Ali Doğan Gönültaş

Website: http://www.alidogangonultas.com

“Gradually, the audience, sitting on chairs, started to move more and more to the music and rhythms of Gönültaş and his two companions Ali Kutlutürk on percussion and Fırat Çakılcı on clarinet. A rhythmically undulating, clapping crowd began to form. This led to a cheerful interaction between the three men on stage and the audience. The world needs more people like Ali Doğan Gönültaş.” Jan de Leeuw, after the concert in Music Meeting (The Netherlands)
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“Gönültaş possesses a voice that demands attention, at times it’s like a cry from the heart, then cajoling and joyful. Joined by two excellent musicians, percussionist Ali Kutlutürk and clarinettist Fırat Çakılcı, Gönültaş is the ultimate showman.” Jo Frost, about the concert in Førdefestivalen (Norway)
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“One of the most enjoyable concerts was Ali Doğan Gönültaş with his trio. He sings and plays tembur and guitar with clarinet and percussion. He’s a rising star on the Kurdish music scene and has a totally engaging personality, smiling, laughing and inviting you in. […] Gönültaş is a first-rate performer.” Simon Broughton for Songlines #195, about the concert by Ali at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg
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“Ali Doğan Gönültaş, with his delving rhythmic journey, grasp my heart and caresses it with care and knowledge. He awakes the layers of cultural divinity and embraces all its population.”
Zekeriya S. Şen

BIO
Ali Doğan Gönültaş sings and plays tembur and acoustic guitar. He is also an extremelly gifted arranger, artistic producer and composer. He was born in Kiğı, Eastern Anatolia, in a family for which, as most of the Alevi ones, music is an essential way of transmitting the history of his people.

The emotion in his expressive voice, the dreamy melodies of his compositions, and his profound background shine in all their splendour in the magnificent debut album “Kiğı,” for which the artist spent over ten years conducting field research. This self-produced album has opened doors to European stages. Throughout 2023 and 2024, he has performed in more than 40 concerts in Spain, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Belgium and Jordan, in addition to performances in Turkey, at benchmark venues such as Fundação Gulbenkian (Lisbon), Urkult Festival (Nasaker, Sweden), Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg) or Jerash Festival.

In June of 2023, the album Kiğı is re-edited with a more extended booklet and in physical CD, by Mapamundi Música. In November 2023, the jurors of the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, the German Record Critics’ Award, recognised the production as the Quarterly Critic’s Choice in the Category Traditional Ethnic Music. And in August 2024, Ali’s second album, Keyeyî, would be awarded too.
His studies in archaeology and media have provided him with a deep focus on research and source analysis, as well as the ability to translate that background into a highly captivating artistic and communicative language. Ali has collaborated on film soundtracks and is a TV presenter on non-mainstream music genres.

Before this courageous work, “Kiğı,” in which he advocates for the languages and culture of silenced minorities in Turkey, such as the Kurds and Armenians, Ali Doğan spent ten years collaborating with the fascinating band Ze Tîje, worked in archaeology in Anatolia, composed music for film, and to this day, continues to work in television with a musical theme.

In 2022 Ali Doğan was signed by the son of the old master Seîdê Goyî, a dengbej (storyteller-singer) of traditional Botan music, to arrange the pieces and be the producer of the EP Stranên Dilê Min (songs of my heart, in Kurdish). In March of 2023 they entered in the studio again, to produce a new EP with 5 new pieces: Jinê.

And in the Spring of 2024, Ali recorded his second solo album, Keyeyî. Apart from the award of the Schallplattenkritik, this album was #1 in Transglobal World Music Chart of June 2024, #1 at the Balkan World Music Chart 2nd Quarter of 2024 and Top of the World for the magazine Songlines in the edition of August 2024.