Ali Doğan Gönültaş

Ali Doğan Gönültaş was born in Kiğı, Eastern Anatolia, Turkey. Graduated from Kocaeli University Archeology and Radio TV and Cinema departments, the musician started his professional music career with the band Ze Tijê, of which he is one of the founders and author of many of the compositions and arrangements, as well as performer of several instruments and the lead singer. They made hundreds of concerts in Turkey and released two studio albums “Yanlışımız Var!” (2015) and “Ur” (2019), in a postrock, collage and experimental genres. Since 2018, he has been continuing his music production with his solo concert series “Xo Bi Xo”. This project, in which the musician includes songs in Kurmanci and Turkish as well as Zazaki, his mother tongue, has an experimental feel to it as well as traditional styles and themes. In addition, his oral history and field research studies, which he began in 2007, continue with the album Kiğı, which he self-produced and released in 2022. Kiğı, which is also the birthplace of the musician, describes the specific musical language and style of an Anatolian/Mesopotamian settlement. He contributed to the soundtracks of films such as My Own Life (2014) and Şeng (2021). He took part in the project titled “Voice of the City as an Example of Intangible Cultural Heritage (Diyarbakır)” as a composer. In 2020, he prepared and presented the television program “Voices and Traces” for Can TV. The program, which consisted of conversations and musical performances, was about non-mainstream musical genres and schools in Turkey. In 2021 and 2022 he is presenting and producing the TV show “Müzik Olayı” also for Can TV. In 2022 Ali Doğan was signed by the son of the old master Seîdê Goyî, a dengbej (singing storyteller) of traditional Botan music, to arrange the pieces and be the producer of the EP Stranên Dilê Min (songs of my heart, in Kurdish). About Kiğı In May of 2022, Ali Doğan Gönültaş released Kiğı, his first solo and self-produced album that emerged as a result of more than ten years of field research. The work, which is a personal look at the 150-year musical process of Kiğı, the musician's birthplace, consists of works in the regional languages of Krmancki, Kurmanci, Kirdaski, Armenian, and Turkish. This thematic album consists of stylized performances accompanied by ethnomusicological data, with the goal of providing a discourse and a voice to remember despite the fading of memory. The project evolved from an "oral history" motivation into a musical memory work. In the project, which includes thematic and technical music forms, thematic contents such as Govend, lament, job songs, Xerîbîyê and prayer forms are conveyed with the modal characteristics of the region. Kiğı has been #1 in the Balkan World Music Charts in the second quarter of 2022 and #11 in September for the Transglobal World Music Chart.