A generation meets its past: Çilekeş back on stage after 16 years

On the evening of Saturday 10 October I walk through the gates of KüçükÇiftlik Park, the open-air concert venue, about to be reunited with songs I have not heard live for roughly 16 years. In front of the stage, a crowd now in its forties is reliving memories with friends before the concert begins. They talk about where they saw Çilekeş for the first and last time, and which songs they want to hear tonight. Some faces show the nerves of going to a concert after a long time, others pure excitement. In a moment, the songs they have kept alive for years in their memories and their headphones will come to life on stage again, played by Çilekeş’s original line-up.

When Çilekeş followed Y.O.K. and Katil Dans with Histeri Çalışmaları in 2010, rock music, which had enjoyed its golden age in the 2000s, was slowly starting to shed its skin. Their third album was almost a stream of consciousness of the band’s state of mind. Most of the songs had no chorus, the lyrics went much deeper philosophically, and the music seemed to have emerged through improvisation. Indeed, many of the songs in the alternative music wave that began to take off in 2015 resembled the tracks on this album. They had seen the future...