Altın Gün – ‘Garip’ album review: A contemporary ode to a Turkish folk hero
Everybody’s favourite Dutch-Turkish outfit, Altın Gün, unleash their long-awaited return to the airwaves in the form of Garip, a record which firmly re-establishes their long-held devotion to the sonic history of Anatolian psychedelia, particularly the folk roots of that particularly enduring sound.
The Skinny: A ten-track record that is unsuspectingly dense with expansive ideas, Garip wastes no time in launching into the kind of mind-expanding Anatolian rock that has kept Altın Gün in the collective consciousness since their first emergence back in 2016. At the root of this record, however, is a faithful devotion to the extensive history of Turkish folk music, offering a more intimate, occasionally stripped-back layer to the group’s typical offerings.
That folk slant makes a lot more sense when you take into account that the entire record was first conceived as a tribute to the timeless sounds of Neşet Ertaş, the bağlama master and godfather of virtually all modern Turkish folk.
Ertaş, as exemplified both by the incredible discography spanning generations he left behind and the ideas contained on Garip, is as responsible for the explosion of Anatolian rock as the likes of Barış Manço, even if he isn’t afforded quite the same credit by those with long hair and flared trousers.
Unlike a multitude of lesser tribute albums, though, which would be awash with unimaginative cover versions and bastardisations of Ertaş’s work, Garip manages to perfectly toe the line between being a tribute record and establishing Altın Gün’s own, original output, through ten reinterpretations of Ertaş’s compositions.
The folk pioneer’s existence is employed almost as a jumping-off point, which is perhaps why the record contains some of the band’s most endearingly experimental, otherworldly efforts.
Some of the notable highlights from the record include tracks like ‘Suçum Nedir’, within which the band stretches into the realm of cinematic funk, evoking the image of people like Roy Ayers and even hints at Piero Umiliani, before inevitably travelling back to the starting point of Neşet Ertaş. It is difficult to think of many other modern-day bands who could pull off such a sonic menagerie with such effortless grace.
The Verdict: While certainly an album to be listened to all in one go, Altın Gün’s tapestry of Anatolian psych-folk reaffirms the Amsterdam-based band as masters of the genre, and their debt to the extensive output of Neşet Ertaş has never been more evident.
Standout Track: ‘Neredesin Sen’
Release Date: February 20th, 2026 | Producer: Jasper Verhulst | Label: Glitterbeat
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