non-colonial appreciation, and open-minded attitude."

Find out the story of one of the most exciting voices of the Polish music scene - Renata Lewandowska.

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She started singing in 1964 and finished her music career in 1980. The end was sudden and irrevocable. Renata Lewandowska vanished without being recognized enough throughout her career. She left Poland at the beginning of the '80s, after facing difficulties with the album release, and left behind only one single pressed in a small number of copies in 1978 and known by very few Polish music experts and record diggers.

"The story of female popular music from Turkey can be told in many ways and deserves to be explored. This particular narration about Turkish female singers is told through songs recorded in 1970s and 1980s. Those two decades present diverse soundscape of Turkish music in various genres and styles, driven by local and global cultural trends and recording technologies."

"Fairuz – the jewel of Beirut; Kamuran Akkor – the pearl of Istanbul. Their resemblance is striking. Their voices are not only similar in color and structure, with their deep and trembling sounds; they are also perfectly different and original in the way that only great voices can differ. "

I had a pleasure to meet members of Khruangbin in Istanbul. On the occasion of our all day long digging adventure in the record stores of the city, i had a chance to talk to Mark Spencer and  Donald “DJ” Johnson.  

"The first song from Esmeray I ever heard was Garip Anam (My Poor Mother) a single from 1975. Beautiful and chic, she had a hairstyle reminiscent of The Supremes and she gazes hynoptically from the cover. 

An extremely deep and sorrowful voice, accompanied by a piano, double bass and percussion – Esmeray sounded like someone from another planet. I bought the record and left the tiny shop in Istanbul and its lonely seller with a question: just who is this girl?"

"I am interested in music that was once very important and reflected the spirit of the times but which is now just a shadow of the past. It can be heard on dusty records found in Turkey's old record shops. The scratched, sleeveless black gold that I collect very often looks like trash. Many of the artists have passed away or are very old. In most cases, they live but are long forgotten." 

"In the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of Turkish people moved to Germany to help rebuild the country. Turkish workers, or gastarbeiters as they were called, made the journey after a recruitment drive by German authorities to fill the gap in the labour system. Turkish communities sprang up in towns and cities across the country, and soon there was a thriving market for goods, and especially music, from the homeland."