Coming up to their 1st Birthday, 21 Shepherd Street have cultivated a space for humble and deeply honest offerings of music and theatre in an impressively short period of time. Their presentation of Turkish-Australian musician Muharrem Aslan’s “Sounds of Anatolia” was no exception. Vocalist, composer and Bağlama virtuoso Muharrem Aslan presented 2 intimate sets of Anatolian folk music, pairing Aslan’s original musical settings of Turkish poetry with Anatolian and Balkan folk songs. Armed with just his Bağlama and his stories, Aslan held the room lovingly as he took us on a journey from the Black Sea to Egypt, igniting a warm nostalgia for all that were there witness. Families poured in to 21 Shepherd Street, finding refuge from that blustery Sunday evening, comforted by tungsten lamps and a warm welcome from the venue owners Michelle St. Anne and Peter Keogh. 

Aslan immediately held a great rapport with the audience. As he introduced each song, the dynamics were closer to an ongoing dialogue with the audience, with his humble, introspective tone matched only by his graceful singing, always engaging in music making as an invitation to collaborate and listen. 

Aslan’s proficiency on the Bağlama, a traditional long-necked lute originating in Turkey, cannot be understated. Both sets featured between plaintive folksongs, with simple strumming patterns effortlessly supporting the gentle musings of his voices. Although, what stood out was Aslan’s interspersed Bağlama improvisations. Hovering over of his left hand as it danced on the fretboard with bubbly trills and slides, it was as if he was cradling emerging melody like a newborn, birthing songs for this space only that have been incubating for centuries in this instrument. 

However, Aslan’s command on the Bağlama was always in service of a much broader goal. Aslan took the audience on a journey of the voices, stories, memories and sounds, old and new, that are carried by this instrument from the perspective of the songs’ storyteller, “the Traveller”. The Traveller journeyed outwards from Anatolia, going as wide as Egypt and the Black Sea. Aslan’s song introductions were also extremely succinct, often merely highlighting the crossing of a border or a capricious remembrance of an old folk song, but always guided by the road and the stories it generates. As said in his introduction, Aslan’s music traces song and how it transforms when travelling along this road, with the Baglama as a vessel for voices, both old and new. 

This was most clear with the audience interaction Aslan’s song choices evoked. Upon the Traveller’s stop towards the Black Sea in search of new sounds, Aslan’s swift lilt on the Bağlama immediately lit up faces around the room, followed by the most gentle hushful hum of the audience connected by song. Upon finishing this song, Aslan remarked, “A lot of people from the Black Sea tonight!”. This communal music-making experience continued as the Traveller journeyed to Thracia, stumbling upon a wedding where a band was playing. The Traveller decides to join in on his Bağlama, playing along with a traditional couples dance folksong; the audience intuitively fell into this 9/8 aksak clapping rhythm while singing along. 

Towards the end of the night, Aslan introduced one of the final songs as the Traveller’s return home to Anatolia, surrounded by Family and relatives, with Aslan’s radiant performance creating this exact energy in the room – one big sing-along. Aslan playfully cut out his rapid ⅝ lilting rhythm intermittently, leaving only the audience’s voices to be heard, highlighting that folk music truly is the people’s music. Aslan concluded this journey with a beautiful sentiment regarding this journey and music’s place in society, whereby Traveller returning home knows this journey will continue, and that we are always between the East and West and music belongs to no one. 

Aslan proved that no matter where you go, people and their music share the same values. With encore requests hurled at him from the audience, launching into various dance songs; several audience members had no choice but to join arms and move to the infectious lilting rhythms. 21 Shepherd Street is clearly a venue that held its audience and allowed a community to hold each other and is a true treasure to Sydney. 

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About the Artist
Muharrem Aslan is a vocalist, bağlama virtuoso, composer, and multidisciplinary musician whose work bridges Anatolian musical traditions with contemporary approaches. Born in Elbistan, Türkiye, he developed his practice through a largely self-directed path before expanding his career across Türkiye, the UK, and Australia.

His music explores modal structures, poetic settings, and cross-cultural collaboration, often bringing the bağlama into dialogue with diverse musical forms. In recent years, he has focused on expanding the instrument’s expressive possibilities, most notably through his development of Fourtemolo.

Alongside his artistic work, Aslan has undertaken formal studies in music and creative music therapy in Sydney. His evolving body of work reflects a commitment to reimagining tradition as a living, contemporary practice.

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Review by Louis Wishart, Artistic Director SCALP

Louis Wishart is a Sydney-based Composer and Musician, whose sound synthesises free-improvisation aesthetics, with a focus on resonance, intimacy with sound and organic processes. Louis has been recognised with severasl accolades, being accepted into the Ostrava Days institute in 2023 and 2025, being awarded the Encouragement Award for the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra’s Young Composer Award, and most recently being accepted into Ensemble Offspring’s Hatched Academy, where he will have his new work “Children of Aurora” premiered at the Sydney Opera house.  Graduated in 2023 from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with a Bachelor of Music (Composition), First Class Honors, has studied closely under leading Australian composition such as Liza Lim, Carl Vine and Gerard Brophy, refining his unique approached to aleatoric music. Louis is an internationally performed composer, with premieres by ensembles such “AURA Ensemble” from the Houston Moores School of Music, Ensemble Garage in Cologne, Ostravska Banda in Ostrava, as well as the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Orchestra and New Music Ensemble.