Biography

We started to do an exploration on music in the central Hakkari city and in the surrounding villages in 2003. With this, we aimed at mapping the characteristics and forms of music of the city in order to gain an insight into the place of Hakkari music in the larger context of Kurdish music. Throughout our exploration, the key points that we paid careful attention to were; the cultural surrounding of Hakkari; intercommunication between Kurds and the other ethnic groups of the region (especially with the Assyrian people); the influences of geographical environment on Hakkari music; and the musical variation of the region. We also must add that these factors have been the most important determiners on our repertoire choices. Kurdish music is, by and large, formed as an oral culture and the most prominent figures of Kurdish music are called Dengbejs and Stranbejs. Departing from this fact, we, as Lawje group, are mostly inspired by Dengbej’s and Stranbej’s techniques of voice and throat usages. We shaped our music mainly by and around these techniques. Dengbejs say “Ez pîr bûm, dil pîr nabe” which means “I got old but my heart remains young”. Lawje is the name of a Divan in which many people come together in order to open up the space for a new world for themselves with the melodies of Dengbejs. In this Divan we are honoured to give life once again to Kilam, Heyranok, Şeşbend, Narink musics which have been sung since ancient times.