With DJ Medicineman (CIUT 89.5).

Doors at 7:00 p.m.

The master of Sufi electronica returns to Toronto after almost ten years. Mercan Dede is one of Turkey’s most influential and creative artists, combining Turkish Sufi, classical, and folk music with modern technology to create a sound that transcends cultures and generations. Now living in Montreal, Mercan Dede boasts an impressive discography, covering enormous stylistic territory, including 8 CDs and over 100 singles under several different names. With his group Istanbul Tribe, Dede hovers behind his turntables and electronics, occasionally picking up a ney flute while his ensemble on kemance (fiddle), baglama (lute), ney (flute), clarinet, and percussion and spectacular female Whirling Dervish dancer twirls to trance inducing effect.

This special night is presented by New York's Istanbulive showcase. Launched five years ago at Central Park SummerStage it presents the best of Turkish music this side of the Bosporus. After traveling to prestigious festivals like Lincoln Center Out of Doors and SXSW after its launch, Istanbulive returns to New York for its sixth instalment as well as traveling to Chicago, Cleveland, Toronto and Montreal.

Mercan Dede believes that when you put digital, electronic sounds together with hand-made, human ones, you can create universal language, capable of uniting old and young, ancient and modern, East and West. It's a bold claim, but the Turkish-born and Montreal-based musician/producer/DJ has the career and the music to back it up. When he takes the stage with his group Secret Tribe, he hovers at the side behind his turntables and electronics, occasionally picking up a traditional wooden flute, or ney to float in sweet, breathy melodies, while masters of the qanun (zither), clarinet, darbuka (hand drum) and whatever other instruments he's decided to include that night, ornament his grooves and spin magical, trance melodies to match the whirling of the group's spectacular dervish dancer, Mira Burke.