Islak Köpek with Sumru Ağıryürüyen, Seda Röder and Korhan Erel

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Korhan Erel
Islak KöpekPhoto by Ali Taşkıran

Islak Köpek
Photo by Ali Taşkıran

Istanbul-based free improvisation ensemble Islak Köpek curates bi-monthly evenings of freely improvised music at Gitar Cafe where they invite several musicians. This month, guest musicians are Sumru Ağıryürüyen (voice), acclaimed new music pianist Seda Röder and myself. As some of you may know, I have taken a sabbatical from Islak Köpek, which I co-founded in 2005, to focus on other projects – the reason I am a guest instead of a member.

Islak Köpek are

Şevket Akıncı (acoustic guitar)
Gülşah Erol (cello)
Giray Gürkal (electric guitar, effects)
Volkan Terzioğlu (tenor saxophone)
Robert Reigle (tenor saxophone) – Robert may still be stranded in the US because of a visa problem. We don’t know if he is back
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Sumru Ağıryürüyen (voice)
Seda Röder (piano)
Korhan Erel (computer, controllers)

Music starts at 9pm and will cost you 10 lira. Gitar Cafe has a great, cosy atmosphere as well as good snacks and drinks.

Facebook event for the concert

Other concerts by Korhan Erel in March, April and May 2013

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Travelling in Germany

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Korhan Erel
Image

Birdwatching in Erfurt (photo by Korhan Erel)

I will be in Germany from January 29 through February 17, spending time in Hamburg, Berlin, Essen, Cologne and Düsseldorf. Please contact me if you’d like to meet for coffee, collaboration ideas, networking, etc. I will be in Hamburg from the 29th until the 4th, in Berlin from the 5th until the 12th and then in the Ruhr area (based in Essen) until the 17th.

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sa.ne.na and korhan erel “coming together” / january 26

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Korhan Erel

Image“Coming Together”
Where contemporary beats the dance floor.

Istanbul-based percussion ensemble sa.ne.na team up with electronic musician Korhan Erel for a night of danceable beats. This show has lots of original music, taking cues from IDM, Dub, West Africa, Frank Zappa – and a performance of Frederic Rzewski’s ‘Coming Together’ like you have never heard it before.

 

sa.ne.na aresa.ne.na
AMY SALSGIVER percussion
KEREM ÖKTEM percussion
SEÇİL KURAN percussion
and
KORHAN EREL live electronics

January 26, 2013 @ Borusan Müzik Evi. Doors open at 9pm, concert begins at 9.30pm

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Viewpoint: Ağıryürüyen, Erel, Gürkal / Özgür Müzik: free improv gathering @ Dunia, Jan 14

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Korhan Erel

Sumru Ağıryürüyen (voice), Korhan Erel (computer, controllers), Giray Gürkal (electric guitar, effects) will present an evening of solo, duo and trio improvisations at Gitar Cafe, where they will attempt to look at music and each other from different viewpoints. The cat, in the meanwhile, will simply keep on sleeping on her plastic bag.

Dunia, January 14, 2013, 8.30pm

This concert will be followed by Özgür Müzik, a monthly gathering of free improvisation organized by Korhan Erel. Özgür Müzik will start around 9.30pm and is free for all musicians to attend.

Both events are free entrance. Dunia is located on Kadife Sokak in Kadıköy, Istanbul

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A summary of what my website had to endure in the past year. 🙂

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 4,100 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 7 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Korhan Erel | Leave a comment

Song Books: Reimagining John Cage at 100

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Korhan Erel

John Cage

New York violist Tanya Kalmanovitch directs an all-star cast of American and Turkish performers in radical and wide-ranging interpretations of the composer’s notebooks at the Borusan Music House, December 29 2012.

The end of 2012 marks the close of the 100th anniversary of the birth John Cage, the American composer who changed the face of classical music history when he proposed that the primary musical act is not performing, but listening.

New York-based violist Tanya Kalmanovitch has assembled an all-star Turkish and American musicians to re-imagine Cage’s Song Books. Composed in 1970, this collection of 89 short works scored for voice, electronics, and theatrical performance serves as a catalog of Cage’s compositional and notational innovations.

This performance will give these works a radical new context. Cutting-edge Turkish and American performers from diverse backgrounds in rock, classical, jazz, Turkish and electronic music are invited to re-interpret selections to create a one-of-a-kind spectacle. Part rock show, part new music concert, part absurdist theatre; this performance will put a playful, provocative post-modern spin on contemporary music.

Performers

Tanya Kalmanovitch: Viola, Producer and Artistic Director
Serra Yılmaz: Actor
Anthony Coleman: Piano
Korhan Erel: Computer, Assistant Producer
Şevket Akıncı: Guitar
Tolga Tüzün: Piano and electronics
Ayşenur Kolivar: Voice
Gökçe Akçelik: singer/songwriter, guitar

Event page on Facebook | Event page on Borusan website | Tickets

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Islak Köpek @ Gitar Cafe, Dec 6, 2012

Posted on December 2, 2012 by Korhan Erel

Islak Köpek @ Gitar Cafe, Dec 6, 2012

Istanbul-based free improvisation ensemble Islak Köpek will start their monthly concert series at Gitar Cafe on December 6, 2012. The concert will start at 9pm. In this series, Islak Köpek will alternate between playing as an ensemble and collaborating with local and international musicians.

Şevket Akıncı (acoustic guitar)
Korhan Erel (computer and controllers)
Gülşah Erol (cello)
Giray Gürkal (electric guitar)
Robert Reigle (tenor saxophone)
Volkan Terzioğlu (tenor saxophone)

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Erel, Furuya, Lanfredini, Merlet at Gitar Cafe, November 29

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Korhan Erel

On November 29, I will be playing with three very exciting improvisers at Gitar Cafe. This is a meeting that was built from chance meetings. I met Nobuyasu Furuya, wind player based in Japan, on Facebook and was amazed by his fluent Turkish. It turned out that he had lived in Istanbul in the past. I met Elisabetta Lanfredini, singer and vocal improviser based in Italy, when she came to one of my shows in Istanbul. She is currently residing in Istanbul to study improvisational traditions in Turkish music. Florent Merlet, a French drummer based in Istanbul, and I have played many many times in various settings and even recorded an album in 2009. Florent and Elisabetta had a chance duo in the “Free Music” improv night I organize monthly and blew everyone away with their performance. Nobu and I were looking for musicians to join us for this concert and when I heard Elisabetta and Florent, the search was over. 

We will play duos, trios and quartets in this evening of freely improvised music at Gitar Cafe, which has been one of the hotspots of improvised music in Istanbul since 2008, as well as having a much longer tradition of hosting some of the greatest names in Turkey and abroad in traditional musics and jazz.

Cast (in alphabetical order):

Korhan Erel, computer and controllers
Nobuyasu Furuya, wind instruments
Elisabetta Lanfredini, voice
Florent Merlet, drums

The show will start at 9.00pm. Entrance is 15 TL

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Waterland – a collaboration with Burcu Yağcıoğlu

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Korhan Erel

Waterland is an audiovisual work Burcu Yağcıoğlu and I created together. It will be shown for the first time at Kunsthaus Essen in the exhibition titled “Ich sehe was, was Du nicht siehst…” (I see what you don’t see) . The opening will be held on November 18 at 5p.  The exhibition will continue until January 6, 2013 and will also include works by Chu ChunTeng, Iva Kontic, Alexis Milne, and Sandra Setzkorn.

Burcu Yağcıoğlu is an artist based in London and Istanbul. She has been showing her paintings, drawings, videos and exhibitions in many galleries around the world.

Facebook event for the show

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The Threshold wins the prestigious Blake Prize in Australia

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Korhan Erel

I had been working on a collaboration with Sydney-based digital media artist, filmmaker and friend Fabian Astore for the past 3 months. The result is the Threshold, a video conceptualized, shot and processed by Fabian with sound design by me. The work was entered for the Blake Prize, which aims to challenge artists to explore the religious and spiritual in art, and won the grand prize in November 2012, sharing it with another entry. The Threshold can be viewed and heard at the end of the text.  The Australian has recently published an article on Fabian’s win. Unfortunately, the article has no mention of my contribution to the video.

The Threshold from Fabian Astore on Vimeo.

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