The last century of the Ottoman Empire is known with a number of compositions that were added to the Turkish cultural repertoire and Turkish classical makams (a system of melody types used in Turkish classical music) that were performed in various kinds of way and style. In an attempt to revive these compositions, a group of young Belgian virtuosos formed the unique music group of Lâmekân Ensemble.

This music sextet was founded in 2011 by Belgian ‘ûd player and musicologist Tristan Driessens. Their first critically acclaimed album (Gülzar-ı Vefâ, Garden of Fidelity – Music of the Ottoman Court) was published in 2014 in Istanbul and was successful both in Turkey and Europe. They perform with the finest representatives of classical Ottoman music, including Derya Türkan, Necati Celik, Burcu Karadağ and Murat Aydemir. In 2015, Lâmekân Ensemble was selected to officially represent Turkey at the International Mugham Festival of Azerbaijan, where they were awarded the third price in the vocal category.

In 2015, a 50 minute documentary about the Lâmekân Ensemble, entitled My Place is Nowhere, was filmed and directed by Turkish film maker Ersen Kiyga. In the same year, the group released a new (double) album entitled The Book of Lovers (Cypres Records).

Tristan Driessens: oud, artistic direction Ridvan Aydinli: vocals & ney Muhittin Kemal Temel: kanun Ruben Tenenbaum: violin Simon Leleux: percussion Robbe Kieckens: percussion.

Featured artists: Derya Türkan: kemençe

With the support of the Yunus Emre Institute