WHO IS SHE ?
R E V I E W S
"Mircan Kaya is freed by her day job as an engineer to pursue her music with a singular vision. Her voice ranges from ethereal to gutsy, through pain and joy, always true to some deep and wise river of sound that flows through her to our ears. INSULA may be the deepest yet”
- Atesh Sonneborn
Smithsonian Instutition, USA
“ It’s not often that you find trained earthquake engineers delivering songs capable of causing tremors all on their own, but Mircan Kaya’s Kül & Ashes has a seismic presence that pulverizes lesser singers.”
-New Internationalist ,UK
“Mircan is never a mere interpreter of music written by others, but does ignite her own power in every single note.
She is not the first musician showing that tradition and modernity can coexist, yet few do it her way. Her music reminds us that cultural diversity is a richness worth safeguarding ”
- Alessandro Michelucci
Documentation Centre on Threatened Peoples
Florence, Italy
".............A delicious percussion works its way throughout Minor, especially on brass singed tracks like “Dut Agaci” or the quick paced “Tolige.” “Kez Ov Pesa” is truly stunning with the opening sound of wind and bells before brass and guitar lines take over before giving way to utterly ethereal vocals. Tracks like “Osmanim,” “Dunjaluje Golem Ti Si” and “Cinarlar In Agidi” dazzle with such a force of music and vocals that it will raise the hairs on your arms – the true test of remarkable music and performance. Listeners are also treated to the flirty, folksy feel of “Ay Senyora,” the deeply dreamy and jazzy “Karmatte Gola Gza” and the sumptuous vocals and piano lines found on the lullaby “Sis Nane” that closes the CD. Ms. Kaya and company set up an evocative otherworld that astonishes."
- T JNELSON
Wold Music Central
"Singer and composer Mircan has created a Pre-Raphaelite tapestry of a CD. It’s construction includes Turkish materials but the design is highly original and eclectic, owing less to tradition than to the work of innovative singer songwriters like Kate Bush and Tom Waits.
...
The recordings were made in Istanbul but the CD was mixed and edited to a high creative standard by Roger Mills in the UK: sala is very much a comlete artefact rather than an anthology of disparate songs. This is romantic, original and deeply-felt work full of fascinating juxtapositions. It will not be to everyone’s taste but those who do like it will love it."
-Chris Williams
FROOTS
"Turkish vocalist / songwriter Mircan Kaya apparently
grew up in a mountain village in theBlack Sea Region,
singing traditional songs at weddings and ceremonies
from an early age, before her later years at university
saw her singing and playing guitar in a number of
indie-rock bands. While Kaya’s two preceding albums,
2005’s ‘Kul’ and 2006’s ‘Sala’ saw her working primarily
with traditional Turkish music, this fourth artist album
on UCM sees her collaborating with Bristol-based
six-piece Limbo (whose ranks include trumpeter
Roger Mills and Portishead alumni Jim Barr) for ten tracks
that see her singing completely in English for the first time.
Opening track ‘Waif’ almost suggests an ambient / World Music-centred listen ahead, as Kaya’s reverb-heavy vocals soar out from a backdrop of sampled rain and thunder, the beatless and slightly ominous setting providing the perfect counterpoint to her eerie high notes, before the title track injects a sense of Balkan forlorn-ness, complete with weeping violins, piano keys and bass clarinets as Kaya’s folk-tinged lyrics detail the story of a lover passed – indeed, the whole atmosphere generated particularly recalls Dead Can Dance’s re-reading of ‘I Am Stretched On Your Grave.’
From there, ‘Tonight I Long For Rest’ sees proceedings getting smokier and more jazz-centred, as muted trumpets and slow brushed snares trace a path beneath Kaya’s vaguely Grace Slick-esque delivery,"
-Chris Downton August 25, 2008
Cyclic Defrost
Mircan Kaia (Mircan Kaya) is a musician and a civil & earthquake engineer of a mutli cultural identity. As a cross breed person belonging to a an endangered minority group - Laz / Mingrelian. and Georgian she was raised in Turkey in a multi cultural environment. Mircan has received an international education in Istanbul and abroad.Born with music, she started singing when she was an infant and started playing guitar when she was twelve. She has produced several widely acclaimed albums while she was directing and coordinating outstanding international engineering projects.
She carved out a niche for herself on the music scene with the albums Bizim Ninniler and Kül, which she put out in 2005. Bizim Ninniler was the first in its genre covering traditional Anatolian lullabies. Shortly after that, her album Kul & Ashes was released by Kalan Music. This album covers contemporary arrangements of traditional songs from Anatolia, Georgia and Bosnia. Sala, Numinosum, Outim, Elixir, Nanni, Minor, Insula, Hush, Chinka, Kırmızı Gül, Tatlı Dilli / Sweet Talker are her following music albums directed and produced by herself with musicians from Turkey, UK and Australia. All these albums contain Mircan's own music. Her single " Sevemem Seni Eskisi Gibi / I can't Love You Like Before" was released in 2019. Her music works can be described as tribute to traditions, local cultures, languages, minority people and oppressed cultures.
With her unique approach to music which represents the multi-cultural blend of her personality and the environment she was affected combining many different elements such as geography, language, religions, traditions, people of different origins, all her albums have been praised and reviewed by music authorities like Folk Roots, World Music Central, Fly Global Music, Mondomix Music, CD Roots, BBC Music and BBC Radio 3, University of California KDVS Radio, Mundofonias Radio apart from local music authorities and media in Turkey.
Bizim Ninniler, her first album with traditional Anatolian lullabies has become a cult now and addicted by millions of babies and adults and has become a resource material many Phd thesis. .
Mircan Kaia's first book "The Night The Dark The Grasshopper and You " was first published in 2014 in Turkish in Turkey and translated into English. The English version will be available on Amazon in July 2020
Honors
MOTIF Foundation Folklorism and Ethnomusicology Award for her TV music show- Kanaviçe (Tapestry)
YTU-Yildiz Technical University
Best artist of the year , 2014 and the Certificate of Gratitude
International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, Best Original Film Music 2010, for White as Snow.
44th SİYAD Awards, Best Music 2011, for White as Snow.
Founder of UCM UnCatalogued Music Production
President of TASI, Turkish Association for Seismic Isolation, 2012.
Music Director of IMO Music Istanbul Chamber of Civil Engineers, 2012.
Advanced MSc Degree on The Structural Analysis of Historic Constructions, European Commission Scholarship University of Padua, Technical University Of Catalonia, University of Minho, University of Prague, 2008-2009.
MSc Degree in Earthquake Engineering, Boğaziçi University, 2006-2009.
Degree in Civil Engineering, Yıldız Technical University.