Korhan Erel will play with American-Chinese cello, voice and electronics artist Audrey Chen and his improviser friends at Cafe Mitanni, a small, cosy jazz venue on one of the bustling streets of Beyoğlu, Istanbul’s perpetually packed headquarters of entertainment, food, night life district. The concert will start at 10pm with a brief solo performance by Audrey Chen, followed by a set of improvisations by Chen and the other musicians.

Şevket Akıncı and Korhan are founders of Islak Köpek, Turkey’s longest-standing free improvisation ensemble, which is considered to have paved the way for many other musicians to boldly perform freely improvised and experimental music in Istanbul. Sumru Ağıryürüyen and Korhan have been improvising together on and off for the past 3-4 years and have recently started the trio Bakış Açısı (Point of View) with Islak Köpek’s other guitarist, Giray Gürkal. Giray plays with Şevket in Mutant, a guitar septet. Sumru, Korhan and Şevket are also members of Nazım’a Doğru (Towards Nazım), an all-star ensemble that interprets the poetry of the great poet Nazım Hikmet with elements of free improvisation, new music, folk music and many more styles.

Çağlayan Yıldız, who was in the original line-up for this concert, will not be able to attend.

Both Chen and Islak Köpek have released albums on Evil Rabbit Records.

Audrey Chen (cello, voice, analog electronics)
Sumru Ağıryürüyen (voice)
Şevket Akıncı (guitars)
Giray Gürkal (electric guitar, effects)
Korhan Erel (computer, controllers)

April 5, 2013, 10:00pm
Cafe Mitanni
Çukurluçeşme Sokak 6/A
Beyoğlu, Istanbul