Adelaide Fringe review 2017: Mercan Dede
IT’S twenty years since a dervish whirled in Adelaide — at Barry Kosky’s 1996 Festival.
Mercan Dede
Music *****
GOUD — Magic Mirror Speigeltent, March 7
IT’S twenty years since a dervish whirled in Adelaide — at Barry Kosky’s 1996 Festival.
Now Barry is back, and so are the dervishes — one dervish, at least.
Oblivious to the precariousness of his position atop a circular platform in the middle of the Spiegeltent, he whirled around and around, his white skirt undulating in beautiful arcs of mathematical perfection.
Later, in a black skirt with mirrors affixed he became a human disco ball.
He was just one part of a show featuring Turkish DJ Mercan Dede and three excellent musicians from Turkey playing baglama, clarinet, and a variety of percussion instruments including the darabukka.
Dede himself occasionally played the tambourine or the ney, but mostly concentrated on mixing, creating the sound that is his trademark — a blend of acoustic, electronic and sampled sounds and effects, with a generous amount of delay often applied.
The music gradually rises from the ruminative to the ecstatic; the result is a gorgeous blend of ancient spirituality and modern technology.
Stephen Whittington