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PERIOD: A SINGULAR TEMPTATION
OPUS: OPERA FOR MUTES
SCENE: HOTEL SMITHS
RECORDED: EAST VILLAGE, NYC

The Amazons (Giresun Karsilamasi) was recorded at Hotel Smiths, the nickname I gave to the residence of my friends Andy Rourke and Francesca Mor in the East Village. It was entirely synthesised on a Moog Subphatty with external processing on a custom analogue equipment.

Giresun (Cerasus) is an ancient city on the Black Sea, the region where the fabbled warrior tribe Amazon are from, in Anatolia.

“The English word cherry, French cerise, Spanish cereza, Persian gilas and Turkish kiraz, among countless others, all come from Ancient Greek Cerasus κερασός “cherry tree”. According to Pliny, the cherry was first exported from Cerasus to Europe in Roman times by Lucullus.”

The Hellenic hero Jason in search of the Golden Fleece, on his way to Colchis (Caucasus; Georgia), arrives on the Giresun Island with the Argonauts; Hercules, Orpheus, Theseus (Founder of Athens), Hylas, Laocoon and face the Anatolian tribe of Amazons.

Themiscyra (Samsun) was the capital of the Amazons. They were related to the Scythians, Proto-Turkic nomadic tribe of warriors, whom the Hellenic folklore recorded as the Centaur, half-man, half-horse creatures.

And here is your classic KiNo twist: Next time when you hear about Amazon.com, the gigantic online service with a crap website, still virtually from the 90s, that doesn’t pay a fucking penny for taxes while making a fortune by destroying the organic culture of commerce which dates back to the times of the Karum, Assyrian bazaars, first in history, set up in the heart of the Silk Road in Anatolia, you will know where the name Amazon comes from, like the river in South America.

The song is in 9/8 time signature, pounding on Karadeniz/Black Sea rhythms. I first went to Giresun when I was 11 years old on a family trip, we drove from Zonguldak to Artvin along the coast. From that very memory comes this production. — 9