‘Balkan Acoustic’,
The new project by Cenk Bosnalı, a musician of Balkan origin, utilizes only stringed instruments and excludes the accordion, clarinet, and brass instruments, which are the most popular in the Balkans. This preference has a historical basis:
Before the 19th century, when the accordion, clarinet and trumpet, which are the main instruments of Balkan music today, were invented or took their current form, Balkan folk songs and sevdalinkas, the urban folk music of Bosnia and Herzegovina, were performed with stringed instruments such as cura (dede sazı) and tanbura, which were brought with them by immigrants from Anatolia as a natural result of Ottoman influence. Although accordion and wind instruments dominated the region after the 19th century, stringed instruments, which evolved, continued to be used as part of Balkan music, known by the names tambura and tamburitza (a small tambura).
Cenk Bosnalı “Balkan Acoustic”, who pursues acoustic and simple music, brings Bosnian, Macedonian and Bulgarian folk songs; Aegean and Rumelia folk songs to his stage with cümbüş and kanun, representatives of our stringed instruments that brought the Balkans together with Anatolia centuries ago, and invites you to an Izmir-Sarajevo journey where tradition and innovation stand side by side.