Mercan Dede

Dividing his time between Montreal and Turkey, spike-haired Mercan Dede (the name is taken from a minor character in a Turkish novel) is deeply influenced by the Sufi tradition. In fact his live shows include Sufi dancers, whirling dervishes, and he plays the quintessential Sufi instrument, the ney (reed flute). but what sets him apart is his use of percussion and various forms of electronica to transform traditional acoustic sounds into electronic dance. He speaks of himself as "a dervish for the modern world," and it is in the Sufi tradition that Dede finds inspiration for his mix of musical styles, "The essence of Sufism is counterpoint." he explained. "Everything exists with its opposite. On one side, I am doing electronic music. The other side of that is this really acoustic, traditional music."

Raised in a Turkish village in the 1970s, as a child Dede fell in love with the sound of the ney. But since he could not afford an instrument, he crafted one from a length of plastic tubing. At the time he was involved with photography, and when an official from the Saskatoon Public Library saw his work, he was invited to Canada for an exhibition. Dede stayed in Canada to study, working nights in a bar. It introduced him to DJ culture and by the mid-'80s, he was regularly spinning at "techno-tribal-house" gigs under the name Arkin Allen. He debuted as Mercan Dede in 1987 with the release his first album, Sufi Dreams. A minimalist techno project featuring the ney, the album earned impressive reviews. A few years later, Dede moved to Montreal and got involved with the techno scene.

Dede formed his first group in 1997 and has recorded four albums: Journeys of a Dervish, Seyahatname, Nar and Su. The group is a shifting unit with local musicians from the countries they visit added to the lineup. "When I do a European tour, each country, I choose a guest musician from that country. This is the essence of the group." In July 2001, Dede performed at the Montreal Jazz Festival, sharing the stage with Burhan Öçal and Jamaaladeen Tacuma before an audience of more than 150,000 people. He has collaborated with, among others, Natacha Atlas, Omar Sosa and Dhafer Youssef. The group's 2004 U.S. debut took place in New York in January as part of the world music marathon, GlobalFest.

Dede's profile is rising all the time. In addition to his busy international touring schedule, he made an appearance in the Turkish music documentary Crossing the Bridge.
"The Sufi poet Rumi has a very good saying," Dede said. "'If you are everywhere, you are nowhere. If you are somewhere, you are everywhere.' My somewhere is my heart. I try to figure it out. The rest—the hype, the trends—they are not important. Instead of talking about war in Iraq, if you can make a sound of a small instrument from an Iraqi village, you can tell people more about what is going on there. For me, the future is electronic and folkloric." —Tom Jackson