Hear New Sub Pop Singles Club Vol. 8 Tracks From Thrash Palace (Feat. EMA, Vice Cooler, & Sarah Register), Turkish Artist Gaye Su Akyol, And A Collaborative Single By Jessica Winter & Clipping’s Jonathan Snipes
Wed, Aug 16, 2023 at 7:00 AM
Gaye Su Akyol
Gaye Su Akyol is an Istanbul-based musician and artist, born in 1985. She has had her higher education in Social Anthropology.
In her work, she redefines the concepts of power, desire, change and rebellion, hand in hand in tight-knit solidarity with women, queer and outcast communities, and rebels against societal gender roles, patriarchy, censorship and oppression. She creates a universe of imagination, in which she constructs her own “counter-reality” against the stifling realities dictated by the power. Without alienating herself from the land she was born into, she questions its representations, defines new symbols, and while struggling with the complexities and political chaos of the concrete world, she chases after the practice of transforming a conservative world through collective dreaming.
Gaye Su Akyol has created her own unique language, taking the contrasts of traditional Anatolian music, Classical Turkish music, psychedelia, surf rock and post-punk and combining them with her futuristic approach. GSA released her first album “Develerle Yaşıyorum” (I Live With Camels) in 2014, written and composed entirely by herself, defines her music as “universal in concept, local in spirit”. She has expanded her audience through numerous concerts and festivals in Türkiye, Europe, Middle East and the Far East, with her first international album, “Hologram İmparatorluğu” (Hologram Empire) in 2016, released dually from Germany-based record label Glitterbeat and Dunganga Records, a label co-founded by Gaye Su Akyol and Ali Güçlü Şimşek. She has received rave reviews for her music and creations from major media publications such as The New York Times, The Observer, The Guardian, The Financial Times, Pitchfork and The Wire. In her third long play, “İstikrarlı Hayal Hakikattir” (Consistent Fantasy is Reality), released in 2018, a record which she names “a practice of dreaming”, she not only writes and composes the entirety of the album, but also takes on the role of producer in the stages of production, arrangement and recording, and art director to the visual aspect of the record. With this album, she became the first musician from Türkiye to be featured on the cover of Songlines, one of the top music magazines in England and was awarded the “Best Artist” title in 2019.
With the same album, she remained at #1 on the Transglobal World Music Chart Europe for several months. Akyol released her EP “Yort Savul: İsyan Manifestosu” (Manifesto of Rebellion), which she fully produced in 2020. She released her latest album “Anadolu Ejderi” (“Anatolian Dragon”) at the end of 2022. The album’s world tour continues. Following her single, which will be released from Sub Pop in August, she will tour the United States in September for the first time.