With Music for Shepherds & Sultans, Vol. II, we continue to explore the common spaces that bridge classical and traditional music from the Ottoman legacy. While our previous album mainly presented existing compositions, this one consists entirely of our own. For this endeavour, we had the joy of including two brilliant musicians: kanun player Serkan Mesut Halili from Istanbul, and ney player and composer Christos Barbas from Thessaloniki. Thanks to their presence, we succeeded in creating the multi-layered heterophony that brings our new compositions to life.

Despite being constantly exposed to new musical influences due to the traveling nature of our lives as musicians, with this project we deliberately chose to follow a path of purism with regard to tradition. As a tribute to the masters who came before us, with Music for Shepherds & Sultans, Vol. II, we have tried to honour and highlight the subtleties of the makams, the genres, and the styles of interpretation proper to the way this century-old tradition has been perpetuated through the centuries. We sincerely thank our fellow musicians and dear friends Miriam, Serkan, and Christos, as well as master Kudsi Erguner for his beautiful booklet article.

Tristan Driessens, 18 September 2026

Music for Shepherds & Sultans is not a nostalgic search for authenticity buried in the ashes of the past. It stands as living proof that, through the original works and improvisations of true artists as Michalis Kouloumis and Tristan Driessens, a flame can pass from generation to generation without ever fading. Often hastily labelled “traditional” or “ethnic” because it is monodic and does not rely on Western harmony or instruments, makam music now reveals itself as a distinctly contemporary and evolving musical genre. As it has throughout history, the compositions of this duet once again affirm that makam music belongs neither to a single nation nor to a specific geography; it is, in essence, universal. As Jean-Jacques Rousseau emphasized in his Dictionary of Music: “The only true harmony is unison, the single voice.”

The five artists behind this album do not merely understand the makams, their intervals, and melodic structures; they inhabit their aesthetics, their depth, and their profound sense of pleasure. Like jazz, flamenco, fado, or rebetiko, New-Makam music is now expanding into a universal dimension. Music for Shepherds & Sultans Vol. II stands as a luminous example that will inspire future generations of young musicians.

Kudsi Erguner, Paris, 2 January 2026