Altin Gun at Roxian Theatre Presented by Citizens

Altın Gün is a Dutch-Turkish psych folk band based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. They mostly revive Turkish folk, psychedelia, funk and rock repertoire of the 1970s. After performing in Istanbul with Jacco Gardner, bassist Jasper Verhulst became fascinated by the Turkish sound of the 70s. At that time, artists like Selda, Barış Manço and Erkin Koray combined traditional music with western rock influences. Along with bandmates Ben Rider (guitar) and Nic Mauskovic (drums), Verhulst searched for Turkish musicians to revive this sound. They found Merve Dasdemir (vocals) and Erdinc Yildiz Ecevit (vocals, saz, keys) through Facebook. Jungle by Night’s energetic percussionist Gino Groeneveld joined the group and the band was complete. Altın Gün play songs from the aforementioned artists from the 70’s and their lesser-known contemporaries and also make their own arrangements of Turkish traditionals. This way different worlds meet and form a refreshing danceable sound.

Alex Maas is an American musician based in Austin, TX. He is lead vocalist for The Black Angels. For more than 15 years, The Black Angels has served as one of rock’s preeminent purveyors of blissful walls of fuzz and intensity. Maas says of his debut solo album "Luca", (the name of his first child, born 2018) finds him putting aside his Jesus and Mary Chain LPs and instead looking for inspiration in acts varying from The Everly Brothers to Portishead. Opener “Slip Into” delivers extraterrestrial themes over a funky beat and an eerie synth line, while “American Conquest” is a trance-inducing journey that focuses on issues much closer to home, like the horrific shootings ravaging the country in recent years. “The City” is a woozy campfire song reckoning with the larger cycle of human violence, and “Been Struggling” is a dreamy waltz that takes a winking look at memory and fate. Songs like “Special” and “500 Dreams” are lullabies for Luca inspired by thoughts about all of this and more. “I wanted to go someplace musically that I’ve never gone before,” Maas considers. “Wu-Tang meets Leonard Cohen.” The project was a long time coming: Some of the songs date back almost a decade, when the idea of a solo album was still just a star in the sky. Before the time was right. But once Maas realized that this was something he needed to do, he started putting it together piece by piece over the course of a couple years, enlisting an all-star list of collaborators to record at Spaceflight Studios in Austin: Luca was co-produced with Maas by Jack White’s front of house engineer Brett Orrison, and features contributions from Widespread Panic drummer Duane Trucks, The Sword bassist Bryan Ritchie (on mellotron and bass), Jack White keys player Quincy McCrary (on strings and piano), vocalist Jazz Mills, Eels drummer Derek Brown, Golden Dawn Arkestra drummer Robb Kidd, and The Black Angels’ own Christian Bland and Jake Garcia. Former Black Angels member Nate Ryan also plays on the album.