Kalan Müzik or Kalan Music for the West is a Turkish independent record label company based in

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

. It was founded in 1991 by Hasan Saltık. It specializes in releasing Saltık's recordings of classical and traditional ethnic and folk music from Turkey and the surrounding region. It is sometimes listed as Kalan Ses ("Kalan Audio" or "Kalan Sound"). Kalan has annual revenues of $3 million, and has released more than 400 albums. From 1992 to 2002, some of Kalan's output met governmental opposition. In 2003, Saltık's work through Kalan made him a laureate of the international

Prince Claus Awards The Prince Claus Fund was established in 1996, named in honor of Prince Claus of the Netherlands. It receives an annual subsidy from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Fund has presented the international Prince Claus Awards annually si ...

for having "founded a small company to produce recordings of the highest quality which have been the catalyst for the revival of musical traditions and led to their dissemination worldwide hroughestablishing a label which produces unparalleled recordings". Since 2004, the Turkish Culture Ministry hands out Kalan CDs to visiting dignitaries.

Overview

In 1991, Kalan Müzik was founded by Hasan Saltık with $600 in capital. It was named after the pre-1936 name of the town of

Tunceli Tunceli ( ku, Dêrsim) is a city and municipality in eastern Turkey. It is the capital of Tunceli Province, located in the middle of the Eastern Anatolia Region. The city has a Kurdish-majority population and was a site of the Dersim rebellion. ...

(its founder's birthplace), but also means "Surviving Music" in Turkish. In 2004, it had annual revenues of $3 million.Kalan, op.cit.Turgut, op. cit. Kalan's output started with reissues of old

78 rpm A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts near ...

records of late Ottoman music, the legendary voices of Armenian and Greek minority singers, and of old great recordings of

rebetika Rebetiko ( el, ρεμπέτικο, ), plural rebetika ( ), occasionally transliterated as rembetiko or rebetico, is a term used today to designate originally disparate kinds of urban Greek music which have come to be grouped together since the s ...

and klezmer music, from names such as

Tanburi Cemil Bey Tanburi Cemil Bey (1873, Istanbul – July 28, 1916, Istanbul) was an Ottoman tanbur, Turkish tambur, yaylı tambur, kemençe, and lavta virtuoso and composer, who has greatly contributed to the ''taksim'' (improvisation on a makam/maqam) ...

, Udi Hrant, Yorgo Bacanos, or tango singer Seyyan Hanım. A majority of Kalan's releases are Saltık's recordings of traditional music from the many communities and minorities in Turkey and neighbouring regions, such as

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

folk songs,

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

chants, Turkish ballads, Judeo-Spanish tunes, authentic village ceremonial music,

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

melodies from

Thrace Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to ...

, polyphonic Laz music from northeast Turkey,

Zaza Zaza may refer to: Ethnic group * Zazas, a group of people in eastern Anatolia (southeastern Turkey) * Zaza–Gorani languages, Indo-Iranian languages ** Zaza language, spoken by the Zazas People Given name * Zaza Sor. Aree (born 1993), Thai k ...

songs from Tunceli, the music of

Pomaks Pomaks ( bg, Помаци, Pomatsi; el, Πομάκοι, Pomáki; tr, Pomaklar) are Bulgarian-speaking Muslims inhabiting northwestern Turkey, Bulgaria and northeastern Greece. The c. 220,000 strong ethno-confessional minority in Bulgaria is ...

(Slavonic Muslims originating from

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

Alevi Alevism or Anatolian Alevism (; tr, Alevilik, ''Anadolu Aleviliği'' or ''Kızılbaşlık''; ; az, Ələvilik) is a local Islamic tradition, whose adherents follow the mystical Alevi Islamic ( ''bāṭenī'') teachings of Haji Bektash Veli, w ...

Bektashi The Bektashi Order; sq, Tarikati Bektashi; tr, Bektaşi or Bektashism is an Islamic Sufi mystic movement originating in the 13th-century. It is named after the Anatolian saint Haji Bektash Wali (d. 1271). The community is currently led by ...

religious songs, and the music of traditional rituals from all parts of the region.PCA, op. cit. However, Kalan also produces and releases contemporary folk or fusion music such as the guitarist

Erkan Oğur Erkan Oğur (pronounced ) (born April 17, 1954) is a Turkish musician. A pioneer of fretless guitars, he invented the first fretless classical guitar in 1976.Martinelli, op. cit.Unfretted, op. cit. A composer, he has influenced many musicians wit ...

, the controversial

Grup Yorum Grup Yorum is a band from Turkey known for their political songwriting. Grup Yorum (''Yorum'' means interpretation or comment in Turkish) has released twenty-three albums and one film since 1985. Some of the group's concerts and albums were bann ...

, the popular Yansımalar, or soundtracks of Turkish films such as ''Neredesin Firuze'' (2004) or ''The Last Ottoman: Yandim Ali (Son Osmanlı: Yandım Ali)'' (2007). , Kalan Müzik had released more than 400 albums.

Reception

Because laws passed after the 1980 Turkish coup d'état banned songs in minority languages, especially in

(deeming them separatist), Kalan's output has sometimes met governmental opposition. In 1992, a release of

music sent Saltık to court.Esra Özyüre
The Politics of Public Memory in Turkey
/ref> In 2002, his music-publishing license was confiscated after he issued an old folk song that featured the word "

Kurdistan Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, languages ...

", which is taboo in Turkey. It was only a public outcry that eventually led to the sentence being reversed. However, after the 2002 elections and governmental change, a normalization of relations between Kalan and officials led to the point of the Culture Ministry handing out Kalan CDs to visiting dignitaries. In 2003, Saltik's work through Kalan Müzik made him a laureate of

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

's international

on the theme "The survival and innovation of Crafts" for having "played a central role in the rescue, rediscovery and documentation of the cultural diversity of Turkish music". The jury concluded, "Saltik founded a small company to produce recordings of the highest quality which have been the catalyst for the revival of musical traditions and led to their dissemination worldwide. He has conserved and promoted the musical heritage of the area th ugh establishing a label which produces unparalleled recordings."

Artists

Artists issued or reissued primarily by Kalan include: ; Archival reissues of folk/rural artists *

Muharrem Ertaş Muharrem Ertaş (1913 – 3 December 1984) was a Turkish folk music singer and a virtuoso of the traditional Turkish instrument bağlama. He was one of the most important members of the Bozlak genre. Early life He was born in 1913 in the village ...

Âşık Veysel Şatıroğlu An ashik ( az, aşıq, ; tr, âşık; fa, عاشیق) or ashugh ( hy, աշուղ; ka, აშუღი) is traditionally a singer-poet and bard who accompanies his song—be it a dastan (traditional epic story, also known as '' hikay ...

Hacı Taşan Hacı is the Turkish spelling of the title and epithet Hajji. It may refer to: People * Hacı I Giray (died 1466), founder and the first ruler of the Crimean Khanate * Hacı Ahmet ( 1566), purported Turkish cartographer * Hacı Arif Bey (1831� ...

; Archival reissues of urban/art musicians *

Safiye Ayla Safiye Ayla (14 July 1907 – 14 January 1998) was one of the most famous singers of Turkish classical music. Early life She was born on 14 July 1907 in Istanbul. Her father, Mısırlı Hicazîzade Hafız Abdullah Bey of Egypt, died before her ...

Yorgo Bacanos Yorgo Bacanos ( el, Γιώργος Μπατζανός, ; 21 September 1900 - 24 February 1977) was a master oud player and improvisational composer of Ottoman classical music. His father Haralambos (known as in Turkish) was of Greek Romani des ...

Sadettin Kaynak Sadettin Kaynak (1895 – 3 February 1961) was a prominent composer of Turkish classical music. Biography Born in Istanbul, he became a hafiz at a young age. He lost his father early in his youth. He completed his music education at the Ista ...

* Udi Hrant *

Zeki Müren Zeki Müren (; 6 December 1931 – 24 September 1996) was a Turkish singer, composer, songwriter, actor and poet. Known by the nicknames "The Sun of Art" and "Pasha", he was one of the prominent figures of the Ottoman classical music, Turkish cla ...

Münir Nurettin Selçuk Münir Nurettin Selçuk (1900 or 1901 – April 27, 1981) was a Turkish classical musician and tenor singer. Biography He was born in the Sarıyer district of Istanbul in the Ottoman Empire in 1900 or 1901. His uncle was Grand Vizier of ...

* Şükrü Tunar ; Contemporary urban art musicians in Turkey * İncesaz * Niyazi Sayın * Yansımalar *

Necdet Yaşar Necdet Yaşar (; 1930 - October 24, 2017) was a Turkish ''tanbur'' lute player and teacher. A founding member of the Istanbul State Turkish Music Ensemble, he performed throughout the world as a cultural ambassador for Turkey and taught twice a ...

; Contemporary folk music performers * Tolga Çandar * İsmail Hakkı Demircioğlu *

Neşet Ertaş Neşet Ertaş (1938 – 25 September 2012) was a Turkish folk music singer, lyricist, modern ashik and virtuoso of the traditional Turkish instrument the bağlama. His profession in Turkish is known as ''halk ozanı'', which literally means ...

; Alevi musicians * Dertli Divani * Ulaş Özdemir ; Anatolian ethnic music * Mikail Aslan *

Aynur Doğan Aynur Doğan (born 1 March 1975) is a contemporary Kurdish singer and musician from Turkey. Career Aynur Doğan was born in Çemişgezek, a small mountain town in Tunceli Province in Turkey and fled to İstanbul in 1992. She studied ''saz'' ...

* Kardeş Türküler * Birol Topaloğlu ; Protest and political music *

* Fikret Kızılok *

Tülay German Tülay German (born 1935, also known as Toulaï in France) is a Turkish female singer, currently living in France. She is known for her modern interpretations of Turkish folk music. Early years Tülay German was born in Istanbul in 1935; she wa ...

References

; Sources consulted * * * ; Endnotes

External links

Kalan.com (English)
- official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Kalan Muzik Turkish independent record labels Folk record labels World music record labels Reissue record labels Record labels established in 1991 IFPI members 1991 establishments in Turkey