05/06/2025
Cymin Samawatie - Temas
Out on June 13, 2025, Friday!
As a label and platform, iKi Müzik is committed to releasing music that dares to listen deeply — to the world, to one another, and to the spaces in between. We are honored to present TEMAS, an intimate album by Berlin-based artist Cymin Samawatie. In this work, Cymin invites us into a realm where sound emerges from silence, shaped by trust, openness, and improvisation. Recorded in Istanbul, this album embodies the kind of dialogue and discovery we believe contemporary music can offer — to anyone who is ready to truly listen to one another.
TEMAS
Every sound begins in silence. Two voices – two instruments – the mystery of their presence with each other unfolds long before any tone is heard. Tracing Cymin Samawatie’s musical journey in Istanbul in 2018, this album dwells in the potential of that quiet moment of first encounter, in which every sound that follows is already contained yet which still emerges in radical openness. Its evolution of ten real-time duets cherishes the intimacy of micro-encounters, of unrehearsed listening and responding beyond familiar terrains of traditions, styles, and languages. Plunging into the unknown, these miniatures instantly expand into fresh sonic worlds of free improvisation and poetry in Turkish and Farsi – worlds that resist definition but project all the more clearly the sheer beauty of life. In them, everything begins with listening to the quiet presence between two musicians.
Cymin Samawatie - Voice & Piano
Neva Özgen - Kemençe
Angelika Niescier - Saxophone
Arslan Hazreti - Kamancheh
Erdem Şimşek - Bağlama
Duygu Demir - Cello
Cem Önertürk - Flute
Başak Yavuz - Voice
Serkan Şener - Kaval
Şevket Akıncı - Electric guitar
Produced by Cymin Samawatie & Şevket Akıncı
Recorded at Yıldız Technical University Studio December 2018
Recording engineer Arda Eden
Recording assistant Halil İmik
Mixed and Mastered by Barkın Engin at Bahçeşehir University
Track 10 Mixed by Arda Eden
Special Thanks to Kulturakademie Tarabya, Goethe Institut Istanbul, Kaveh Baghcheban, Ramin Sadighi, Selen Gülün, Dilek Mayatürk, Philip Geisler, Michaela Binder