Album Review: Hope from Defne Şahin

Album:  Hope
Artist:  Defne Şahin
Label:  Berthold Records
Website:  www.defnesahin.com
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Bridging the melodic influences of world pop, jazz, and ambient, vocalist Defne Şahin merges the poetry of British author Emily Dickinson with original music and lyrics on Şahin's 2023 release Hope.  Her lyrics externalize thoughts about life and death, moving between introspection and melancholy, wrestling between embracing life and longing for loss and letting these feelings go.  Culminating into an enchanting cauldron of hypnotic soundscapes as each track moves into the next.

The Berlin-born vocalist of Turkish origin draws from her experiences living between New York, Berlin, and Istanbul.  Inspired by the poems of Dickinson, the music intimates the highs and lows of life, offering insight into human existence and all its complexities. Şahin's glistening timbres produce an eerie shimmer across "Moyra's Light" as Johannes von Ballestrem's keys softly glitter in the backdrop.  The effect resonates with the listener, intimating intense loss, brightening to an uplifting lilt through "There's A Certain Slant of Light."

Şahin's soulful voicing soars gracefully across "Tie The Strings To My Life," exuding a spirituality and elegance that speaks into the listener's ears.  The silky beats waddling along "Blessing From A Lioness" are juxtaposed by the gliding riffs of Keisuke Matsuno's guitar strings and Johannes von Ballestrem's tingling keys. The sensual texture of Şahin's voice intensifies the hypnotic feel of the track.

The press release describes that Şahin "characterizes her creative process with Dickinson's works as an 'imaginary collaboration,' drawing personal parallels with Dickinson's timeless themes of loneliness, hope, and love, and weaving these threads into a modern and lyrical song cycle. Şahin worked on the compositions with her mentor, the multiple Grammy-nominated singer and composer Becca Stevens, who, along with Joni Mitchell and Laura Mvula, also served as a major source of inspiration for the album."

Defne Şahin studied vocal jazz at the Universität der Künste Berlin and the Escola Superior de Musica Barcelona. She earned her Master of Music degree in Vocal Jazz Performance from the Manhattan School of Music in New York in 2014. In 2016, she was employed as an artist in residence at the Kulturakademie Tarabya of the German Federal Foreign Office in Istanbul. She has also taught at the Universität der Künste in Berlin and the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden.

Defne Şahin expands the boundaries of jazz as a vocalist, songwriter, music educator, guest speaker, and jury member of various commissions. Her fusion of pop, jazz, and ambient is sublime, offering an ambrosial escape into hypnotic soundscapes.

Musicians:
Defne Şahin - vocals
Johannes von Ballestrem - piano and synthesizers
Keisuke Matsuno - guitar
Simon Jermyn - electric bass
Martin Krümmling - drums
Dilvin Şahin - background vocals

Poem: Emily Dickinson
Produced by Greg Cohen & Defne Şahin
Recorded by Axel Reinemer in June 2022 at Jazzanova Recording Studio in Berlin, Germany