4 in a Cycle of Thirds by German-Turkish composer and singer Alev Lenz is a mesmerising and varied marriage of songform and compositional architecture recorded at Max Richter and Yulia Mahr’s Studio Richter Mahr.
Each track of the record is based on an individual note of the chromatic scale, allowing melodic luminance to shine out from a central, holding, gravitational pull. The results belie the limitations of the core concept, touching on traditional folk musics, chamber music, contemporary composition, film score, and metal, without ever becoming restricted by the drones at their foundations.
Lenz was offered the push she needed when referred by Max Richter and his wife, studio partner, and award-winning filmmaker Yulia Mahr to their renowned Studio Richter Mahr space in rural Oxfordshire.
Questions and Answers
3 FACTS
1: Screen addiction is a symptom of collective surrender to fascist repression
2: The revolution will not be televised
3: The time for hope is now
11 QUESTIONS
1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
Life and living it. I read the phrase ‘circumstantial inspiration’ somewhere and that rang true too.
2. How and when did you get into making music?
Probably when my mum got me my piano. Of course it depends how you define making music. I have notation I made with my piano teacher, I titled it Opus 1 and had an Opus 2 and so on. It did only consist of a few notes, but it was music making! And naming it ;) I was age 4. I think that teacher was probably instrumental in making me understand that making music is making something “heard”, rather than the stricter scholastic definition of composing. So the piano was the first instrument , soon followed by the voice which I also used very early on. Doing voice actor recordings as a child, backing vocals as a teenager, fronting a band in my later teens and then again in my twenties, and then forging my solo path from open mics in New York City to my fourth album now, living and working in London.
3. What are 5 of your favourite albums of all time?
Ahhhh… this is difficult simply because it changes. Sometimes you hear a record that is new to you, but you also know this has always been your favourite album!
I have some albums that were formative
Sezen Aksu – Sezen Aksu Söylüyor
Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Alanis Morrisette – Jagged little Pill
Final Apple – Tidal
Dixie Chicks – Home
4. What do you associate with Berlin?
Ha! I used to live in Berlin for a couple of years. I would say youth and freedom!
5. What’s your favourite place in your town?
Wherever my friends are. Most likely it is a couch in a living room :)
6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
If there was no music there would not be speech, so I would either try to bring music into the world, as I definitely am a chatter and would look for ways to communicate – or simply converse with animals.
7. What was the last record/music you bought or listen?
Moor mother – Jazz Codes
8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
OMG that is even more difficult than question 3! Moor Mother would be one, I can imagine that working with Björk is probably also very interesting and I do also really like Tinariwen. Dolly Parton would also be great, so would Tamar Kali. Aimee Mann also Mica Levi, Kneecap, Massive Attack… the more I type the more wonderful people come to mind!
9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
Simian Mobile Disco at the Barbican and Fatima Al Qadiri as support. It was so touching. Both shows!
Jas is a good friend and it was an incredible gig, both musically and emotionally.
My own last show at Stone Nest in London was my favourite to date as a performer. I think my most recent shows are always my favourites as performances simply because you move on, you grow and the next chapters are what I like best- so the latest gig has to be my favourite :) I launched my latest album ‘4 in a Cycle of Thirds’ and I loved playing the live versions with Nina Harries. We spent a fantastic time together taking the record apart and putting it back together for the live performance as a two piece.
10. How important is technology to your creative process?
Well , I need it to record into, I love a good mic and protools! That is obviously crucial to getting it heard. Other than that, not so much!
11. Please tell us more about the development of your new album 4 in a Cycle Of Thirds.
Weeeellll , it is a long story and took a long time :) The creative ambition for the record was informed by my song “Fall Into Me” which I wrote for the TV show Black Mirror. The song’s base is a continuous drone on C, with the lyrics and vocal melody acting as its main character. It resonated so deeply with so many people that I was curious to see if I could write more songs based on the remaining notes of the scale. So I began with single-note drones and wrote and wrote and wrote. The last touches I wrote sitting in the forest hut at Studio Richter Mahr in isolation and quiet. It was a beautiful time. And during the recording phase of the album last year the brilliant Fiona Cruickshank helped with her masterful engineering to capture the single note drones on the Steinway D at Max’s studio (and all other instruments too of course)! It was a magical experience and real good fun too!
For the longest time I wanted this album to be a dark country record. But while I carried it around with me in my heart and mind the question beckoned: “what country”? So I realised that I wanted to include instrumentation from the other cultural pool I can dive into: Anatolian music from Türkiye. I went to an event at HalkEvi Kurdish Turkish Community Center in Dalston in London and stumbled upon Zöhre Ülger who played the saz and asked her to play on my album.
The themes are most likely somewhere between patriarchy, family, identity, love, friendship, heritage, Imperialism , capitalism and destruction.
