Ekin Fil – “Dora Agora” – [Helen Scarsdale Agency]

whngr   11/3/2022   12-inch, A Library

Quiet, drifting, chords sustain a somber rhythm, distant and personal… with echoes. 

Floating on gentle waves, veins filled with opium, every note a caress of the eardrum, a whisper on the neck, every change soft and welcome. A siren song for the sleeping hero. The album begins with an instrumental track, stabbing sadly at single notes on her keyboard before the first dulcet chord swells into being. On the next track meandering keys bloom as gentle, non-lexical vocalizations begin to weave like a spirit through a somber afternoon in the living room overlooking a windswept beach before the more structured and haunting lullabies coalesce (track 3 “ghost boy”) Simple repetitive strums of acoustic guitar provide structure as lilting atmospheric textures sail by… Heavy eyelids fall, we abandon consciousness, and slip into a purring netherworld of beautiful loss.

Ekin Fil returns to the acoustic guitar of her debut album on a soaring journey through the billowing dreams of slumbering giants. At times a distant memory might float into our awareness or perhaps a forgotten song from childhood… Do I know this song… why don’t I remember the chorus? Do I know this language? Does it matter? Does anything matter? I hear stripped down Beach House, Grouper with vaporous hooks. Mother whispers her vow of unconditional love as doctor takes the pain away.

Ekin Fil is one Ekin Üzeltüzenci, a Turkish multi-instrumentalist who performed vocals and keyboards in the post/-/punk synth/-/rock project Proudpilot (probably defunct but soon to be entering our library). Üzeltüzenci scored the 2017 films Kaygi (Inflame) and Körfez (Gulf), as well as Hayaletler (Ghost) in 2020, is one of my favorite discoveries as yet through kfjc, and is otherwise cloaked in mystery.

Istanbul – October 7, 2022