Avenues Music, a musical project by Emir and Alkan, finds its quiet space within the traditions of country and indie/folk music, carrying their narratives and contemplative inquiries since 2012. They just play what they feel and what they want. It’s mostly acoustic, down-tempo and sad music, indeed. Their work is characterized by an uncompromising adherence to dark, slow tempos, acoustic minimalism, and lyrics steeped in metaphor and existential ambiguity. While this aesthetic choice deliberately runs counter to the demands of rapid consumption, it is not a barrier to entry; rather, it serves as a profound invitation to an internal, timeless, and spaceless journey. Their music acts as a portal, challenging the listener to discard the velocity of modern life and submit to the weight of universal reflection. They’re not professional musicians and singing & songwriting is not their main job to survive. But for them, music is far beyond. As an internal creative activity, music is undoubtedly very valuable & liberating thing beside the mainstream ugly production, consumption and thinking culture. And from this point of view, it is perhaps the greatest basis for a real holistic survive and to cope with the pressures of daily life.

Mapping the Internal Crisis: The Contemplative Space Between the Concrete and the Conceptual

The foundational defiance of Avenues Music lies in its rhythmic and structural integrity. In an era dominated by high-energy hooks and algorithmic pacing, the band’s commitment to pausing and languid acoustic arrangements is a political and philosophical statement. Their music demands kairos, meaningful, qualitative time, in opposition to chronos, linear, quantitative clock time. The slow cadence forces a necessary confrontation with the interior world, a space usually masked by the noise of modern life. When tracks like “Chapters” move at a deliberate, almost halting pace, the listener cannot passively consume the sound; they must actively engage with the silence between the notes, thereby inviting the mind into self-examination. This slowness is the deliberate price of entry, filtering out those seeking instant comfort and reserving the experience for those willing to do the work of contemplation. Avenues’ lyrics eschew straightforward narrative for a dense tapestry of metaphor, often exploring themes of existential fatigue, lost words, and the ambiguity of the future. The resulting darkness is not merely mood but a reflection of a deeply lived reality where easy answers fail: The phrase ‘Endless roads carrying the words we once had and lost’ in “Flies: No More” highlights a dual reality: not only does the concrete imagery of roads metaphorically represent conceptual burdens, but it literally references actual night journeys taken, journeys that once fostered a process of creation. These roads were the literal carriers of newly forged terminology and shared language, enriching the relationship and acting as a vessel for valuable, spontaneously produced understanding. The ache lies in the fact that the current paths, though endless, can no longer sustain that unique output, leading instead to a profound sense of lost production and fragmentation. This profound sense of terminal loss is further intensified in the track “Last Share”, which addresses the painful failure of communication and the anxiety of finality. The song’s central image, “Seems this is our last share on your old wall” bridges the traditional and the digital. The “share” implies a final, public, and perhaps obligatory communication on a sharing wall, contrasting sharply with the anxious, analog effort of “building rocks anxiously each time you try” The effort of rebuilding trust is undermined by the very medium used for connection: “Never trust the things you say, so loud and twice…”. The pain here is physicalized yet fragmented: “Distance… and the million pieces of this pain.” The inability to catch up highlights the irreversible separation of both physical space and emotional time. “Maybe learning is dying on your old wall” suggests that genuine, deep learning and growth are tragically sacrificed to the swift, superficial finality of a share, signifying the simple, yet devastating, “Way of loosing our grace” in the modern age.

The descent into existential fog reaches its zenith in “Off The Lanterns.” This track utilizes aquatic and celestial metaphors to paint a scene of disorientation and surrender. The central image “Those lanterns are off there for me” signifies the deliberate extinguishing of guidance, hope, or clear direction needed to navigate the turbulent emotional sea. Storyteller paralyzed “I can’t do that and I feel it much more, but another time means something less”, recognizing the depth of the crisis while being unable to act. The voyage continues into a perilous state: “Sleeping sea we’re drifting into…” suggesting an unconscious, inevitable drift towards a quiet end, perhaps even a pre-emptive surrender before the final “missing” occurs. The recognition that “It’s nothing always as it seems” underscores the philosophical theme that reality is obscured and unreliable. Yet, amidst the turmoil and the feeling that “The all time upside down” the universal forces persist: “The clouds will always run” This final persistence of nature stands in stark contrast to the human paralysis, cementing the track as a powerful statement on personal crisis against the backdrop of timeless indifference. The ambiguity inherent in their writing compels the listener to become a co-creator of meaning, dissolving the passive relationship between artist and audience. Their work frequently highlights the contradictory nature of human experience, the simultaneous need for connection and the painful reality of solitude. This honest portrayal of conflict, rather than speedy resolution, aligns with classical philosophical inquiry, where difficulty is seen as the pathway to truth. The music provides not resolution, but a temporary space to sit within the struggle. This complex lyrical approach is rooted in the harsh but poetic traditions of American roots music, where pain is not embellished but simply stated, often by way of metaphorical natural landscapes.

Inheriting the Aches: From Hank’s Blues to Young’s Ragged Truth

Avenues’ sound is built upon the towering foundation of three distinct American giants, each representing a crucial pillar of their aesthetic. The deepest spiritual ancestor for Avenues Music is mostly Townes Van Zandt. The connection is rooted in uncompromising lyrical economy and the capacity to articulate profound existential pain with startling simplicity. Avenues Music inherits Van Zandt’s ethic that an honest song is a sparse song, one where every word must earn its place. The feeling of being an isolated observer, a recurring theme in Avenues Music’s work, is a direct lineage from Van Zandt’s haunting tales of solitude and fate. From Hank Williams, Avenues Music draws the fundamental blues and country ache that underpins all genuine roots music. This influence is less about honky-tonk rhythm and more about the thematic commitment to the common person’s suffering. Williams’ genius was his ability to use simple structures to convey complex, universal grief, making the personal agony relatable across cultural divides. Avenues channels this essential vulnerability, grounding their elaborate metaphors in the honest, recognizable suffering inherited from the ‘Hillbilly Shakespeare.’ And of course Neil Young’s influence provides Avenues Music with its commitment to raw, unpolished truth and the mastery of acoustic/electric duality. Avenues Music shares Young’s fearless approach to sound, choosing fidelity to emotional content over commercial polish. Whether utilizing stark acoustic purity or applying textured distortion, the sonic goal remains the same. Capturing the genuine, often ragged edge of the human voice and guitar. This choice aligns with Young’s famous anti-establishment ethos, ensuring that the music’s inherent difficulty is preserved against homogenization. The commitment to this raw, unvarnished expression finds its deepest roots not only in the defiance of Young but in the foundational integrity of classic country western music pioneers. Iconic figures like Ernest Tubb, Hank Snow and Charley Pride laid the groundwork by prioritizing storytelling and vocal sincerity over studio polish. The harmonies and dark themes explored by The Louvin Brothers demonstrated the profound emotional power available in minimalist arrangements, directly influencing the alt country sound. Crucially, Willie Nelson solidified the outlaw image and more importantly the songwriter’s absolute authority over the song’s delivery, freeing the music from commercial constraints. These legends collectively championed the idea that the authenticity of the ache, the sincere transmission of personal experience, is the highest musical virtue. Avenues draws from this wellspring, ensuring their musical framework is fundamentally rooted in the honest narrative traditions of the genre’s originators.

Tradition and The Fusion of Horizons

Avenues’ creative process itself reflects the philosophical dynamic of Gadamer’s hermeneutics, specifically the concept of the fusion of horizons. They do not merely reproduce the sounds of tradition, instead they enter into a genuine hermeneutic relationship with it. Their slow, metaphor-laden and conceptually fragmented music, represents the present horizon. By channeling the elemental ache of classic country and the lyrical sincerity of folk music into this modern context, they compel the two horizons to fuse. The tradition is not obeyed but interrogated and renewed by contemporary experience. The result is music that uses the past not as an archive, but as an active partner in dialogue, demonstrating Gadamer’s insight that true understanding involves letting the past speak to the present in a way that creates a new, relevant meaning. This stance explains why their sound feels simultaneously ancient and acutely modern. This engagement is far from nostalgic repetition; it incorporates a current fluidity fed directly by the contemporary existential landscape, serving as a catalyst for genuine novelty that moves beyond mere formalism. The aim is to transcend pure formalism, ensuring the music remains a living, breathing commentary. In this context, the “roads” metaphor remains critical for Avenues Music. It symbolizes not just physical travel, but the ongoing, uncertain process of production and understanding. Crucially, the meticulous attention paid to their lyrics and context reveals a deeper yearning. Music carries an implicit ethical direction. While difficult and challenging, the narrative thread consistently yearns for a life defined by virtuous coherence, loyalty, honesty, respect, and a profound appreciation for existence. Thus, the band’s aesthetic challenge is simultaneously a moral invitation, guiding the attentive listener toward an often forgotten fidelity in the face of modern fragmentation.

The most compelling aspect of Avenues Music is how their stylistic choices converge to create an experience that is truly transcendent timeless and spaceless. By embracing fundamental, universal struggles like loss, doubt and the search for “certain paths”, they effectively dissolve the specificity of their local origin, establishing a potent critique of Dasein under modern conditions. The themes of their music could equally apply to the desolate landscapes of long roads or the lonely hotel rooms of any global city. The intense focus on interior states means that the music is not concerned with outer geography but with inner geography, rendering it universally accessible. Avenues’ characteristic slowness, density, and refusal to offer quick comfort serve as an ultimate philosophical invitation. By deliberately slowing the tempo, they’re trying to offer a temporary escape from the tyranny of Chronos the measurable, relentless, chronological time that dictates modern productivity. Instead, their work invites the listener into Kairos qualitative, meaningful time, creating a sanctuary where contemplation is not a luxury but a necessity. This journey challenges the listener to confront the alienation inherent in the contemporary world. In summary, Avenues Music’s profile is defined by a bold artistic integrity, a refusal to seek superficial affirmation. They willingly choose the challenging path, knowing that the resulting darkness, metaphor, and deliberate pace will repel the quick glance. For those who choose to accept the invitation, however, the reward is music that provides not easy entertainment, but a profound, necessary space for existential contemplation, aligning them with the enduring, truth-telling legacy of figures from Hank Williams to Neil Young.

For more info, this website which was launched in 2012, contains a lot of data about their path. At last but not least, they invite all the honest souls to follow their journey.

See you somewhere on the road.