Get To Know: Irem Bekter
- May 11
- 6 min read
Singer-songwriter Irem Bekter continues to carve out a singular artistic voice with This Winding Road, a deeply personal and cinematic new release shaped by a life lived across cultures. Drawing on influences from Turkey, England, Argentina, and Québec, the album weaves together themes of migration, memory, resilience, love, and transformation through richly textured soundscapes and multilingual storytelling. In this conversation, Irem Bekter reflects on the creative process behind the project, her evolving musical identity, and the human stories at the heart of her work.
Can you tell us about the inspiration behind your latest release?
This Winding Road is inspired from a life lived across cultures: Turkey, where I was born; England, where I grew up; Argentina, where I spent many years; and now Québec, where I live. It draws on both personal experience and what I observe around me: migration, memory, war, love, hope, resilience, renewal, and constant movement. I was sitting in a café in Mile End, Montreal, when a flashback hit, like a film unfolding in my head, and I knew I had to turn those images into music.
What was the creative process like for this project?
Very physical and intuitive. I don’t only write at the piano; rhythm often comes first, while I’m walking or moving (I guess it’s in my dancer’s genes!), with a melody in my head and rough, half-formed lyrics. Then I sit at the piano, and sometimes a song appears. I keep shaping the lyrics until they feel right. In the studio with my producer Jean Massicotte, we focused a lot on texture and space; how sounds enter and disappear, how tension builds and releases. We then discussed which instruments, beyond the core band, felt essential to the stories I was telling, and that’s how the guest artists became part of the project. It was an exciting process, and I loved creating in the studio with Jean Massicotte, crafting a cinematic soundscape with body percussion, breath, and a mix of acoustic and electronic instruments.
How does this new release differ from your previous work?
This is my first album of entirely original songs, which marks a real shift. I’m fully expressing my own voice. The album has a distinct and contemporary musical identity that reflects who I am, blending the influences of my four cultures and carrying my stories across three languages - English, French, Spanish.
Were there any particular challenges you faced while making this music?
Yes, learning to leave things unresolved, accepting imperfection. There’s always a temptation, especially in studio, to smooth everything out with technology, but Jean and I chose not to. We wanted to keep a certain tension and rawness. There were also physical challenges along the way that made me rethink how I use my voice. That forced me to slow down and work with more precision. In the end, it brought a different kind of intimacy to the album.
Did you collaborate with any other artists or producers on this project?
With Jean Massicotte, our artistic visions aligned, and his extensive experience as a producer, musician, and film composer was essential to the project. He also played on many tracks and contributed to the arrangements. His work has been widely recognized, with numerous awards including a Grammy, Juno, ADISQ, and Iris, as well as honours at TIFF. It was a truly rewarding collaboration. I’m also surrounded by a highly versatile core band: David Ryshpan (piano, keyboards, arrangements), Mathieu Deschenaux (electric and upright bass), Olivier Bussières (percussion), and Lu Horta (Brazil), from the renowned group Barbatuques (vocal and body percussion, backing vocals). Guest artists who helped shape the sound of the album include Yves Desrosiers (guitar), Nawar Helala (trumpet), Helmut Lipsky and Brigitte Dajczer (violin), Akawui (rap), and Laura Cadabon (bandoneon).
What message or emotion do you hope listeners take away from this release?
Resilience and renewal, but also perspective, the ability to look at the world with clarity, humour, and humanity. At the same time, each person will connect to the songs in their own way, through their own life experience, and if it evokes emotion, that’s already enough. Musically, I wanted something that moves. The album unfolds through shifting rhythms and textures, creating both momentum and space. At its core, it remains very simple. As I say in Drunkenness of Love: “What remains of who we are is how we care, how we love. Love is the key.”
Is there a story or concept that ties the songs together?
Yes, the idea of a journey. Not in a linear sense, but as a series of moments and transformations. The album moves through different emotional and geographical landscapes, but they are all connected by this thread of movement; what we carry, what we leave behind, and how we continue.
How has your sound or style evolved on this release compared to your earlier work?
My sound and style have evolved from exploring distinct musical worlds to integrating them into something more cohesive. On my first album, Primero, I interpreted traditional Argentinian songs in Spanish. My second album Je suis ici, in French, was influenced by Québec songwriters and collaborations and included a few of my own compositions, but it didn’t yet have a strong sense of cohesion or a defined soundscape. With this release, the album draws on the musical landscapes of Turkey, Argentina, England and Québec, weaving Turkish and Argentinian rhythms with jazz, indie and subtle electronic textures, alongside vocal and body percussion, creating a sound that feels truly my own. My background in dance and theatre is also woven into the music, shaping it as a soundscape through movement, texture and transitions from one story to another. There is also space for humour, particularly in Miscommunication (Lost in Transmission), which plays with the absurd, a form of expression I’m deeply drawn to!
Is there a track in your music discography that feels especially meaningful to you? What makes it stand out?
Mi Casa (A Migrant’s Story) and Falling Off the Edge feel especially meaningful to me, as they speak to connected realities in our world. Mi Casa reflects on displacement and the search for home, while Falling Off the Edge was written in response to the war in Syria, when Bashar al-Assad’s regime used chemical weapons against its own people. Sadly, it remains painfully relevant today, as conflicts continue to displace communities and devastate lives across the world. Musically, in Mi Casa (A Migrant’s Story), I wanted to anchor the song in the human body by using breath, body percussion, and electronic textures to evoke shifting landscapes and a sense of constant movement. There’s an underlying pulse that carries the feeling of being in transit, of never quite settling. In Falling Off the Edge, I use dissonance and tension to convey a sense of devastation. The violin, alongside bone-like percussive elements, becomes part of that soundscape, adding a raw, almost physical fragility to the music. Both songs come from a place of deep concern. I hope they invite compassion, an understanding of how desperate people can be, and why they are forced to leave their homes in search of safety and a chance to live with dignity.
How do you plan to share this release with your audience? Are there any upcoming performances, videos, or special projects in the works?
The album was released digitally by Symphonic Distribution and is being shared through a combination of live performances and visual work. The launch took place in Montréal, followed by concerts in Québec City, Sutton and Toronto, introducing the project to different audiences. The Montréal concert was also filmed, allowing the live dimension of the work to continue beyond the stage. Two singles accompany the release: Mi Casa (A Migrant’s Story), supported by a videoclip, and Chameleon, released with a visualiser. Each track on the album is paired with its own visualiser, built around original artwork created by photographers Damian Siqueiros and Call Me B. Photography, giving every song a distinct visual identity. A third videoclip, Miscommunication (Lost in Transmission), will follow in multiple language versions. Alongside this, I’m continuing with live sessions, media outreach, and developing opportunities to bring the project to audiences across Québec, Canada, Europe and the UK. I’ll also be recording a new single this autumn planned for release at the end of the year or in 2027.
