Close your eyes for the first few minutes listen and then see it to believe your ears. At first it sounds like a soundtrack for a space odyssey, probably an imagination of an alien invasion and looking for the protagonists, the man in whose hands the fate of the world rests. At certain other parts this might sound like a psychedelic song, a bunch of notes and pitches strung together to give a sonically heightening feeling of one being trapped in a void, a few sounds that would sit congenially on a Pink Floyd album, but drift away from the influences that suit your palate, and open your ears to the delectation of Turkish folk music.
After toiling for five years, Turkish musician Gorkem Sen invented this instrument that he called Yaybahar. Although we might perceive it as the sound coming off a few effects pedals that have been rigged together with the perfect blend and proportion of delay, echo and reverberation and that is by passed into a full range Vox or Marshall Amp to condense the sounds and send it out of the PA, this cumbersome instrument is purely acoustic. If you are looking for a portable instrument to fling on top of your shoulder to impress the opposite sex, then look away, because this instrument is going to be stationed in one spot whether you like it or not.
The brilliance of the Yaybahar is that Gorkem has used the mechanism of several instruments with regard to its sonic effects and has mashed up the right contents to get this humongous instrument. The Yaybahar stands on three legs, like a tripod but just spaced uniquely and has cords running from one of the sticks to the center of the two skins which look like percussion instruments or framed drums. Gorkem uses a mallet to string the coiled cords which oscillate, just like the functioning of the guitar where the stings oscillate and produce vibrations that reverberate off the wood of the guitar with a pleasant tone. That is if you are a good guitarist, if not the wood becomes a weapon for the listener. Here too, the strings when strung into vibration produce sounds off the membranes and echo off the coiled strings to produce a hypnotic and transcendental sound. The sound produced from the Yaybahar is in perfect mix with regard to the delay, echo and reverberation which is also enhanced by the sound proof engineered room he constructed, which is a must to get the best results off this instrument.
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