Category: English

Bauhaus

Kozyatağı, Wednesday afternoon

Just when you thought there couldn’t be anything interesting to hear at a shopping mall specialized in “home making”… how wrong I was! This is probably the most hilarious recording I’ve made during these weeks. At least I had fun while recording this, hopefully it transmits somehow.

The recording starts outside the main door, from the parking lot. As I slowly walk into the gigantic hall and am being welcomed I encounter all kind of more or less bizarre sound events around me. You can scent the fever of constructing and decorating with the people running around the wide corridors, looking up up along the huge shelves. Forklifts, cardboard, cutting, hammering, announcements on loudspeakers and commercials on TV sets, all kinds of materials being handled, people evaluating everything around them.

While on the subject of shopping I must admit to something pathetic that I felt a few weeks ago: I went to Ikea, the Swedish furniture mall, and suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to sit on one of the leather couches on show and to pet one of the book shelves. I have those models at home in Finland, you see, and a small voice inside my head kept asking “what are all these people doing here, this is my territory”. A strong indication of nascent lunacy or an example of how a Finnish person sees Swedish desing somewhat comforting at a brink of cultural shock in Turkey. Ikea was by the way much more quieter a place…

Listen to the sounds of shopping, building and construction at Bauhaus:

 

At the mosque

Göztepe mosque, Sunday afternoon.

I had the opportunity to participate to a ceremony that was arranged 40 days after the funeral of a relative of a friend of mine. This prayer ceremony is called the kırkı, literally meaning the “40th”. It started right after the midday prayer on a Sunday.

The voice of the imam is heard downstairs while the women enter the mosque from a small door at the back left of the building (the sign for it is seen in the picture). I cover my head with a scarf, take my shoes off and climb the wooden stairs to the second floor, haremlik, a mezzanine with a small latticed balcony from which the women folk can get a glimpse of what is happening under the main dome, selamlik, mens space. Some elderly women sit eyes closed at the balcony floor and are rocking themselves gently indicating religious concentration in listening to the imam after he starts the prayer with a strong melismatic voice. The loudspeaker is also turned on at the mezzanine after a while. It had been forgotten and was closed when I entered the haremlik.

Soft carpet floors mellow down sounds of people walking calmly on bare socks, greeting and hugging one another, some sobbing, some arranging their shoes in plastic bags and putting them on a shelf. The hum of the traffic seeps softly from the white curtain windows with the occasional chirp of sparrows. Listen to the atmosphere before of the ceremony:

Börekçi

Sarıyer, Sunday afternoon.

Once in Sarıyer you should eat börek, the place is famous for them.
We visited the Sarıyer Meşhur Hünkar Börekçisi. The savory flaky pastries are filled with either minced meat, pine kernels, raisins and spices or cheese. And they are delicious, soft and chewy.

The börek is baked in an tubelike shape, then cut to small bite size pieces, tucked to a paper box and weighed. The lady on the recording ordered a portion of one kilo. Listen to the delicious cutting of the börek and smooth service:

Corridor sounds at ITU

İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi,
Taşkışla, Saturday afternoon.

I have spent the last three Saturday afternoons at the ITÜ Taşkısla campus. This is where the architecture department is, apparently, as there are some sketches and models on display on the corridor. I’m waiting my friend to finish her choir practise. Walking in the corridor, sitting at the benches, drinking tea at the campus cafe, or strolling at the court yard catching up with the cats.

Inside the stone, concrete and marble give the hall corridor an echoing charachter, the cool whites and greys add to the place an air of calmness. The corridors are almost empty on week-ends. This Saturday the weather was sunny and beautiful so I decided to wear my high heel shoes for the first time after winter (the symbol of summer for me). Listen to the sounds me walking around with my ‘clip-clops’ and the choir practising türküs at the lecture hall on the right:

Here’s some ambiance from the courtyard. A lonely construction worker.

Teachers’ room

Kuzguncuk primary school,
Wednesday morning.

I had an opportunity to talk to the students at Kuzguncuk primary school about the sounds they like and dislike. I visited three classes, thanks to their wonderful teacher, Aslı hoca. She has the most adorable students. We had a lot of fun together talking about different kind of car horns, sounds of water and differences between washing machine and hoover sounds.

The teachers’ room had a beautiful view over the Bosphorus. The school itself is an old yalı with high ornate cassette ceilings made of painted leather. I spent the recesses at the room, drinking coffee while a teacher next to me read a newspaper and another one read his email on the shared computer. On the other room there was a man talking on the telephone, at the hall there was a woman’s voice, I heard a word here another there. But on the third floor there was a true riot going on. The building, old and wooden, creaked and clattered under the feet of the upstairs students as if it was alive. It was presumably a math class (poor teacher… one sympathizes). Listen to the ambiance:

Traffic lights

Kabataş, Saturday afternoon.

There was a small man inside the traffic light post. He was looking after us pedestrians very keenly.

  • ‘Lütfen bekleyin’ (Please wait)
  • ‘Şimdi geçebilirsiniz’ (Now you may cross [the road])
  • ‘Altı, beş, dört, üç, iki, bir’ (6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1)
  • ‘bip – bip – bip – bip’ (him talking to the cars that answered)

Listen to his directions:

All we hear is… radio gaga

Kadıköy, August 2009, afternoon at an apartment flat.

Last August I was feeling a bit bored one day. It was raining and there wasn’t really that much to do. I thought that maybe there would be something on the radio and I was right. Everything was on the radio…

Here’s a six minute potpourri recording of all the FM radio channels audible at Kadıköy rolled slowly from the lowest kHz to the highest:

 

And here’s a list of words that caught my attention while listening:

— Konuşmasam taş olsam genede oynarmısın benimle (Bülent Ortaçgil sings)
— İstanbul kiyilarinda, sen gittim ben gidemedim, sen unuttu (song)
— Operatörleri özel sifreleri, onlara hiç gecmicez, şarkilarını
— bazi dini  — sormuştum ve ikide kahkaha
— send me a card oh friends are (song) — ayakkabiniz tertemiz  — tat makarna (commercial)
— sulama sistemlerini — when ever you’re ready (song) — gercek
— aşık olur — işte bir — dialog ha ha — başıma neler geldi
— razıyım yapayanlız — in the midnight hour — öyle sevdim gidiyorum — güzel bir şarki radyoda
— istanbul fm (radio jingle) — yani — babasinin rizasina — allahda razi olur

If your attention grasps anything more from it please write a comment.

Emirgan mosque

Emirgan shore, midday.

I was going to the Tulip festival and just got out of the ferry, when I heared the öğle (midday) ezan from the Emirgan mosque. The mosque itself is a beautiful and delicate wooden building painted in white, very much in tune with the other old buildings on the shore. The traffic on the shore had a lingering rhythm, too.

Listen to the recording:

At 0’19 of the track there is a sudden sound of a concrete element crashing down at a restoration site next to the mosque (nothing severe happened, though, fortunately) and at 1’00 you can hear the muezzin turn off the minaret speaker. Tship!

PS. Also, some very nice ezan recordings from different parts of the world (Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Turkey) and the five different makams to be listened to here (comparing the different styles made easy).

Trabzonspor supporters

İstiklal caddesi, afternoon.

Football. No way you can live in Istanbul and not stumble on it. You can try to ignore it but eventually you will hear about it. If not via television, radio or eavesdropping, then via the supporter groups that take the streets before the game.

Last week there was a game between Galatasaray (I guess) and Trabzonspor. The visiting team supporters, probably a few hundred of them, wearing blue and burgundy, walked through Beyoğlu chanting and clapping their hands. People stopped and watched them go by, smiles on their faces, taking pictures. Some of the fans have probably come a long way from the Black sea coast city Trabzon (we are talking hours and hours on the bus). Just to see their team play, and of course: to make some good supporting noise!

Listen to the fans pass by:

Constantinople Ecumenical Patriarcate

Fener, Friday afternoon

Last March, a few weeks before Easter, I went to hear a service at the Greek Orthodox Patriarcate, located at Fener. The walled complex has seen a lot of history, some of it very violent since the 17th century. To get to the Church of Saint George you must go through metal detectors that protect the clergy.

The congregation present that day was formed of elderly people, some local, some from nearby, some who came as a tour group from abroad (Germans is my guess). We all waited in silence for the clergy to enter, whispering, sitting at the creaking wooden benches. After the clercy entered, dressed in their black cloacks, the congregation stood up and the service could begin. The service consisted of a chanting dialogue between the clergy and the Psaltis Cantor (representing the people). Nothing was read in a normal speaking voice.

Listen to the very beginning of the service: