Deniz is a multidisciplinary artist who creates music and independent nonfiction films. デニズは、自主映画と、音楽の、二つの専門分野に精通しているアーティストです。Deniz bağımsız film yönetmenliği ve aynı zamanda müzisyenliğiyle disiplinlerarası çalışan bir sanatçıdır. Deniz es un artista multidisciplinario que crea musica y documentales independientes.
Overview.
Deniz of the Bees is a singing-songwriting frontman in the indie\art rock genre, and the director and producer for the documentary series ‘Time Travels Through Sound’.
As a multilingual artist and teacher who speaks Japanese, Spanish, Turkish, English and trace amounts of Portuguese, Greek, Hungarian, Russian, Mandarin, Tuvan and Kazakh, Dennis’ creative impulsions are rooted in language death & preservation, nostalgia, nature and sound.
Before the pandemic he traveled across the US, Japan and Europe to make music while doing filming and organic farming. Currently he resides in Portland, Oregon where he runs his non-traditional music school and collective called The Hive Music Hub PDX.
Bio
LDL live with the EBBSO symphony orchestra
Filming the sunrise in Dersim, Tunceli
Practicing Sanshin ( Shamisen ) in Kakeroma Island, Japan.
Making tea on a traditional stove in Chiba, Japan.
Past Works Include:
•Lara Di Lara - LDL is Dennis’s former band with whom he has performed many televised events and symphony shows, and opened for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
•花は咲けども - A group from the Tōhoku region, 影法師 Kagebōshi, wrote a song called ‘Hana wa Sakedomo’, ‘Even Though The Flowers Bloom’ discussing the socio-political issues surrounding the 2011 Fukushima disaster. Dennis worked alongside award-winning band Women of the World as the lyricist and translator for the song.
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Early life - Dennis, (also Deniz) was born in Riverside, CA in 1989, and moved to his parents Şule Gürbüz and Cengiz Aydemir’s hometown, Istanbul, as a child.
Early Musicianship - As a 2 and a half year-old Dennis’s favorite albums were REM’s Out Of Time and Eric Clapton’s Unplugged. At the age of 7 he started playing the keyboard, and the piano at 11. Upon receiving a guitar on the day he turned 12, he decided to make music his career.
High school - Deniz went to a fine arts high school, Avni Akyol Anadolu, where he focused on the upright bass.
First bands - Quickly becoming a go-to guitarist, bassist and vocalist in Istanbul for Pop, 70s and 80s Rock, Indie Rock, Heavy Metal and Symphonic Metal bands at the age of 15, he performed with acts such as Pınar Aylin, Electric Circus, 70lik, Voodoo Medicine, Senfonya and Gargara to name a few. After graduating high school Deniz subbed for one of Turkey’s most influential jazz bassists Nezih Yeşilnil, after which he applied to Berklee and was accepted with a scholarship. →→
College - Graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston, class of 2015.
Languages - As a Turkish-American he started life as a bilingual. By the age of 23 Dennis had learned Spanish and Japanese languages.
Road to Istanbul - In 2011 Dennis bicycled from Málaga, Spain to Istanbul, roughly 2500 miles.
Works other than Music and Filmmaking
During college Dennis worked at the Apple Store as a Mentor and Expert.
He also worked as a music teacher at the Boston based Japanese-English nursery school CBNS, and at Zuhal Music in Istanbul.
Dennis volunteered at an NPO, Genuine Voices, as a music coordinator for incarcerated youth, while also volunteering at 夢を語れ yume wo katare Kyoto-style ramen shop as a cashier, where he got to practice his Japanese.
scene from Polaroid. music video
Music
Deniz of the Bees at the Shakespeare Garden in Portland, OR.
Deniz of the Bees - “Subtly reverberating the dark canyons of heart and soul, Deniz of the Bees’ illuminating array of sounds gently colorize black and white memories. Deepened with cinematic lyrics and soaring hooks, his true musical adeptness as a singer/songwriter and guitarist derives from his songs' seemingly simple yet complex harmonic tensions and how he uses this tool to further carve the nook in which one could feel nestled and home. The river of muse for such varied and unique expression flows from his musical influences such as Nick Cave, Radiohead, Tom Jobim, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Huun-Huur-Tu, Sting and early Coldplay, and the sound elegantly gallops in the valleys of the realm that is indie art rock.”
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Deniz of the Bees on social media;
FB INSTA MUSIC
Watch Deniz of the Bees’ Nov ‘19 music video Thick Skins below:
Click for the YouTube Link for “Hear Them Sing”
Film
A scene from The Elements, the first movie of the documentary trilogy ‘Time Travels Through Sound’
An enigmatic non-narrative nonfiction film project that uncovers music that faces extinction due to language death. Produced and directed by Dennis Aydemir, the first film: The Elements was shot over the course of two years in Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Japan, China, Turkey, Vietnam and Russia. The project was initially funded on Kickstarter.
TTTS on social media; FB INSTA
Watch Time Travels Through Sound’s 2019 Showreel below:
Many of the links are included within the text and appear when you hover over words associated with them.