Tendertwin is the project of Istanbul-born, London-based Bilge Nur Yilmaz. Bilge Nur Yilmaz’s distinctive voice subtly soaks up Turkey’s rich musical heritage from the lapping tides of the Black Sea and Mediterranean and filters it through drifting time spent in Philadelphia, Oxford, and London, — a familiar folk sound with an industrial glitch where landscapes are entangled in ambient sounds, wrong-footing melodies and unpredictable arrangements. 
Nurtured transatlantic, Tendertwin is a forager for half-lived stories. Inspired by the likes of Tim Buckley, Joan Armatrading, Meredith Monk, Mitski, and Debussy — Tendertwin creates celestial folk mixed with ambient noise and alt-rock tones. Her debut EP Ship Argo, out on July 5th, takes inspiration from a variety of disciplines involving the works of William Blake, Michel Foucault, Jean Cocteau, Euripides (Médea), Faith Wilding, and Ingmar Bergman. 
Ship Argo is a collection of songs that reveal Tendertwin’s introspective musings on themes such as water dementia, unrequited love, and the transient nature of existence and belonging. Each track is imbued with a sense of wanderlust and a longing for connection, mirroring Yilmaz’s own nomadic journey through life.    

What She Says: “Tidal Insomniac is a song about the conflicted dynamics of desire, capturing that strange feeling when you desperately want to love someone and the irrational lengths you might go to make them love you back. It’s a game of restless ebbs and flows that keeps you up at night, reflecting both modern tales of ghosting and ancient romances like that of Medea. Here is the woman: allegedly crazy, waiting. We shot the video on a 16mm Bolex at the shores of Margate, in the suburbs of Philadelphia, and my flat in London.“

“A waltz, opening with my newborn niece’s babyphone bleeding in as my sister entertains her with Turkish nursery rhymes. The title comes from the idea that runners, wherever you go in the world, will be out there on a nice Sunday morning. You’ll exchange a nod, wearing pretty much the same clothes. It’s a comforting game for me to spot that — because it helps me connect with a place, whether familiar or foreign. It feels to me I’m always either running towards, or running away from something.“

Her Mixtape:

Sergei Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18 (2. Adagio sostenuto)

I’m going to open this list very tenderly; please listen in order. It will be a nautical ride. The second movement of this piece has been haunting me this year. The opening melody puts me inside a maze in search of an admissive resolution. In its entirety, there’s every transient emotional hook from grief to healing. A little bit of sick nostalgia, too.

Grizzly Bear – Deep Sea Diver

We’re now going under. This album is quite fundamental to my teenage years with all its lo-fi elements. These telephone vocals in reverb play in my head every time I dive and look up toward the surface of the water. I believe, at the time, Ed Droste was doing something very new.

Hümeyra – Sessiz Gemi

Timeless classic, it gives me chills each time. The title translates as “the silent ship.” The lyrics come from the lines of renowned old Turkish poet Yahya Kemal Beyatli and are filled with metaphors of death as a silent ship leaving the pier to take its passengers away from loved ones. The music has been adapted from Frank Gerald & Patricia Carli’s “Sans Toi Je Suis Seul.” This kind of borrowing was a common arrangement practice in the 1970s. What makes this song iconic is Hümeyra’s soulful vocals, I think. It’s delivered with such selfless devotion, almost as if she’s on the verge of tears through that modulation.

Matt Elliott – The Sinking Ship Song

We’re now all aboard. Matt Elliott is a major influence on me as a guitarist. He borrows a lot from Greek/Turkish scales in his melodies, which might be why I feel drawn to it. This track reminds me of a haunted sailor song, as if trapped ghosts of a sunken ship are all singing together. He uses a fair amount of syncopated rhythms and shaky 3/4s to create that unsteady feeling of being on the water; the wind instruments and the creaks add to the storm.

Mike Lindsay ft. Anna B Savage – table

I’ve listened to this song probably about every day since it came out. I shed a tear every other time. I find the idea behind this whole album brilliant as revolving around the concept of mostly domestic everyday emotions. “table” is a track that captures the imagined memory of a household object: take the kitchen table and all the stories that happen around, by, above, and under it. It gives me a particular nostalgia for the times we remember fondly with family and company, the moments we romanticize even when we’re in one. Anna’s delivery is visceral, and Mike’s production takes me out of my reality. I hope the table thinks well of me, too.

Varijashree Venugopal – Jaathre

This one’s also a recent obsession. Varijashree Venugopal released this incredible album produced by Snarky Puppy’s Michael League, and it’s everything you wish it to be. The album gets its name (“vari”) from the Sanskrit word meaning “water.” This particular track is filled with vocal miracles, which makes it super satisfying to practice.

The Frames – Your Face

The etherealness of this tune is a massive mood. It has a very uniquely meandering structure, gently building up and down. I love how very unintrusive the strings enter, how the yearning riff keeps coming back, and how the suspension moment spirals out.

DM Stith – Fata Morgana

“I’m turning off ambition like a stove/It’s useful but a hazard when left alone” — A “fata morgana” is a complex form of superior mirage visible in a narrow band right above the horizon. You might see ships floating from afar due to this phenomenon. I’m a big fan of DM Stith — I adore especially what they made with My Brightest Diamond (Shara Nova), but this solo album succeeds in touching my most inner melancholy.

Ship Argo is out now. Look HERE for more information on Tendertwin.