L’Homme Fatale: Yaşar Güvenir – Sensiz Saadet (1979)

And yet, all things that touch us, you and me,
bind us together like a violin bow
drawing but one sound from two strings.
On which instrument though are we both strung?
And what violinist holds us in the hand?
Oh, sweet, sweet song.

Rainer Maria Rilke, Love Song

If I had to describe to anybody the special beauty and atmosphere of the Turkish Mediterranean and Aegean coasts paired with its romantic melancholia in one record, it would be through Yaşar Güvenir’s Sensiz Saadet („Felicity without you“), a criminally underrated gem in the vast catalogue of great Turkish music.

Nocturnal nature is where the male soul can feel at ease- with the glaring opulence in the daylight tamed down under the emblematic presence of the crescent, the murmur and black and white glitter of the moonlit sea, and the subtle evening scent of jasmine and the muted pink of the bougainvillea courting his senses. It is the magical time when muffled sound unites with the clear transmittance of the night sky, sharpening the senses and making them relax at the same time, while the images of swinging boats in the harbor blur with a sense of melancholia.

Hüzün– the Turkish word refers to the pain and sorrow over loss, a sense of failure in life, lack of initiative and retreat into oneself. A melancholia that allows a lighter version of sadness that is especially suitable to open the hearts of men. Men that don’t want to go too deep down the fatalistic and haunted road but in their state of yearning fatigue say: Just let me be still for a moment.

Sensiz Saadet is such a still moment, a gentle dance of the deep pain lingering, mixed with a coastal atmosphere and Mediterranean grandezza. It is Alain Delon sitting at dinner with a small group of friends and maybe triggered by a scent or breeze, is thinking about a lost romance, a vanishing pain, and for a while giving into this feeling of delicious heartbreak.

All songs on this record are about lost love and loneliness, with romantic and personal words being expressed in a most gentle and sophisticated manner, never too dramatic, never too fragile, never too fatal or broken. „What is felicity without you? / I haven’t tasted it, I don’t know / You were my destiny / I cannot escape it no matter what I do” are the first lines of the sublime title song, and the Turkish language rarely sounded more beautiful than in Güvenir’s velvety interpretation. His is the crooning of a barfly with the perfect, unpoisonous intoxication.

The orchestration is gentle and understated, yet piano, guitar, strings, and the traditional Kanun are being granted space alone and each provides a remarkably distinctive sound that has room to shine. The production on this record is outstanding; pianist Güvenir mainly worked with the ‘Vasfı Uçaroğlü Orkestrası‘, whose complex arrangements and twists are reminiscent of the work Vannier did for Gainsbourg, but with a much more subtle and sparse dramatic. This orchestra here is accompanying a soul and its sentiments and adjusting to it, not the other way around.

While the beautiful compositions of Yaşar Güvenir can be heard in little bars all over Turkey, even the Turkish people are often not aware of his name. He is the classic example of the underrated artist in the background, one who penned songs for other artists that reached great fame and success, like Italian singer Mina, who turned into a world star after recording Güvenir’s composition My Crazy Baby (1956). And although he started composing in 1951, the elegant crooner released Sensiz Sedaat as his one and only record in 1979, with 50 years, and after the death of his wife. But what better way to leave the scene in an enigmatic manner, leaving behind one fleeting, utterly beautiful record that refuses the word masterpiece although it would have deserved it- it’s too tender for such labels, too pure and unabused.

by Saliha Enzenauer

(Originals of this record in good condition are extremely rare and start at 600 Euros, yet its first reissue went unnoticed by music critiques and collectors. You can order it straight at the label Laluna Records. Another great source for buying Turkish music is Opus3a.com . The website has a large section of vinyl, shipping is fast and prices are cheap because of the changing course of the Lira – the purchase of this record cost the author 22€ including shipping)