Derya Yildirim

Born in Hamburg in 1993, Derya Yıldırım develops music at the crossroads of Anatolian folk, psychedelic rock, soul and a Turkish pop nourished by traditional repertoires. A singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist, she places the bağlama at the center of her work and sings in Turkish, drawing on melodic and rhythmic forms from Anatolia as well as on her Alevis heritage. After beginnings in a register more directly tied to Anatolian music, in 2014 Derya Yıldırım formed Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek with musicians she met in Hamburg, in a collective setting where organ, guitar, flute and percussion mingle. The group released the EP Nem Kaldi in 2017, followed by the albums Kar Yağar in 2019, Dost 1 in 2021, Dost 2 in 2022 and Yarın Yoksa in 2025. Across these records, Derya Yıldırım refines a sound that links Turkish folk songs, psychedelic textures and grooves that are more soul or funk, without losing the diasporic roots of her journey between Hamburg and Berlin. Parallel to Grup Şimşek, Derya Yıldırım also pursues solo projects and since 2015 collaborates with Ensemble Resonanz on contemporary reworkings of traditional Turkish, Anatolian, Greek and Azerbaijani chants.