Sound is easy on the ears

While composing tracks for Fatih Akin's startling breakthrough film Head-On, German bass-player Alexander Hacke fell in love with the music of Turkey, a country inhabited by more than 72 nationalities, with all the possibility for musical enrichment that entails.

Akin (who is part of Turkey's German diaspora) and Hacke went back to record a cross-section of the country's bewilderingly various musical styles, and this documentary is the result.

From Turkish hip hop and street music such as rappers Ceza & Gang to stars such as Erkin Koray and Orhan Gencebay, Akin and Hacke offer us the music and the musicians.

Loose editing allows their subjects to talk about anything, from the difficulties of life as a Turkish Kurd to the vagaries of 72 years in the music business (this from an 84-year-old singer wearing scary amounts of eyeliner).

It's casual but informative and easy on the ears, although giving legendary singer Sezen Aksu only the penultimate spot was a crass artistic error, surprising from two music lovers. Turkey's music scene may be a fascinating hotchpotch but a star this great still merits the final curtain.

Crossing The Bridge: The Sound Of Istanbul
Cert: 12A