Ali Doğan Gönültaş was born in Kiğı, Eastern Anatolia, Turkey. Graduated from Kocaeli University Archeology and Radio TV and Cinema departments, the musician started his professional music career with the band Ze Tijê, of which he is one of the founders and author of many of the compositions and arrangements, as well as performer of several instruments and the lead singer. They made hundreds of concerts in Turkey and released two studio albums “Yanlışımız Var!” (2015) and “Ur” (2019), in a postrock, collage and experimental genres.
Since 2018, he has been continuing his music production with his solo concert series “Xo Bi Xo”. This project, in which the musician includes songs in Kurmanci and Turkish as well as Zazaki, his mother tongue, has an experimental feel to it as well as traditional styles and themes.
In addition, his oral history and field research studies, which he began in 2007, continue with the album Kiğı, which he self-produced and released in 2022. Kiğı, which is also the birthplace of the musician, describes the specific musical language and style of an Anatolian/Mesopotamian settlement.
He contributed to the soundtracks of films such as My Own Life (2014) and Şeng (2021). He took part in the project titled “Voice of the City as an Example of Intangible Cultural Heritage (Diyarbakır)” as a composer.
In 2020, he prepared and presented the television program “Voices and Traces” for Can TV. The program, which consisted of conversations and musical performances, was about non-mainstream musical genres and schools in Turkey. In 2021 and 2022 he is presenting and producing the TV show “Müzik Olayı” also for Can TV.
In 2022 Ali Doğan was signed by the son of the old master Seîdê Goyî, a dengbêj (singing storyteller) of traditional Botan music, to arrange the pieces and be the producer of the EP Stranên Dilê Min (songs of my heart, in Kurdish) (available to listen here).
In May of 2022, Ali Doğan Gönültaş released Kiğı, his first solo and self-produced album that emerged as a result of more than ten years of field research. The work, which is a personal look at the 150-year musical process of Kiğı, the musician’s birthplace, consists of works in the regional languages of Krmancki, Kurmanci, Kirdaski, Armenian, and Turkish. This thematic album consists of stylized performances accompanied by ethnomusicological data, with the goal of providing a discourse and a voice to remember despite the fading of memory. The project evolved from an “oral history” motivation into a musical memory work.
In the project, which includes thematic and technical music forms, thematic contents such as Govend, lament, job songs, Xerîbîyê and prayer forms are conveyed with the modal characteristics of the region.
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n June of 2023, the album Kiğı is re-edited with a more extended booklet and in physical CD, by Mapamundi Música. In November 2023, the jurors of the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, the German Record Critics’ Award, recognised the production as the Quarterly Critic’s Choice in the Category Traditional Ethnic Music. And in August 2024, Ali’s second album, Keyeyî, would be awarded too.
Kiğı was #1 in the Balkan World Music Charts in the second quarter of 2022 and #11 in September for the Transglobal World Music Chart. Kiğı is available to listen here.
On April 30th of 2024 the second solo album by Ali, Keyeyî, was released. It was recorded in video and audio. Take a look and listen, here. Keyeyî has been awarded by the Schallplattenkritik and was #1 in Transglobal World Music Chart of June 2024, #1 at the Balkan World Music Chart 2nd Quarter of 2024 and Top of the World for the magazine Songlines in the edition of August 2024.
In the live show, Ali sings and plays tembur and acoustic guitar and is accompained by Ali Kutlutürk on the percussions and Fırat Çakılcı on the clarinet. Sometimes the band is extended to a quartet with Emrah Ogüztürk on mey, zurna and duduk.
In 2024 Ali is selected to perform at the official program of WOMEX, the main fair and conference of world musics.
