It’s the Journey

Listening Post 358. Art and life merge in the luscious voice of Elif Sanchez, and her second album offers the privileged listener an international voyage, no passport required. Her music rests on a traditional foundation of family and schooling: Born Elif Cakmut in Istanbul, she grew up singing Turkish and Azerbaijani folk songs with her mother, had a classical conservatory education, learned oboe and English horn, played in a symphony orchestra, studied jazz vocals and performed in some of Istanbul’s leading clubs. Then came four years at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, where English became her primary spoken language and she also entered a Latin universe: She married Paul Sanchez, her Ecuadorian-born Berklee classmate, and her talent caught the attention of Javier Limón, multi-Grammy winning Spanish producer, performer and also artistic director of Berklee’s Mediterranean Music Institute. Elif’s eponymous debut album, released in 2021, was a charming, jazz-infused set of Turkish and Azerbaijani songs with a single Spanish track. Seven months later, she flipped the template for Mi Voz (My Voice): Nine songs in Spanish (seven written by Limón, who also produced the album) and two bilingual numbers; the jazz touches are gone, replaced with an acoustic Anatolian-Iberian sound as seamless as it is sumptuous, as magical as it is melancholy. She breathes sorrow in A Veces (Sometimes, video 1), evokes memory in Me Quedas Tu (I Still Have You, video 2) and toys with kisses in Son Individuales (Each One Different, video 3). She joins Turkish pop star Kemal Doğulu in a bilingual duet of his heartbreak ballad Vuelve – Kurşun Adres Sormaz ki (Come Back and Love Me, video 4); and hails the sunrise—in Spanish and Azerbaijani—with Amanacer – Gel Ey Seher (Come, Morning, video 5). At once shimmering and soulful, Mi Voz is evidence that in music, too, the journey defines the destination. (Pasión Turca)

Elif Sanchez: Mi Voz
Elif Sanchez: Lead vocals
Kenan Doğulu: Guest vocals
Javier Limón: Guitars, backing vocals
Dany Noel: Bass
Israel Suarez “Piraña”: Percussion
Pablo Limón: Percussion
Paul Sanchez: Trumpet, backing vocals
Cenk Erdoğan: Fretless guitar

 

A Veces / Sometimes
Lyrics & music: Javier Limón

(From the Spanish lyrics)
Sometimes I talk about sorrow/Happy, I don’t usually talk
Because when I’m happy/I laugh rather than sing

Sometimes I hear stories/of people who have come to me with a broken look
My soul has been upset

Sometimes I talk about sorrow/Happy, I don’t usually talk
Because when I’m happy/I laugh rather than sing

Sometimes I hear stories/of people who have come to me with a broken look
My soul has been upset

I make my songs/With words and with notes
Sometimes I say your name/And sometimes I say someone else’s

I make my songs/With words and with notes
Sometimes I say your name/And sometimes I say someone else’s

La la la…

Sometimes no one believes my story/They say I’ve imagined it
Obviously I lie to them/Of course I’ve made it up

Sometimes just sometimes/I don’t sing any songs
Silent, I look at your photo/Looking for my inspiration

 

Me Quedas Tu / I Still Have You
Lyrics & music: Javier Limón

(From the Spanish lyrics)
When the rain doesn’t stop/And the wind won’t cease
When memory burdens/And the fire goes out

Spring isn’t coming/The winter drags on
I count in my head/Every second that passes

When there’s not even a car left/Dreaming on the street
When there isn’t a child left/Alone in the yard

When there’s nothing left/When no one listens
When in the old mirror/I only see myself

I still have you/I have you
Because you are the canvas/of an infinite frame
Painted at night/Almost backlit

I still have you/I have you
I paint your skin/Bronze gypsy
Your hair black/And your blue gaze

When I go quiet/Like the tide
There won’t be a sin left/In need of forgiving

My memory like sand/The sea will take it
No one to say/That my name remains

I still have you/I have you
Because you are the canvas/of an infinite frame
Painted at night/almost backlit

I still have you/I have you
I paint your skin/Bronze gypsy
Your hair black/And your blue gaze

Blue/And your blue gaze
Blue/And your blue gaze
Blue
Blue
Blue

 

Son Individuales / Every One Is Different
Lyrics & music: Javier Limón

(From the Spanish lyrics)
Every one is different/Every one is different
My kisses never never taste the same/taste the same, taste the same

Every one is different/Every one is different
My kisses never never taste the same/taste the same, taste the same

Water kisses/Air kisses
Kisses for everyone/Kisses for nobody

Fake kisses/Real kisses
Kisses that are forgotten/Kisses to remember

Water kisses/Air kisses
Kisses for everyone/Kisses for nobody

 

Vuelve – Kurşun Adres Sormaz Ki / Come Back – A Bullet Doesn’t Ask for an Address
Original Turkish lyrics & music: Kenan Doğulu
Spanish lyrics adaptation: Paul Sanchez, Elif Sanchez, Vito Montaruli, Ipek González Martínez 

(From the lyrics as performed in Spanish and Turkish)
Even so, my heart/I gave it all for your eternal love
Even so, only you remain/I take care of the path that your feet walk

My soul adores you/I would die for your caresses
Because you gave me hope/My soul adores you
I would die for your smile/And now I can’t leave you

A shot has no mercy/It burns me deep
My heart always suffers/If you are not here
A shot has no mercy/It burns me deep
My heart always suffers/If you are not here

Come back and love me/Wrap my love in yours
I need you to breathe

Come back and love me/Wrap my love in yours
I need you to breathe/I need you to breathe
I need you

Even if, oh my love/I was reborn the day I met you
Even if, only you remain/When there is no one left, you will be there

My soul adores you/I would die for your caresses
Because you gave me hope/My soul adores you
I would die for your smile/And now I can’t leave you

Sing to me Kenan

A bullet doesn’t ask for an address/You burned me deeply
My heart still smoulders/I am helpless in the flames
A bullet doesn’t ask for an address/You burned me deeply
My heart still in smoulders/I am helpless in the flames

Come back, love me again/Wrap my love in yours
I need you like breath

Come back, love me again/Wrap my love in yours
I need you like breath/I need you like breath
I need you like breath/I need you like breath

I need you like breath/The essence of sin is to love you
My punishment is hell

 

Amanacer – Gel Ey Seher / Come, Morning
Original Azerbaijani lyrics and music: Polad Bülbüloğhlu, Fikrət Qoca
Spanish lyrics adaptation: Paul Sanchez, Elif Sanchez 

(From the lyrics as performed in Spanish and Azerbaijani)
Your black eyes
Like fog that floods my path as I walk

Walking to nothing
Where will it take you?

This morning the sun shines again
A new story is born, the sun is already awake and shining
It paints colors, or there will be no more sea
The darkness flees when it sees the sea

Dawn cleanses Eden

Let the crazy wind take this day
Bring back that past life

The sun will shine again this morning
A new story begins in the world
Wake up, oh sun, wake up
Paint colors or this sea will fly
In the dark night the sea runs away 

The sun shines again this morning
A new story begins in the world
Wake up, oh sun, wake up
Paint colors of this sea will fly
In the dark night the sea runs away

Come, O morning
Come, O morning