When Esmerine surfaced with La Lechuza in 2011, the album signaled many things: the band's first new recordings in six years, an expanded line-up, and a song cycle inspired by and dedicated to the life and untimely death of a dear friend and fellow musician. Esmerine's new album Dalmak emphatically confirms that the group has continued writing, exploring and collaborating. Bruce Cawdron (ex-Godspeed You! Black Emperor) and cellist Rebecca Foon (Silver Mt. Zion, Set Fire To Flames), brought in percussionist Jamie Thompson (Unicorns, Islands) and multi-instrumentalist Brian Sanderson as full-time members. European tours in 2011-2012 brought Esmerine to Istanbul, and Dalmak is the fruit of that visit: the majority of the album was recorded in Istanbul, where the band's four Canadian musicians were joined by an equal number of Turkish guest players. "Dalmak" is a Turkish verb with many connotations: to contemplate, to be absorbed in, to dive into, to bathe in, to rush into, to plummet. As album title, "dalmak" refers in a literal sense to immersion in the culture and music of Istanbul but also appropriately evokes the range of music that emerged: a collection of songs that shift between meditative pulsing and enveloping restraint to headlong flights into rhythm and groove.