🎧 Approved: Umut Adan

Born in Istanbul in an apartment building where five faiths lived side by side, Turkish singer-songwriter Umut Adan grew up steeped in cultural plurality and sonic exchange, a background that seeps into his music.

After moving to Italy as a student, he embraced a range of musical styles and a pivotal moment came when Jack White invited him to open his Istanbul concert. That performance caught the attention of producer Liam Watson (The White Stripes), who brought Adan to London to record, paving the way for his previous album ‘Bahar’.

Now, Adan and his Italian band Zebânis - Andrea Marazzi, Michele Bussone and Filippo Gillono of Turin’s Pietra Tonale collective - return with the first single from their forthcoming album ‘Başka Bahar / Another Spring’. 

‘Bogotà’ is a hypnotic protest anthem, fusing Anatolian psych with the communal pulse of cumbia. Fuzz-drenched guitars, trance-like basslines and insistent percussion push the song forward, transforming folk memory into a modern, global rhythm. 

The band calls it “danceable dissent”: music that makes you move while refusing to bow. Lyrically, it’s a call against hierarchy and the subjugation of human by human, and it lands with a poetic, almost trance-like intensity.

🎧 Listen to ‘Bogotà’ below