Moğollar (''

Mongols Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China ( Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family o ...

'' in Turkish) was one of the pioneering bands in Turkish

rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...

during their early career and one of the founders of Turkish folk rock (or

Anatolian rock Anatolian rock (), or Turkish psychedelic rock, is a fusion of Turkish folk music and rock. It emerged during the mid-1960s, soon after rock groups became popular in Turkey. The most widely known members of this genre include Turkish musicians ...

). They have been active for over 40 years. The band uses multi-layered dynamism in the Turkish folk genre to create a sonic similarity with pop music's dynamism.

Allmusic biography AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

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History

The band was founded end of 1967 by Aziz Azmet, Murat Ses, Cahit Berkay, Hasan Sel and Engin Yörükoğlu. In 1970, Hasan Sel was replaced by Taner Öngür, previously a member of Meteorlar (Meteors) and the

Erkin Koray Mustafa Erkin Koray (; 24 June 1941 – 7 August 2023) was a Turkish singer and guitarist who mainly played Anatolian rock. Life and career Koray was active in the Turkish rock music scene since the late 1950s. In 1967, he released his first ...

Quartet. The band tried to fuse the technical aspects of pop music with the melodies of

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

n folk music in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In July 1970, Aziz Azmet, the band's vocalist left the band due to musical disagreements and Ersen Dinleten replaced him for a short time. Moğollar recorded ''Ternek/Haliç'te Gün Batışı'' (''Ternek/Sunset on the Golden Horn'') on a 45 rpm single, and left for Paris in August 1970. While they went to Paris, they signed a 3-year contract with CBS, releasing a 45 rpm single ''Hitchin/Behind the Dark'' in 1972. They made one album for the imprint "Guild International du Disque", ''Danses et Rythmes de la Turquie -- d'Hier d'Aujourd'hui''. This album was recognized by the French ''Académie Charles Cros'' in 1971, earning comparisons to Pink Floyd. By that time, they met with

Barış Manço Mehmet Barış Manço (born Tosun Yusuf Mehmet Barış Manço; 2 January 1943 – 1 February 1999), better known by his stage name Barış Manço, was a Turkish people, Turkish rock music, rock musician, singer, composer, actor, television ...

and started to work with him while he was living in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. In 1968 the group won the third place in Turkish music contest

Golden Microphone The Golden Microphone () was a music contest annually held between 1965 and 1968 in Turkey. It was organized by the newspaper ''Hürriyet ''Hürriyet'' (, ''Liberty'') is a major List of newspapers in Turkey, Turkish newspaper, founded in 1948. ...

. In 1971 the group won the

Grand Prix du Disque Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor Places * Grand, Oklahoma, USA * Grand, Vosges, village and commune in France with Gallo-Roman amphitheatre * Grand County (disambiguation), ...

of the Charles Cros Academy for their instrumental album ''Danses et Rythmes de la Turquie''. In 1971,

joined as vocalist and the band was renamed Manchomongol. Manchomongol recorded two 45 rpms, and this partnership ended after four months. Also, Engin Yörükoğlu stayed in Paris, and the drummer of Mavi Işıklar (Blue Lights), Ayzer Danga, joined the band to replace him. Moğollar recorded one single with

Selda Bağcan Havva Selda Bağcan (; born December 14, 1948) is a Turkish folk singer-songwriter, guitarist, and music producer. Early life Selda Bağcan was born in 1948 in the western Turkish town of Muğla. Her father was a veterinarian of Macedonian Tur ...

during the first half of 1972. Ersen then re-joined the band in July 1972 and they recorded another single. Murat Ses left the band in August 1972. In September 1972, Moğollar replaced their soloists with

Cem Karaca Muhtar Cem Karaca (5 April 1945 – 8 February 2004) was a Turkish legendary rock musician and one of the most important figures in the Anatolian rock movement. He was a graduate of Robert College. He worked with various Turkish rock bands suc ...

, who was then the soloist of Kardaşlar (Brothers).This partnership of Cem Karaca and Moğollar lasted for two years and they produced the song, Namus Belası, which became a great hit. In 1974, Taner Öngür and Ayzer Danga left the band. Öngür joined Dadaşlar, a band with Ersen Dinleten between 1974–1975 and 1979–1980 and Dervişan (Dervishes), a band with Cem Karaca between 1974 and 1978. He also briefly joined Dostlar, a band with

Edip Akbayram Ahmet Edip Akbayram (29 December 1950 – 2 March 2025) was a Turkish musician. Life and career Akbayram was born in Gaziantep on 29 December 1950. He was diagnosed with polio when he was nine months old. Edip Akbayram, who spent his childhood ...

in 1975. Danga initially joined Kardaşlar between 1974 and 1975. He participated in

's 'Elektronik Türküler' (Electronic Songs) album in 1975. He then joined Dostlar between 1975 and 1978; Güneşin Sofrası, a band with Kerem Güney (1939-2012) in 1979; Dadaşlar, a band with Ersen Dinleten in 1983 and Zorbeyler in 1984 before his retirement from music. Meanwhile, Cahit Berkay left for France after the dissolution of the band to meet with Engin Yörükoğlu. Cahit and Engin recorded two albums under the name Moğollar. They also recorded a single with Ali Rıza Binboğa in 1975. The band completely dissolved in 1976. After a 17-year absence, Cahit Berkay, Taner Öngür and Engin Yörükoğlu reformed the band in 1993, and were joined by keyboard player Serhat Ersöz. Murat Ses is dealing with other projects and is still pursuing an extraordinary international career. In 2007, the Advertising agency

TBWA TBWA Worldwide is an international advertising agency whose main headquarters are in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. Since 1993, the agency has been a unit of Omnicom Group, the world's second largest advertising agency holding ...

decided to use Moğollar's track from the late 1960's, ''Garip Çoban'' (translated - Lonesome Shepherd; written by Murat Ses) in the ''This is Living'' advertisement campaign for

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). It is the successor to the PlayStation 2, and both are part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. The PS3 was first released on ...

. Emrah Karaca (son of

) joined Moğollar in 2007 as a vocalist and guitarist. Engin Yörükoğlu was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007 and died in 2010.

Members

;Current members * Cahit Berkay –

bağlama The bağlama or saz is a family of plucked string instruments and long-necked lutes used in Europe, Balkans, Caucasus, Middle East, Khazar, Central Asia including Germany, France, Belgium, TRNC, Netherlands, Albania, Greece,Bosnia, Serbia, Croat ...

, guitar,

kamancheh The kamancheh (also kamānche or kamāncha) (, , , ) is an Iranian bowed string instrument used in Persian, Azerbaijani, Armenian, Kurdish, Georgian, Turkmen, and Uzbek music with slight variations in the structure of the instrument. Th ...

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

, yaylı tanbur, vocals (1968–1976, 1993–present) * Taner Öngür – bass, vocals (1969–1974, 1993–present) * Serhat Ersöz – keyboards (1993–present) * Emrah Karaca - vocals, guitar (2007–present) * Kemal Küçükbakkal – drums (2011–present) ;Former members * Aziz Azmet – vocals, guitar (1967–1970) (Deceased) * Murat Ses –

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

(1967–1972) * Hasan Sel – bass (1968–1969) * Engin Yörükoğlu – drums (1969–1971, 1974–1976, 1993–2010) (deceased) * Ersen Dinleten - vocals (1970, 1972) * Ayzer Danga – drums (1971–1974) (Deceased) *

- vocals (1971–1972) (deceased) *

- vocals (1972) *

- vocals (1972–1974) (deceased) * Mithat Danışan - bass (1974, 1975) * Turhan Yükseler - keyboards, piano (1974, 1975) * Tufan Altan - drums (1974, 1975) * Sulubika - flute (1975) * Michael Shollet - bass (1975) * Romen Petiter - keyboards, piano (1975) * Utku Ünal – drums (2010-2011)

Discography

Studio albums

* 1971 : ''Les Danses et Rythmes de la Turquie d'hier á aujourd'hui'' (Turkish release: ''Anadolu Pop'') * 1975 : ''Hittit Sun'' (Turkish release: ''Düm-Tek'') * 1976 : ''Ensemble d'Cappadocia'' (Turkish release: ''Moğollar'') * Moğollar '94 (1994) * Dört Renk (1996) * 30. Yıl (1998) * Yürüdük Durmadan (2004) * Umut Yolunu Bulur (2009) * Anadolu Efsaneleri (2013) * Unutulmayan Plaklar Arșiv, Vol. 1 (2015) * 2.2.1973 Ankara (2016) * Anatolian Sun (2020)

Singles

* Eastern Love / Artık Çok Geç (1968) * Mektup / Lazy John (1968) * Everlasting Love / Hard Work (1968) * Ilgaz / Kaleden Kaleye Şahin Uçurdum (1968) * Sessiz Gemi / İndim Havuz Başına (1969) * Dağ Ve Çocuk / İmece (1970) * Ağlama / Yalnızlığın Acıklı Güldürüsü (1970) * Garip Çoban / Berkay Oyun Havası (1970) * Ternek / Haliç'te Güneşin Batışı (1970) * Hitchin / Behind The Dark (1970) * Behind The Dark / Madımak / Lorke (1971) * Hitchin / Hamsi (1971) * İşte Hendek İşte Deve/Katip Arzuhalim Yaz Yare Böyle (1971) * Binboğanın Kızı / Ay Osman (1971) * Yalan Dünya / Kalenin Dibinde (1972) * Alageyik Destanı / Moğol Halayı (1972) * Çığrık / Sıla (1972) * Sor Kendine / Garip Gönlüm (1972) * Obur Dünya / El Çek Tabib (1973) * Gel Gel / Üzüm Kaldı (1973) * Namus Belası / Gurbet (1974) * Tanrıların Arabaları / Bu Nasıl Dünya? (1974) * Birlik için Elele / Sevgimin Derdi Albümler (feat. Ali Rıza Binboğa) (1975)

Compilations

* Anılarla Moğollar ve Silüetler (1990) * Anadolupop 70'li Yıllar (1993) * Moğollar 1968-2000 (2000)

References

External links

Official web site (English & Turkish)

Moğollar Music at last.fm
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mogollar Musical groups established in 1968 Musical groups disestablished in 1976 Musical groups reestablished in 1993 Anatolian rock groups Turkish psychedelic rock music groups Turkish progressive rock groups Turkish musical quintets 1968 establishments in Turkey