Turkish singer-songwriter Idil Mese weaves together stories of love and loss, beauty and truth with the effect of a modern bard. Winning her audience worldwide with electronic music and hip hop collaborations, Idil Mese tours internationally with her acoustic act that represents the raw, emotional aspect of her songwriting.
Idil Mese performs her original songs in contemporary folk style with her voice and classical guitar. German multi-instrumentalist Jesper Poelke accompanies her with guitar, mandolin, banjo, Irish flutes and classical flute. In her full band, she is accompanied with double bass, electric guitar, classical guitar, flute, percussion and occasionally cello, ud, trompet and clarinet. Idil Mese releases her acoustically arranged songs from Turkey’s oldest independent label Ada Muzik since 2019. Beside her originals, she performs Turkish tangos and nostalgic songs. Influenced by Turkish, Irish, Breton and American folk music, her live sets include a wide range of musical styles. During her Turkish nostalgia inspired live improvisation performance project Idil Mese Sound Experiments, she explores soundscapes between song form, poetry and improvisation.
Well-recognised for her collaboration with Oceanvs Orientalis, Idil Mese sang and wrote the Indoors Voyager track The Cube, that got remixed by Acid Pauli, leading to a wide range of listeners around the world. She is credited with writing and vocals on every track on Oceanvs Orientalis album General Tales of Ordinary Madness. Idil Mese also is the singer and songwriter of Heart Pieces EP with Oceanvs Orientalis, released in 2024 from London’s Crosstown Rebels, with remixes from Nightmares on Wax and Mustafa Ismaeel.
Some of the festivals & venues that she performed with her acoustic act include Nublu Jazz Festival (New York), Elements Festival (Pennsylvania), Souq Festival (New York), House of Yes (New York), Drom (New York), La Bellevilloise (Paris), Sunset Sunside (Paris), MID3M+ (Cannes) and Babylon (Istanbul).
Idil Mese tours also with her live electronica, trip hop act Rain Lab that unites her story-telling with producer Da Poet’s Anatolian hip-hop and turntablism. Rain Lab has been performing actively since 2016, alongside with Buttering Trio, Rampue, Kadebostany, on stages that feature jazz, trip hop, dance, hip hop and world music. Recorded in Red Bull Studios in Berlin, Rain Lab’s first single Infatuation is a cosmic journey that traces the desire to find a human home among the stars. Rain Lab performed in Turkey’s popular festivals such as, Istanbul Jazz Festival, Red Bull Music Festival, Istanbul Music Week, XJazz, Sound Ports, Epic Fair, Nilufer Festival, along with performing outside of the borders at Silk Road Festival (Baku), Sugar Crane Klunkerkranich (Berlin), Soho House (Berlin) and more.