Today, Altın Gün — “Amsterdam’s finest Turkish psych revivalists” (Pitchfork) whose experimental vision of rock and folk music has led them to world tours, opening slots for Tame Impala and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Coachella and Primavera festival stages, and even a GRAMMY nomination — share the latest track from Garip, their sixth album out February 20 on ATO Records, “Öldürme Beni.”

On “Öldürme Beni,” a powerful and direct expression of emotional vulnerability makes a plea for mercy. Translated in English as “Don’t Kill Me,” the song acknowledges the destructive power of love, as the author begs to be spared from complete, agonizing ruin.

Listen to “Öldürme Beni” here and watch a live performance video of the track here.

Lead single “Neredesin Sen,” released last month, is “traditional music as living blues, still asking timeless questions and still hitting right in the chest.” (KCRW) Listen to “Neredsin Sen” here and watch the video here.

Garip — which translates to “strange” in English — is a loving tribute to Neşet Ertaş, a beloved icon of Anatolian music who carried the spirit of the ashik folk tradition into the modern era. Ertas was a gifted singer, lyricist, and bağlama virtuoso who recorded more than 30 albums and wrote hundreds of songs — some of which were famously recorded by the likes of Bariş Manço and Selda Bağcan.

Through reimagining ten Ertaş compositions, Altın Gün carry on his trailblazing spirit — weaving in lush Arabesque string arrangements, bursts of saxophone, glimmering synth balladry, and a fresh surge of tightly wound rock ’n’ roll. Throughout they maintain a distinct cinematic scope, equal parts Bollywood and spaghetti western. Garip a fitting way to honor a figure as titanic as Ertaş, a work that traces Altın Gün’s sonic roots while simultaneously charting an exhilarating path forward.

Pre-order / pre-save Garip here.

For Altın Gün’s vocalist, keyboardist, and bağlama player Erdinç Eçevit, interpreting a suite of Ertaş’s tunes is a chance to get back to his roots. “Both of my parents are from Turkey, from the same area he is from,” he says. “It’s the music that I grew up with. When I was five, six years old, my grandfather always had cassettes by Neşet Ertaş and I used to listen to it all day long. Then I was too young to really understand the lyrics and the meaning, but I really liked the melodies.”

Now, years later, Eçevit has fully immersed himself in Ertaş’s lyrics — messages from the heart that are, he says, “stories about what he’s facing in life. The Turkish traditional music is the blues of the Turkish people.”

On Garip, Altın Gün recast these songs of longing, heartache, and resilience with the freewheeling verve that has kept them on the cutting-edge of 21st century psychedelic music. They even collaborated with the Stockholm Studio Orchestra to lend a luxuriant, sophisticated feel to various tracks, with arrangements inspired by Egyptian popular music, Turkish Arabesque, and swooning mid-century French and Italian pop.