ALİ DOĞAN GÖNÜLTAŞ

Ali Doğan Gönültaş comes from Eastern Anatolia, from the mountainous village of Kiğı, in a family for which, as most of the Alevi ones, music is an essential way of transmitting the history of his people. Over the past three years, Ali has taken this music across half the world, from the perspective of a contemporary man whose life path combines that social and historical root with the experience of growing up in a vibrant megacity like Istanbul.

Before this courageous debut album, “Kiğı” (2022) for which he worked for 10 years in field research and artistic work, that advocates for the languages and culture of silenced minorities in Turkey, such as the Kurds and Armenians, he spent ten years collaborating with the fascinating band Ze Tîje, worked in archaeology in Anatolia, composed music for film, and worked in television with a musical theme. In the Spring of 2024 Ali released his 2^nd album, “Keyeyî”.

Throughout 2023 and 2024, he performed in more than 70 concerts in Turkey, Spain, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Belgium, Jordan, UK... at benchmark venues such as Fundação Gulbenkian (Lisbon), Urkult Festival (Nasaker, Sweden), and Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg). In 2025, he has performed in Lithuania, Poland, India...

Ali Doğan Gönültaş / vocals, bağlama • Ali Kutluturk / percussion • Emrah Oguzturk / traditional wind instruments