In the organizer's words:

Şatellites

Presented by Emerged Agency
09.03.2026 Cologne, Yuca Club
Admission: 19:00 hrs | Start: 20:00 hrs

Lost somewhere between the mysterious alleys of Istanbul in the 70s and the blazing sun and crystal blue sea of Jaffa/Tel Aviv, the self-titled debut album Şatellites will be released on April 1st on Batov Records.

The sound of Şatellites shimmers between traditional Turkish folk music and instrumentation, ethereal psychedelic guitar lines and groovy dancefloor bass. The resulting mix of songs draws from continental influences, but at its core has a desire to highlight the vibrant qualities of classic Turkish music and honor the Anatolian folk and psych artists of this golden musical era.

From the funky disco beat in Disko Arabesque to the heavenly lead guitars in Yağmur Yağar Taş Üstüne, the band members add fire and flair to timeless pieces of Turkish music and give them new meanings. Covering important tracks such as singer Kamuran Akkor's song Olur mu Dersin and Zafer Dilek's Yekte, the album also features a number of original pieces of different styles and sounds that have always flowed and continue to flow from Turkey.

The band consists of six members: Ariel Harrosh (bass), Lotan Yaish (drums), Yuli Shafriri (vocals), Tsuf Mishali (keys and synths), Tal Eyal (percussion) and Itamar Kluger (diwan-saz, electric and acoustic; electric baglama; Greek quadruple-tuned bouzouki). They came together a few years after bandleader Itamar Kluger discovered the saz on a trip to the Kaçkar Mountains in the eastern region of Turkey. The saz is a long-necked plucked instrument native to the rural regions of the country; it remains an integral part of Şatellites' sound world and features prominently on the album.

Just as the guitar was electrified in the 1930s, the electrification of the saz in the 1960s led to an explosion of rock music with Middle Eastern influences - a musical genre aptly described as "Anatolian rock". It is based on the principles of Anglo-American and psychedelic rock, but incorporates the stylistics, rhythms and scales of traditional Anatolian folk music.

During the creation of the album, the band consciously pursued the idea of interweaving different elements - the groove of funk, the rhythm of disco and the reverb of psychedelia with traditional Middle Eastern rhythms and structure - opening up the richness of Turkish music to the Western world so that everyone can find something in the album that they can connect to.

Şatellites explicitly emphasize that their music is not essentially Turkish music; on the contrary, they merely try to get as close as possible to the genre in terms of sound. Their sole aim is to honor this great culture and present it to the world in a more accessible and tangible form.