Companion Rec.
Marc Mundy (CYP/US,rec.1970,pub.1971,re.2006)**°°'
Mark Mundy was born on Cyprus, an island that is partly Turkish and partly Greek, which had some inter-communal conflicts since the mid sixties until Turkey made one part officially Turkish in 1974. At the starting points of these conflicts, Marc, age 17, left Cyprus to join his brother in New York, saturated by an emotional need for expression after a dead-end love affair. He started to follow philosophy at the university and set his foot in the coffeehouse music scene slowly, collecting some loose band members. He fell in love with a young Turkish émigré and married her. In late 1970 he recorded his album with several of the collected personal songs, and printed 500 copies. While he did not know what kind of effort was requiered to make promotion, and the American public couldn’t recognise themselves too easily in these personal expressions from an émigré, bringing with him some small Turkish references, with texts about the previous dead-end relationship, with hidden messages on what went wrong, which left Marc into this vulnerable position, with not much ear and understanding, so the album disappeared quickly into the unknown. Taking a distance of all that past and expression of failure, Marc gave up this musical expression, and focused entirely on his studies. After finishing them, he returned to Cyprus in the late ‘70s where he became a teacher.
The great thing about the album is the combination of band arrangements, of tragic voice, with some background female vocals on some tracks, some beautiful melancholic organ, rhythm guitars and Turkish sounding guitars, with some wah wah, easy drumming close to Turkish pop, like a late ‘60s Baris Manço. While there are recognisable poprock elements, the songs are in mind with Turkish Cyprus, and have melodies that always slightly dance into that direction. The songs themselves hang well together, and have many vulnerable moments, even more because the words are very recognisable, as well as some expressions and words, with minor chords, and easy rhythms, and become even more vulnerable because of a simplified English and the music that adapts and changes perfectly to it, with off-beats now and then, and slightly Turkish ideas. The slightly alienated feeling of having moved from a love and home country, with earnest feelings makes it very personal document. The whole effect of it all gives the album a very unique touch.
In feeling, I was reminded of the album which Turkish rock singer Cem Karaca's did as "Die Kanaken" while in exile in Germany, sung with German vocals, singing about difficulties in integrating. Besides, in Germany there was another rock singer called Alex who did 2 LP's with Turkish rock, with the help of some Can members. Also those two albums had more Turkish elements and are worth finding, much more than his later work with his Oriental Experience. It was much easier to get such ideas launched in Germany because there was more immigration from Turkish people compared to the US.
