photos by Selin Ünsel  Danae Palaka is an Istanbul-based drummer and artist. Born in Athens to a musical family partially hailing from Istanbul, she relocated there to explore the city’s heritage and her own roots. Her energetic and dense drumming style is influenced by Afrobeat and Anatolian rhythms, contemporary jazz and electronic music, and blends grooves, polyrhythms and textural sounds. Her interest in researching alternative qualities of the drum-kit generates concepts that aspire to redefine the essence of time and (co-) existence. In 2023 she represented Türkiye at ‘Sound Bridge’, a residency program produced by Found Sound Nation. Danae is currently pursuing her PhD in İTÜ-MIAM after completing her Mmus with a practice-based research on karşılama rhythm. Velox is her first solo album and is released with A.F.O.M. INT.

Danae Palaka Drummer – Artist
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Danae Palaka is an Istanbul-based drummer and artist. Born in Athens to a musical family partially hailing from Istanbul, she relocated there to explore the city’s heritage and her own roots. Her energetic and dense drumming style is influenced by Afrobeat and Anatolian rhythms, contemporary jazz and electronic music, and blends grooves, polyrhythms and textural sounds. Her interest in researching alternative qualities of the drum-kit generates concepts that aspire to redefine the essence of time and (co-) existence. In 2023 she represented Türkiye at ‘Sound Bridge’, a residency program produced by Found Sound Nation. Danae is currently pursuing her PhD in İTÜ-MIAM after completing her Mmus with a practice-based research on karşılama rhythm. Velox is her first solo album and is released with A.F.O.M. INT.
Velox
LP / DL
AFOM INTERNATIONAL
Türkiye
    01. Anasa
    02. Yeditepe
    03. Queneau
    04. Velox
    05. Dokuz
    06. Velocis
    07. Arise
    08. Toplam tamam



Palaka’s individual project developed as a necessity to perform solo with a drum-kit and a sampler, therefore the open-ended limitation of drums and electronics became the creative force for the 8 tracks of ‘Velox’. The compositions draw on Danae’s musical influences, blending grooves inspired by contemporary jazz, rhythms rooted in the collective heritage of the Greek and Turkish peoples, and improvisation on the drum-kit, mixed with melodies, arpeggios, and electronic sounds designed on analog and digital synths, in collaboration with producer Nikos Dervisis. In her own words: “This album is built on feelings and thoughts about places, memories, animas and circumstances and aspires to transmit certain feelings to the listener; a superpower I wish I had since I was little. Each song is a small universe of its own but also part of a whole. Velox is a sphere, a glowing warm star that I hold in my palms, whose energy expands when loved and supported.” The compositions also carry Danae’s exploration of her family roots, as well as her own personal experiences with Istanbul’s multi-layered structure and intertwining past and present. What started as ‘heritage tourism’ in 2014 developed into a desire for reverse relocation, three generations after her family had left the city.
Performed, composed and produced by Danae Palaka using Tama and Ludwig Drums, İstanbul Mehmet Cymbals, Moog Matriarch, Sequential Prophet ‘08, Arturia Analog Lab V, Ableton Live 11 and iPhone 6.

Co-Production, arrangement, mixing and visual design by Nikos Dervisis.

Drums recorded and edited by Deniz Ünsal at İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi - MIAM Studio

Mastered by Martin Ruch at Control Room Berlin

Cover photo by Selin Ünsel

Press text by  Emin Sadikoglu

Special thanks to Nikos Dervisis, Yeşim Koçal, Salih Caferoğlu, MIAM studio & crew, κουκί, ziller, Πόλη ve Boğaz, Gizem Akgönül, Metehan Köktürk, Amy Salsgiver, to the drums and rhythms that always take me to new adventures.

    9
    Video
    4:44     Video: Khaled Tanji
    Sound: Deniz Ünsal
    Location: Zographeio Lykeio Greek School, Beyoğlu, Istanbul


    “9” is a 3-part improvised piece, performed live by Danae Palaka at the historic Zographeio Greek School of Istanbul (TR). It is influenced by traditional davul performance and karşılama, a common rhythm between Turkey and Greece, but also by the intertwining past and present and hüzün (a collective feeling of melancholy) that the city of Istanbul and the school itself evoke.

    Live set at Noh Radio
    18/08/2022


    Various Pictures