Mikaîl Aslan

Mikaîl Aslan is the leading voice of the Zazakî musical revival. Rooted in the sacred and folk repertoire of Dêrsim and trained in the diaspora, he has spent his career collecting, arranging and newly composing songs in Zazakî, a language whose music long lived in the shadow of its larger neighbours. His albums treat the Dêrsim tradition with scholarly care and artistic ambition, and they have given a generation of Zazakî speakers their music back in contemporary form.