At the beginning of the 20th century, Europe is living in peace and prosperity. The “Belle Époque” is an outgrowth of previous important historical events and developments. The networks that are created and which evolve funnel both people and their products, tangible and intangible. It is within this multi-layered world that sound recording and sound reproduction is invented. Early record labels send mobile crews literally all over the world to record local musicians. The range of the repertoire is endless. Cosmopolitanism in large urban centers favors polystylisms and polymorphisms. Colonialism, revolutions, conflicts, refugee flows; the theater, cinema, radio, photography, orchestras’ tours, but also circulations in all kinds of commercial channels in a world that evolves dynamically and anisotropically, form a complex network of “centers” and “peripheries” in alternating roles setting musical idioms in motion, both literally and figuratively. The networks in which the Greek-speaking musics participate, constantly conversing with their co-tenants, are magnificent. Discography has already provided important tools in understanding the relationships that developed between “national” repertoires. The result of this ongoing research is “Cosmopolitanism in Greek Historical Discography”.

Naturally, in the large urban centers of the Ottoman Empire around the Mediterranean Sea, the “conversations” of the Greek-speakers with their Turkish-speaking Muslim “co-tenants”, the Catholic Greek-speakers, the Armenians, the Sepharadi and Ashkenazi Jews, the Levantine Protestants, and the Europeans and the Americans, were more than intense. Very often, the scope of this network extends to the Balkans, to Eastern and even to a part of Central Europe. Especially regarding relations between Orthodox and Muslims, the relevant evidence demonstrates the musical exchanges between them and elucidate an ecumene where everyone contributed to the great musical “melting-pot”, and where everyone may draw from it, as well as redeposit it, in a new form, with a reformulated text and its meaning, with sometimes clear and sometimes blurred references to its pre-text, until someone else pulls it out again, through the “melting-pot”, so that it becomes clear that there is no end in this recreational and dynamic process where fluidity prevails. A case that comes from such repertoires is this recording.

"Meraklou" was recorded in Athens in June 1933 by Stellakis Perpiniadis, credited as a composition by Grigoris Asikis. The record label describes it as an “Oriental dance.” (Anatolitikos choros). It constitutes the only recording of this tune in the Greek-language discography.

However, the tune also appears in the Turkish-language discography, specifically in the song "Kakülünü çözersin", also known by the title "Beyoğlu'nda gezersin". The music is attributed to Rıza Bey. The earliest known recording appears to have been made in Constantinople (Istanbul) between April and May of 1904. On the record label, the title appears as "Mahur - Kiakulni tcheuzersin" [Kakülünü çözersin] (Gramophone 650e – 2-12604), and the orchestra consists of an unknown vocalist, Kemani [Aleksan] Ağa on the violin, and unidentified musicians on the ney and kanun.

Approximately two years later, in 1906, the song was recorded again in Istanbul by Hafız Aşir Efendi under the title "Mahur Şarkı - Kakülünü çözersin" (Odeon X-31999).

The song remains active in the Turkish-language repertoire, continually generating new performances and arrangements. The appearance of the tune in multiple performative environments, which determine its performative and, ultimately, overall aesthetic identity, is of great interest. For example:

– "Beyoğlu'nda gezersin",Gökçen Kaynatan ve Elektronikleri (45rpm, 1 Numara A.K. 06, 1973).
– "Beyoğlu'nda gezersin gözlerini süzersin", Leverkusen Musiki Cemiyeti (uploaded on YouTube in 2019).
– "Beyoğlu'nda gezersin", Maviğ Quartet (uploaded on YouTube in 2021).
– "Beyoğlu'nda gezersin", Seda Temel (uploaded on YouTube in 2024).