Hasretim (Turkish: my yearning) is a musical search for cultural identity. Together with Markus Rindt, director of the Dresden Symphony Orchestra, guitarist and composer Marc Sinan embarks on an unusual journey. The route leads him from the Black Sea, the home of his grandparents, to the border of Armenia.

For weeks, Rindt and Sinan, seek out and film traditional musicians, try to unravel their art and perhaps find the last musical documents of another time. Like everywhere else, traditional music is a dying art. The custom of oral tradition is coming to an end. The former Asiklar Kahvesis, clubs of the “Singer-Songwriters”, are now simple tea houses. Young musicians such as the Kemence player Mesut Kurt from Trabzon or the singer Asiye Göl from Ordu are rarely to be found. Few of them earn their livelihood with music, but they play with great ease and virtuosity. Their music testifies to a restlessness and in its diversity bears the traces of the cultural and ethnic richness of Anatolia.

In Hasretim, Sinan’s experiences are brought to life through his own contemporary musical composition and video recordings of the journey. Performed with Dresden Sinfoniker and Turkish and Armenian guests.

Marc Sinan  Composition
Andrea Molino  Musical arrangement and musical direction
Marc Sinan & Markus Rindt  Idea, concept and production
Hans-Peter Eckardt, Markus Rindt, Filip Zorzor  Camera
Fabian Knecht, Filip Zorzor, Lonni Wong  Video
Dresden Symphony Orchestra with Turkish and Armenian guests

A co-production of the Dresdner Sinfoniker with YMUSIC and HELLERAU – European Centre of the Arts Dresden.

© Photos: Filip Zorzor & Markus Rindt