Altın Gün Releases a Stretched-Out Live Take of “Yali Yali” From Paris

Altın Gün has shared a live recording of “Yali Yali” from its March show at Le Trianon in Paris. The performance stretches the song to nearly eight minutes, giving the Turkish folk tune more room than the studio version from the band’s 2021 album Âlem.

Known formally as “Çayeli’nden Öteye,” the song comes from the Rize region of northeastern Turkey. The band describes it as a piece about love, longing, and separation, grounded in Black Sea landscape and the pull of home. That theme has traveled far: Neşe Karaböcek’s 1977 cover introduced the melody to a wider audience, and Todd Terje’s 2013 edit placed it in a different electronic context. This summer, Karaböcek and Mahmut Orhan revisited it again for Ultra Records under the shortened title “Yali.”

The live recording arrives as Altın Gün begins its North American tour behind Garip, the group’s latest ATO album. The record reworks songs by Neşet Ertaş, the Anatolian musician whose updated ashık tradition shaped much of the band’s melodic foundation. Multi-instrumentalist Erdinç Eçevit grew up hearing Ertaş’ cassettes and connected with the melodies before he understood the lyrics. That early exposure informs the way Altın Gün treats this material as living repertoire, not revival.

The tour runs through Sept. 26 in Pittsburgh, with Alex Maas of the Black Angels supporting.