Ali Doğan Gönültaş was born in the mid-1980s in Kiğı, a rural village in the rugged mountains of Eastern Anatolia, into a Kurdish family for whom, as is the case with most Alevi families, music is an essential way of transmitting the history of their people. Soon after, the family had to move to the city. Once in Istanbul, the young Ali was encouraged by his teachers and elders to sing. He already had that gift—a natural gift for music—which he refined through his artistic activities and composition work.
Since 2023, Ali has performed in 24 countries across Europe and the Middle East, including prestigious venues such as Fundação Gulbenkian (with a sold-out Grande Auditório, seating 1,203), Elbphilharmonie Hamburg (featuring one trio performance and another with dengbêj Saîdê Goyî, both sold out), Philharmonie Luxembourg (sold out) and the National Theatre of Sarajevo (for the Sarajevo Jazz Festival). He has also brought his dynamic live performance to open-air stages such as the Rudolstadt Festival in Germany, Les Suds, à Arles in France (sold out) and the Town Hall Square in Valencia, Spain.
Before that, his time at university studying archaeology and cinema—he graduated from Kocaeli University’s Archaeology and Radio, Television and Cinema departments—provided him with a deep focus on research and source analysis, as well as the ability to translate that background into a highly captivating artistic and communicative language. Heritage, talent and stagecraft.
The musician started his professional music career with the band Ze Tijê, of which he is one of the founders and the author of many of the compositions and arrangements, as well as a multi-instrumentalist and the lead singer. They performed hundreds of concerts in Turkey and released two studio albums, “Yanlışımız Var!” (2015) and “Ur” (2019), exploring post-rock, collage and experimental genres.
Since 2018, he has continued his musical work with his solo concert series “Xo Bi Xo”. This project, in which the musician includes songs in Kurmanji and Turkish as well as Zazaki, his mother tongue, has an experimental feel as well as traditional styles and themes.
Ali began his oral history and field research studies in 2007. The result was his first album, Kiğı, the outcome of fifteen years of research, conversations with elders and work on musical arrangements. In Kiğı, Ali sheds light on the languages and cultures of silenced minorities in Turkey, such as the Kurds and Armenians. Kiğı, which is also the birthplace of the musician, describes the specific musical language and style of an Anatolian/Mesopotamian settlement. The album paved the way for performances on prominent European stages.
Ali 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 programme “Voices and Traces” for Can TV. The programme, which consisted of conversations and musical performances, focused on non-mainstream musical genres and schools in Turkey. In 2021 and 2022, he also presented and produced the TV show“Müzik Olayı” also for Can TV.
In 2022, Ali Doğan was approached by the son of the old master Seîdê Goyî, a dengbêj (singing storyteller) of traditional Botan music, to arrange the pieces and produce the EP Stranên Dilê Min (Songs of My Heart, in Kurdish), available to listen to here).
In June 2023, the album Kiğı was reissued with a more extensive booklet and on 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 Critics’ Choice in the Traditional Ethnic Music category. In August 2024, Ali’s second album, Keyeyî, would also receive the award.
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 30 April 2024, Ali’s second solo album, Keyeyî, was released. It was recorded on video and audio. Take a look and listen here. Keyeyî was awarded by the Schallplattenkritik and was #1 in the Transglobal World Music Chart in June 2024, #1 in the Balkan World Music Chart in the 2nd Quarter of 2024 and Top of the World in Songlines magazine in its August 2024 issue.
In 2024, Ali was selected to perform in the official programme of WOMEX, the main world music fair and conference.
2026: A New Album
From early 2026, Ali has been focused on the artistic production and recording of a new album in which his relationship with Seîdê Goyî is a central theme. Traditional pieces and original compositions by both Ali and Goyî, shaped through dynamic arrangements, will form this work, exploring friendship, intergenerational relationships, cultural identity and the celebration of being together.
