Born in beautiful Trier and raised on the edge of the old Celtic region of the Hunsrück, my brother, my friends and I spent our childhood afternoons in the woods. There we discovered enchanted clearings, overgrown old vineyards, a rusty red ferruginous stream, animal skeletons, feathers and toad spawn.

My father explained to us everything about the animals in the forest, especially the birds. And my mother, always with a song on her lips, sat down with us to sing children’s songs and folk songs.

I have actually been singing since I could speak and even back then I loved singing songs in foreign languages. As soon as I could read, no booklet was safe from me and I could very quickly memorize a music cassette from start to finish. Later in high school, our music teacher made our whole class sing in the school choir and that’s how I came into contact with singing exercises, voice training and polyphony for the first time.

I was able to deepen this during my long-term membership in the vocal ensemble “Radost” and bathe myself in the always goosebump-inducing sound of Eastern European polyphony.

In the numerous ethno and folk music bands in which I have participated so far, I have been able to fully live out my love for the folk song traditions of Europe. These include the bands “Eilean – Celtic Music”, “Cool Masala”, “Morann” and “Brigandu”.

Celtic music has particularly influenced me from the beginning. Singing Irish and Scottish Gaelic songs with the band “Eilean – Celtic Music” has always touched me deeply and resonated with very emotional chords in my soul. Singing these beautiful Celtic songs accompanied by the harp sounds of harpist Christopher Daams always felt like coming home.

During my time with the band “Cool Masala” I also studied North Indian Dhrupad singing and had sporadic lessons with the wonderful Amelia Cuni. These lessons educated and shaped me enormously musically. Guided by a patient and loving teacher, I was able to get to know music that is based on the natural tone scale and on enthrallingly rich intervals as well as rhythmic cycles. I learned a lot about scales, rhythms and improvising and always feel connected to this form of singing. However, I never got to the point where I could perform a raga in public in an appropriate manner.

In 2012, the burning arrow of the goddess “Brigandu” catapulted my friend Miri and I, who had formed the band of the same name, directly and unplanned onto the big stage at a medieval festival in southern Germany as the opening act for Ritchie Blackmore’s band “Blackmore’s Night”. A magical and wonderful time began with many beautiful songs, concerts and the release of our CD “DragonFly”. In her solo project “Miri Mehrstimmig”, Miri continues to delight her fans with the sounds of her bagpipes, flutes, guitar, harp and her beautiful voice.

And life has also led me into a solo project, the results of which are all brought together here on this website. But first I was torn away from everything that was dear to me and what meant so much to me, namely presenting our music together with my musician friends on stage to an attentive audience.

I have lived with the physical consequences of a muscular dystrophy called FSHD since I was a child. A steady loss of my muscles over many stages has led me to this point where I had to give up performing and can only play my instruments for short sequences at a time.

I experienced a very long “dark night of the soul” in which everything inside me was empty. I thought that making music was over for me. At that time I was also having problems with my vocal cords, which no longer wanted to obey me. My voice often just squeaked away. My dear friend Mouna helped me a lot during this time, having broad experience as a practicing Buddhist, singer and singing teacher.

Through continuous reflection and meditation, I have come to understand that throughout the years of my life I have identified myself as a singer, before that as a scientist and before that as a student. I have always identified myself through my achievements and the recognition that comes with them. And now I could hardly do anything, everything hurt and my voice no longer obeyed me. Spiritually speaking, it turned out to be a valuable experience. At the same time, it was one of the most painful. It was about letting go of what could no longer be brought back. I was able to come into deep contact with my true essence. Who am I if I can’t do anything anymore? What is the foundation of my existence? What power lies within me?

Out of the void, I slowly began to reorient myself and write blog articles about music and mysticism. A kindred spirit contacted me through the blog. Dear Daniela John visited me and encouraged me to chant mantras with her. I was happy about her visit and engaged with the singing. With her gentle manner, Daniela slowly introduced me back to music and making music. And my other musician friends like Barbara, Mouna, Miri, Regine and Manfred also stayed in touch with me and visited me. My husband didn’t let up either and kept pulling me into musical activities.

And so I slowly came back to singing until the channel to receive new songs opened up again inside of me and I dedicated myself to recording music. I started with folk songs that I always wanted to interpret. Later on I continued writing my own songs regularly again. These were the songs on the „Wheel of the Year“ that can be heard on my YouTube channel since autumn 2021 and which were all released together on my album “Wheel of the Year” for Samhain 2023.

I enjoy being able to implement all creative ideas at my own pace in my small home studio and pouring all the songs that want to come through urgently or still lie in a drawer into a mold and recording and arranging them piece by piece. I like to use the sounds of all my instruments, some of which I am self-taught on (Celtic harp, bodhrán, tin and low whistle, lyre and frame drum) and some of which I can rely on several years of lessons, like on the piano. I mainly accompany my singing with my instruments and occasionally with MIDI sounds as a sound carpet and use sampling and overdubbing. Meaning the duplication of certain phrases and the layering of many different tracks on top of each other. In this way I can compensate for the lack of arm strength and still continue making music.

And when one of my musician friends, such as the bass virtuoso Ahmad Hani, the multi-talented percussionist Yatziv Caspi or the wonderful violinists Maria-Barbara Steinacker and Roma Dihn, acts as a guest musician, I am always particularly pleased.

So I can say that my origins from an ancient Celtic area, the deep connection to nature, the love of music, the support of dear friends and the trust in life have brought me here and I am happy to be able to share my music with you.

Here are some links to the persons I mentioned above:

The Instagram profile of my dear husband who is a marvellous photographer: https://www.instagram.com/boluktaner/

The website of my friend Miri: http://mirimehrstimmig.blogspot.com

The website of my friend Mouna: https://stimm-klang-raum.de/

The website of my friend Daniela John: https://www.danielajohn.com

The website of the guitarist Manfred Gruber: https://oceanberlin.de/Manfred.Gruber/

The website of bass virtuoso and composer Ahmad Hani: https://www.ahmadhani.com/

The band “Hälm” of my friend Maria-Barbara Steinacker: https://liere.de/haelm/

The Band “Jessnes” of violinist Roma Dihn: https://www.jessnes.de

The website of Yatziv Caspi: https://www.yatzivcaspi.com/

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