widerberg

Istanbul, Turkey

The Middlemen

ElectronicTechno

Behind the Music

Reading the chapter “The Middlemen” was a heart-wrenching experience that deeply resonated with me. Eril’s story was so moving and tragic — how he left home with the hopes of improving the living conditions of his family, only to work for individuals who had no regard for his life and sent him home in a coffin. It’s stories like these that prove why journalism is so important. Journalism provides a voice to those not otherwise heard, and this journalism tells the untold stories of the cruel oceans that belong to this world.

Just as journalism tells stories grounded in reality, music can also tell a story without any words or vocals. Art and music is a story-feeding asset for the people and, if it’s strong enough, it can catch people’s attention and convey that there’s something wrong that must be changed. As such, I tried to include drums that feel as intense and strong as a riot — something that felt like hitting your fists on the ground and standing back up again to face adversity head-on.

widerberg
About widerberg

This Istanbul-born musician, who is in love with electronic music which he met at an early age, started his journey by preparing hip-hop music for his friends when he was 16. He learned guitar from his high school teacher. He is introspective with many different music styles, but his minimalist personality led him to lean on a minimalist style. Sometimes inspired by a photograph or a film, sometimes without any terms and conditions, he is inspired by the events that he experiences during the day. Cemre prefers to express his thoughts with music that he can not fit into moulds. He produces his art for his passion during the day, and for his dreams at night.

On the insistence of his close friend, he uploaded a few of the tracks that he made for himself on the internet and soon received great interest and positive comments.

The young musician's last single, “Vera,” was featured on the Anjunadeep Recommends playlist and supported by Solomun, Matan Caspi, Jaques Le Noir and many more.

Winner of the 2021 Scripps Howard Award for Excellence in Innovation in Journalism

The Journalism behind the Music

All music in this project is based on The Outlaw Ocean, a New York Times Best-Selling book by Ian Urbina that chronicles lawlessness at sea around the world. This reporting touches on a diversity of abuses ranging from illegal and overfishing, arms trafficking at sea, human slavery, gun running, intentional dumping, murder of stowaways, thievery of ships and other topics.

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