Saadet Türköz

*1961, vocalist, improviser, singer, performer, lyricist. Born and raised in Istanbul as the daughter of Kazakh parents from East Turkestan, the Chinese-annexed province of Sinkiang, she has been living in Switzerland for many years.

Her music is influenced by her background and combines it with contemporary influences. You could call it “Folk-Imagine” – in a new guise! It is not even her conscious desire to cultivate a particular style. Rather, she lets thoughts and feelings flow into her singing – she touches the invisible, idolizes the earthly, mourns losses, hopes for the spring flowers... Music no longer has the “usual” meaning for her, she seeks the challenge and the unknown in it – also the calm and beauty of the sounds. She prefers to play freely, trusting the moment to form musical and intellectual motifs.

Her musical partners are drawn from a wide range of genres, including jazz, free jazz, classical, new music, noise rock, folk music and free improvisation. Saadet Türköz performs as a soloist and as a member of the bands and ensembles Urumchi (Fredy Studer, Alfred Zimmerlin, Hans Hassler), Cush (Paul Lovens, Uwe Oberg), BLT (Franz Loriot, Fridolin Blumer), Zarya-tay (Zlatko Kaucic, Giovanni Maier) and in her own project Songdreaming. She also performs regularly with duo partners such as Nils Wogram, Martin Schütz, Hans Hassler, Hans Koch, Lucien Dubuis, Thomas Rohrer and many others.

She has participated in musical projects with Bobby McFerrin, Butch Morris, Arnaldo Antunes, Fritz Hauser and the independent Berlin music theater group Novoflot. She has also worked with the video artists Pipilotti Rist and Anka Schmid. In addition, she has experience in film music and dance productions (Elpida Orfanidau, Mustafa Kaplan/Filiz Sizanli, Chris Leuenberger, Diya Naidu).

She has performed with musicians from all over the world: with Elliott Sharp, Eyvind Kang, Yagi Michiyo, Anil Eraslan, Gyda Valtysdottir, Okkyung Lee, Kylie Sheperd, Shahzad Ismaily, Sevket Akinci, Okay Temiz, Mezan Kerbaj, Enver Izmailov, William Parker, Wilbert de Joode, Conny Bauer, Joëlle Léandre, Xu Feng Sha, Francesco Cusa, Michelle Agnes, Sharif Sehnaoui, Kylie Shepard – to name just a few – in Japan, China, Mexico, Russia, Iceland, England, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, Poland, USA, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Brazil, Norway, South Africa, India, Lebanon, Egypt and Canada.