Tuğçe Şenoğul
Atlas
self-released
There’s precious little information in English about Turkish vocalist Tuğçe Şenoğul. Aside from references to her time as one half of Seni Görmem İmkansız, and a few scattered write-ups about various collabs, it’s hard to find much reliable on the Istanbul-based artist. With that said, her streams on Spotify and Turkish language coverage certainly attest to some degree of popularity in her home country, with her new album Atlas (following from EP of the same name a few years back) demonstrating an intriguing mixture of modern electropop and traditional folk music.
How that works in practice is fairly straightforward; on tracks like “Serseri” and “Cennet” Şenoğul mixes smoky, trip-hoppy production with strings, percussion and horns, all blended with a remarkable smoothness that speaks to the overall earthy and organic vibe of the compositions. Not every track relies on the mixture of traditional and electronic instruments – the lovely opener “Kırık Hikaye” is entirely made up of electronic ambiences, while “Bu Gece” is largely a simple piano based composition – their deployment a testament to the more measured and sensuous vibe of the instrumentals.
It’s of course easy for the non-Turkish listener to get caught up in the novelty of hearing these sounds and musical approaches brought together, but there’s actually an interesting tension in how complex the arrangements and songwriting performance are, and Şenoğul’s presence as a vocalist. The record is very much at its best when the instrumentation gets out of her way and lets her take all the focus. The title track features a lovely mixture of percussion and some very interesting stringed instruments along with its throbbing electronic pulse, but it’s all about hearing how she slides between each different element, forceful without needing to belt it out or even change the urgency of her delivery. The tracks with a slightly more traditional structure end up being a mixed bag; “Sensin Bunlara Sebep” is a more traditional pop take on Turkish folk but is far less intriguing than the loungey, Collide-esque sounds of “Hatıramızla”, delivered with a reserved but coy wink.
While you’ve got a few tracks in the mix like “Aşk Deli” that could fit on a darkwave dancefloor alongside Kite, the real appeal of Atlas lies in its warm, enveloping production and the power of Tuğçe Şenoğul as a performer. Even without knowing a lick about the themes and topics of these songs, she cleanly communicates love, sorrow, loss and resolve, picking her spots to hold back, where she employs her full range, and knowing how each bit of phrasing and inflection effects the whole.
