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Music from the Lale Plak shop

There is a place in Istanbul called Tunnel square. That is where the bottom end of the popular Istiklal Caddesi and the top stop of the oldest Istanbul subway – Tunnel. This is where the street Galib Dede, that leads up to the Galata tower meets with Istiklal. Right on the corner between the two iconic streets is where one of the most magical places in Istanbul used to take place – the 25 square meters musical treasury Lale Plak. It’s both easy to find, and away from the craziness. For all the seekers – a must in Istanbul. For us – one of the first places we used to visit in Istanbul, since Hakan Atala met us at the entrance 15 years ago. Lale first opened its doors in 1954. It was an institution that closed its doors last year.

A social media post took us right back to the beginning. Back when Istanbul was a different city and diversity was everywhere. The new was floating in the air, and if you wanted to learn something, the air was overflowing with ideas.

The past 15 years have been full of meetings with people from Lale Plak. We exchanged ideas, we learned, we got to know the new things. At each event we would meet we would discuss musical news. We learned a lot. We met a lot of soul mates. One of the first spots to visit on a trip to Istanbul was that small music shop. Encounters we anticipated with butterflies in our stomach, thinking about what’s in store for us this time.
A big part of our library and knowledge we owe to them. The meetings with people form Lale were like a game – we would come in with a question: “What are we playing with today?” And the owner – Hakan Atala, held all the answers. A lot of the musicians that we follow and like to this day, we owe to his choices and his taste. Once we met the great musician Bugge Wesseltoft in store, and he told us he owns at least 300 records he bought from Lale Plak.

The shop closed a month ago. And another Istanbul legend stays in the past. Yet another in the past years. Today we listened to a small part of the music that Hakan Atala and the team at Lale Plak introduced us to.

We begin this eclectic journey with a couple of our favorite albums. From all corners of the globe. Today we offer you Turkey, France, Chicago, a lot of Italy, and Austria for desert.

Rene Sopa & Kamil Erdem
Ben Paterson
Thierry Maillard
Luca Aquino
Claudio Fillini trio
Enrico Zanisi

Ulrich Drechsler

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