Café Aman Istanbul

Caf Aman Istanbul was founded in 2009 by Stelios Berberis and Pelin Suer with musicians from the Istanbul Technical University State Turkish Music Conservatory, later joined by bouzouki-player Dimitris Lappas from Thessaloniki, and released its first album 'Fasl-i Rembetiko' ('The Rembetikos of Fasil') on Kalan at the beginning of this year. The group consists of 9 musicians and 4 (sometimes 8) dancers. The album, like the group live, is completely acoustic.

Drawing on the many great songs of the rembetiko repertoires of Anatolia and Greece, Caf Aman marks a new beginning for rembetiko in Istanbul. Reviving and renewing the Caf Aman, meltng-pot culture of the Ottoman Empire of a century ago, the group takes us on a journey back to the taverns which were a mainstay of Ottoman life, taverns where there was no distinction between performer and audience, where the music and dancing was not just entertainment, rather it was part of the fabric of social interaction. The group performs in both Greek and Turkish and aims to bring this music and its dances fully back to life, as if rembetiko in Anatolia had not died out together with so many other aspects of multi-cultural, Ottoman life.