Letters to Distant Cities:

Featuring the poetry of Mustafa Ziyalan
with Shara Worden | My Brightest Diamond
Clare and the Reasons
Rob Moose (Sufjan Stevens, Anthony & The Johnsons)

Curated and produced by Murat Eyuboglu
Designed by Adam Frint
Videos edited by David Sarno
Photography featuring Jamie Ansley

Multimedia box set with audio
and high-quality postcards
New Amsterdam Records, 2011

Read the Huffington Post Review.

Purchase the album.

Track 18, In the Land of Sleep

New Amsterdam Records welcomes singer-songwriters Shara Worden (of My Brightest Diamond) and Clare Muldaur Manchon (of Clare and the Reasons), along with indie-classical multi-instrumentalist/composer Rob Moose, collaborators in the enchanted and melancholy Letters to Distant Cities, a multi-media project curated and produced by photographer and videographer Murat Eyuboglu, exploring urban solitude through the poetry of Turkish-American poet, Mustafa Ziyalan.

Letters to Distant Cities is a spoken-word album bookended by two original songs: My Brightest Diamond’s The Sea and Clare and the Reasons’ Invisible. The Sea opens the album and cracks the door to a mythical realm, into which Shara Worden enters and embodies the female persona of Ziyalan’s poetry, speaking the texts of 24 poetic snapshots, connected by Rob Moose’s incidental reflections and interventions for violin. After the poetry, Invisible closes the album, drifting wistfully to its bittersweet conclusion.

“In Ziyalan's work one can see the impulse of the Turkish language in the 20th Century to represent a social reality beyond national borders. It points to the prophetic nature of Turkish poetry becoming a medium for a global sensibility — the psychic dislocations globalism creates in consciousness” says fellow poet Murat Nemet-Nejat.

Says fellow poet Murat Nemet-Nejat: “In Ziyalan's work one can see the impulse of the Turkish language in the 20th Century to represent a social reality beyond national borders. It points to the prophetic nature of Turkish poetry becoming a medium for a global sensibility — the psychic dislocations globalism creates in consciousness.”

In addition to the CD, the album package includes a set of 24 pristine keepsake cards, comprising a photographic illustration for each of Ziyalan’s poems collected on the recording. The images were captured by Murat Eyuboglu with model Jamie Ansley. Designer Adam Frint brings musical, poetic, and photographic elements together, creating a physical connection to the album’s sense of memorabilia.

MORE ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist SHARA WORDEN spearheads the indie-folk band My Brightest Diamond. With a background in classical music, Worden studied opera at the University of North Texas and Manhattan School of Music, and studied composition with composer/performer Padma Newsome (Clogs, The National). My Brightest Diamond involves elements of rock and classical music, with the combined sound of instrumentalists Rob Moose, Earl Harvin, Chris Bruce, and Zac Rae. Their first record, Bring Me the Workhorse, was released on Asthmatic Kitty Records in 2006. Their sophomore album, A Thousand Shark’s Teeth, was released in 2008.

Recent years have found Worden collaborating as much as songwriting. Last October, New Amsterdam’s own Sarah Kirkland-Snider released the song cycle, Penelope, featuring Worden on vocals. On the rock side, Worden sang the role of The Queen for The Decemberists' rock opera, The Hazards of Love. She was heard on Sufjan Stevens‘ albums Illinois and The Age of Adz, dueted with David Byrne for his album Here Lies Love, and she sang in Padma Newsome’s chamber ensemble, Clogs, for The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton. Worden also performed with Bryce and Aaron Dessner in The Long Count theater production at BAM.

Clare and the Reasons, fronted by collaborators CLARE MULDAUR MANCHON and Olivier Manchon, is a Brooklyn–based indie-pop outfit started in 2005. Live, they have a steady list of contributors, with a host of acoustic instruments -- cellos, violas, things to hit, kazoos, baby kotos, saws, recorders, and a bass drum that says “Kaboom” on it. Clare and the Reasons deliver an assortment of meticulously constructed and arranged songs. Walking the line between musical maturity and sophistication and primal, childlike musical instincts, Clare and the Reaons floats between both worlds, comfortably.

After two years touring their first album, “The Movie,” which included contributions from Van Dyke Parks and Sufjan Stevens, they announced the arrival of their sophomore album this past fall. “Arrow” (Frog Stand Records) features a special guest appearance from Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond, and has gathered a swarm of acclaim since its release.

A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music in violin performance, ROB MOOSE has established an exciting and eclectic presence as performer, arranger and conductor in the rapidly changing atmosphere of contemporary music. Since joining Antony and the Johnsons in 2005, Moose has also toured with Sufjan Stevens, Beth Orton and Duncan Sheik, and recorded with Vampire Weekend, Grizzly Bear, Arcade Fire, The National, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Rufus Wainwright and Marianne Faithfull. 

In 2009, he co-arranged and music directed The Long Count, a multimedia song cycle commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival. Elsewhere, his arrangements have been performed and recorded by Antony, Loudon Wainwright, Punch Brothers, Elizabeth and the Catapult and Bon Iver. Moose recently performed for President Obama on national television, playing guitar and violin in support of Renee Fleming’s album, “Dark Hope.”

MUSTAFA ZIYALAN’s poetry, short fiction, essays and poetry translations have appeared in many literary periodicals, anthologies (most recently in New European Poets) and also in book form. Istanbul Noir, an anthology of short fiction he co-edited with Amy Spangler, was published by Akashic Books in 2008. His most recent volume of poetry, Land of Smiles/Gülumsemeler Ülkesi, a bilingual collection of poetry with original woodcuts by Vladimir Ginzburg, was published in 2009. Su Kedileri (Water Cats), a collection of short fiction, came out in 2005, Yakılacak Kentlerden (From Cities Slated to Burn), a collection of travel writing with original photography by Murat Eyuboglu, in 2007, Manhattan’da Şiir Konuşmaları (Poetry Talks in Manhattan), a collection of writings on poets and poetry, in 2009.

He was born at the Black Sea coast of Turkey and worked as a general practitioner and coroner in a rural Anatolian village. He now lives and practices psychiatry in New York. He has worked with torture victims, inmates, children abusing volatile substances, pathological gamblers, and persons with HIV.

ADAM FRINT is a Chicago-based graphic designer with a love for music and typography, an appreciation for illustration, and a passion for fine art black and white photography. A senior designer at AGI, a global leader in design, packaging, print and production for the entertainment (movie, music and gaming) industry, Adam has had the opportunity to work with many great clients ranging from the Sony Group, Walt Disney Studios, EMI Music, HBO and Warner Home Video. He is a graduate of Northern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communication and a Minor in Photography and a founding member of the online design community, c2ak.com. He has been affiliated with, and draws inspiration from, local designers and artists from Lumpen Magazine, Chicago Country Club, CPG (Chicago Screen Printer's Guild), ADLOVE, OhNo!Doom and Prairie Mod.

DAVID SARNO is a freelance editor and has worked in television production for over ten years. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts in Cinema and Photography from Southern Illinois University, he moved to Chicago and began his editing career. The scope of his work covers a broad range, including broadcast television, music videos, and internet programs. 

Highlights include working at Kurtis Productions where he cut 4 episodes of American Greed, a documentary series airing on CNBC. Also while at Kurtis he cut two episodes of The Entrepreneurs for CNBC, a series profiling small businesses on the fast track to building national brands, and a one hour episode of American Originals, about the history of the Westminster Kennel Club. David has also worked at Thea Flaum Productions where he edited twenty-six episodes of From Junky to Funky, a home remodeling show on the DIY network, and Anderson Productions where he cut six episodes for the Emmy-nominated series, CPS Right Now!

His most recent work includes editing three episodes of CNBC Titans, a documentary series profiling subjects including Ted Turner, Procter and Gamble, and Lee Iacocca.

JAMIE ANSLEY is a poet, playwright and actress. She has written, performed and produced countless plays in New York City. In 2002, she began her career as a medical clown performer visiting five hospitals on a weekly basis in and around New York City. Ms. Ansley is currently pursuing a career in Drama Therapy. She intends to integrate her experience as a medical clown into the field of drama therapy in health care settings.