Singer and saz-player Cumali Bulduk is unquestionably one of the most active musicians on Brussels’ world music scene. This self-taught Turkish musician, whose family hails from the mountainous Emirdag region, has been playing the saz – the Turkish long-necked lute that has such an important part in Eastern musicology – since the age of nine. Beyond the confines of his childhood immersion in traditional Turkish music and his training under the masters of the genre, Cumali’s openness and curiosity extends to other musical cultures of the region, giving rise to the multicultural project Saz Ground, which he has carefully developed over years. The repertoire of his group’s first CD Dost draws from Turkish Alevi folk music but supplements it with personal compositions, reconciling Turkish tradition with a great many other influences in a very personal story.