Erdem Helvacioglu

Brighternow

1. Some research gathering by yours truely from various threads . . .
   
   The brilliant Turkish composer:
   
   - "Erdem Helvacioglu is one of the most renowned contemporary composers of his generation in Turkey. His music has been called “revolutionary,” “groundbreaking,” “luscious and unique,” and “completely arresting and disarmingly beautiful.” He has received awards from the Luigi Russolo, MUSICA NOVA, Insulae Electronicae Electroacoustic Music Competitions and has been commissioned by numerous organizations, from the 2006 World Soccer Championship to the Bang on a Can-All Stars. Helvacioglu is also actively involved in composing for films, multimedia productions, contemporary dance and theatre. He won the “Best Original Soundtrack” award in the 2006 Mostramundo Film Festival, and his film scores have been heard at Cannes, Sarajevo, Locarno, Seoul, Sao Paulo, and Sydney film festivals. Ulrich Mertin’s musical activities cover a wide swath, from classical and contemporary to electronic and club music. He graduated from the esteemed “Hanns Eisler Academy for Music“ in Berlin, Germany, and has worked with composers like Pierre Boulez, György Kurtag, Helmut Lachenmann, Wolfgang Rihm, Brian Ferneyhough and with groups like Ensemble Modern and musikFabrik. With his award-winning Hezarfen Ensemble (the leading contemporary music ensemble of Turkey) he has been influencing and enlarging the Turkish contemporary scene for several years.
   - Innova Recordings - http://www.erdemhelvacioglu.com/
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   - From 2012:
   
   - "Erlik Khan is the god of death and underworld in Turkish and Mongolian mythology.This collaboration between Turkish experimental genre-hopper and multi-media artist Erdem Helvacioglu and Brooklyn, NY contextualizer Bruce Tovsky is a truly otherworldly experience.
   
   Featuring two prickly longform works fusing GuitarViol (a hybrid stringed instrument), lap steel, random acoustics, and processed electronics into a colorful, polyglot stew, the enigmatic duo forge dense, dark, quivering soundscapes that recall nothing less than Thomas Koner, Shinjuku Thief, & Lull's isolationist climes skyrocketing through the improvisational smears first championed by the likes of AMM and Zbigniew Karkowski. Erlik Khan is also the first recording of its kind to combine electric lapsteel and guitarviol with live electronics, an aural hybrid navigating various sonic eddies and frequency-intensive night terrors."
   - €music
   
   Bruce Tovsky:
   .

Brighternow

1. - Also from 2012:
   
   - "As any filmmaker knows, one of the most powerful aspects of music is its ability to construct emotional arcs and guide narrative by purely sonic means. Simultaneously ethereal and concrete, both spectral and textural, Planet X—the debut collaboration between guitarist Erdem Helvacioglu and violist Ulrich Mertin—tells the story of the appearance in the sky of a new heavenly body and follows one hapless explorer’s quest to discover what lies at its heart. Over the course of two years, Helvacioglu and Mertin composed and crafted this project, building up layers of jagged scratching sounds, plaintive melodies, percussive hits, and dark drones. The two artists grounded the sound of the album in strings but also employed unorthodox recording techniques, sophisticated processing algorithms, and multi-tracking to achieve a rich, complex, resonant texture. Throughout, the sound is unmistakably forward-looking, evocative of the project’s science fiction themes and redolent of the eerie, sometimes dark feel of sci-fi films like “Alien,” “Moon,” and “2001.”
   
   
   Ulrich Mertin’s musical activities cover a wide swath, from classical and contemporary to electronic and club music. He graduated from the esteemed “Hanns Eisler Academy for Music“ in Berlin, Germany, and has worked with composers like Pierre Boulez, György Kurtag, Helmut Lachenmann, Wolfgang Rihm, Brian Ferneyhough and with groups like Ensemble Modern and musikFabrik. With his award-winning Hezarfen Ensemble (the leading contemporary music ensemble of Turkey) he has been influencing and enlarging the Turkish contemporary scene for several years.
   - Innova Recordings
   - http://www.ulrichmertin.com/english.html
   http://www.hezarfenensemble.com/musicians.php?id=2.

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1. Another one from 2012:
   
   
   - "Timeless Waves originally composed for a 47 channel / 53 speaker diffusion system running on The Morning Line, is a sonic work based on six basic human emotions. The CD is a stereo version of this multichannel work.
   The piece has been inspired by W. Gerrod Parrott's book "Emotions in Social Psychology" and has been commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-BA 21) for The Morning Line - an interdisciplinary art project by Matthew Ritchie, Aranda/Lasch and Arup AGU - and premiered in May 2010, when the project was exhibited at Eminonu Square in Istanbul. Sonically, Timeless Waves is based on the timbres of Togaman GuitarViol, Gibson Les Paul electric guitar, sine waves, various analog pedals and hardware fx processors. The music combines elements from genres such as electroacoustic, drone, noise, contemporary music blended with minimal melodies."
   Sub Rosa.

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1. 2010:
   
   
   Erdem Helvacioglu & Per Boysen -Sub City 2064
   
   "Turkey’s Helvacioglu (electric guitar, GuitarViol) and Sweden’s Boysen (flute, sax, EWI, fretless and dropped-B electrics) masterfully employ looping and sophisticated electronics to craft uncommonly deep, intelligent, and beautiful cinematic compositions at times reminiscent of Stockhausen, Hassell, Eno, NIN, and Floyd, but brilliantly transcending those and their many other influences"
   - Guitarplayer.
   
   
   
   - "Per Boysen’s live concerts focus on instrumental music with an openminded “psychedelic” touch, utilizing live looping and interactive electronics to extend traditional instruments in multi lateral improvisation. He is a Swedish freelance worker in many creative fields, often referred to as a renaissance man. Has toured worldwide as a musician, affiliated with both major record labels, small independent labels and as a self promoting artist. Former studio musician counting one gold selling album. Produced recorded music for CD, surround DVD multimedia, radio and television.
   - http://www.perboysen.com/
   - Emusic
   
   Will continue with more goodies . .. 

Brighternow

This is from 2012, collaborating with Mark O'Leary, Perhaps best known for:
O'Leary Pasborg Riis:

- "Mark O'Leary had just finished making 4 Urban Landscapes (Creative Sources cs162) where he made environmental recordings around various areas of Cork City and had gained some experience from this project, so when Turkish musician Erdem Helvacioglu suggested a collaboration he decided it would be an interesting endeavor to try to replicate this work in Istanbul.

Mark terms the aesthetic; Atmospheric Environmental Ambience.

Rather than just found sound, Mark operates in an atmospheric ambient direction and Erdem is in concurrence with this aesthetic, he work's with the material, develops and cultivates it with reverbs and treatments, utilizing its essential ingredients and contours in a respectful manner.

Mark emailed Erdem an outline concept and Erdem immediately embraced the concept and set about recording a whole plethora of different sources that could be used as resource material for the project.

Eventually Mark travelled to Istanbul and arranged to work with Erdem at his studio for two days and thus began the process of putting the materials together into a cohesive structure.

Mark has been influenced by Brian Eno and Jon Hassell in his working methodology, he has even in the past alluded to his music as being Post-Eno, trying respectfully to add to the great body of ambient music created by Brian Eno and Jon Hassell.

Mark walked around Istanbul making sure that they captured the essential essences and atmospheres of Eastern Istanbul, Western Istanbul, The Bosphorus bridge and took quite a few ferry trips partly out of necessity, but also to experience the maritime features of Istanbul which has given it a strategic importance through the ages but also creates a whole other secondary dimension making an interesting juxtaposition with its unique cityscape.

Mark and Erdem kept the material as straightforward as possible initially so as to be able to develop a comprehensive concept and it did culminate in a definite structural outline which they were able to ameliorate further at the next studio recording.

Much water under the bridge and under the Bosphorus since then and what has emanated is within the Ambient paradigm and an intriguing atmospheric interpretation of Istanbul.

Istanbul has the capacity to conjure up many images in ones minds eye.

Its rich cultural, architectural features and its connection with history has been defined through the ages; Byzantium, Ottoman Empire, Turkey. It has been a centrifugal point between the West and the Orient and indeed one could say it is at the cross roads of the world for there are so many composite ethnic elements that aggregate into the critical mass of what we know as Turkey thus creating an interesting kaleidoscope of diverging tapestries and textures that coalesce seamlessly into a cohesive fulcrum point that manifests itself residing within the charm and elegance of this modern and yet timeless metropolis."
- TibProd - 2012


Born: October 20, 1969 Instrument: Guitar

- "Mark O'Leary was born in Cork City Ireland.Being mainly auto didactic on guitar he moved to Los Angeles at the age of 17 to study at Musicians Institute,from where he later graduated. He has presented his music in 29 countries and has played at some of the worlds top Jazz festivals and contemporary Jazz venues.

He has toured Europe as a member of Canadian Pianist Paul Bley's trio,he has performed in duo with Jack DeJohnette,in a jazz trio with Yes/King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford, in duo with Han Bennink,composed and performed classical music with Cikada string quartet,collaborated in an all electronics setting with Sound Artist Gunter Muller, Erdem Helveciouglu and Jakob Riis,in a free improvisation combo with Evan Parker and Sunny Murray, performed in concerts with Anders Jormin and Audun Kleive, played Norwegian folk music with Nils Okland, Swedish folk music with Mats Eden, Jazz with Uri Caine, he has performed in seperate projects with trumpeters Axel Dorner,Kenny Wheeler, Thomas Heberer and Jeff Kaiser. He has the distinction of having played in duo with Paul Bley, Bobo Stenson and Matthew Shipp. In 2004 he toured Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro with Vasil Hadzimanov and Marco Djordevic. He also toured in Macedonia with Guitarist Toni Kitanovski and Drummer Alexander Sekhulovski. He also represented Ireland in the Athens European jazz festival.

He has also worked in a trio with ex Weather Report/Jaco Pastorius Drummer Peter Erskine and Palle Danielsson. He has also collaborated with the innovative percussionists z'ev, Alex Cline ,Hans Kristian Kjos Sorensen and Terje Isungset.He has also collaborated with Stale Storlokken in contemporary trio using church organ and with John Herndon of Tortoise in the Underground Jazz Trio.

He has also worked in different projects with Slava Ganelin and Alexander Tarasov of the Ganelin trio fame also in a UK based group with Mark Sanders and Joe Williamson of Trapist. He has toured in the exciting group Zemlya with Eyvind Kang and Dylan Van Der Schyff and also with Dylan and Wayne Horvitz. In conjunction with Alliance Francaise he performed in a trio with Henri Texier and Aldo Romano. He also played in a trio with Jon Christensen and Terje Gewelt He has played in Poland with drummer Michal Miskiewicz and Tomasz Szukalski and with the Oles brothers Bartlomiej and Marcin. He has also played with the Aka Moon rhythm section of Michel Hadzigeorgiu and Stephane Galland. He has also colloborated in trio with Stefan Pasborg and Peter Friis Nielsen as well as working with other Danes Jacob Anderskov and in duo with Kresten Osgood."
- All About Jazz..

Brighternow

</a><br><span style="color: brown;"><strong><em>- "Resonating Universes’ is a collaboration that brings together sound-sculpting electronica (Erdem Helvacioglu) with traditional Turkish harp (Sirin Pancaroglu) into one continuously evolving soundscape. In their first collaboration, in order to capture the widest possible range of sounds from the harp, a range of different microphones and microphone techniques were used – like special drum kick mics used very close to the bass strings, stereo mics used right at the top of the instrument, a microphone inside the instrument, etc. thus mixing classical music and pop music production techniques. For the initial recording stage, they tried to use every possible gadget imaginable on the strings, from bows to Ebows, from ropes to knives. At one moment ?irin and Erdem were both at either end of a rope scratching the strings of the harp while also punching the low strings, a very tiring experience! The philosophy of this timbre exploration was to find new ways of expressing emotions using experimental recording techniques. The result is a superbly sophisticated and expressive work that blends contemporary experimental vocabulary with traditional, Turkish sensibilities — A timeless sonic journey."</em><br>- <a href="http://www.sargasso.com/?product=erdem-helvacioglu-sirin-pancaroglu-resonating-universes">Sargasso - 2011</a><br><br><img src="http://www.haberimport.com/d/news/2742.jpg"><br>Sirin Pancaroglu (born 1968) is a Turkish harpist.<br><br><em>- "She performs both traditional and modern pieces. She has premiered pieces written for her by Gerardo Dirié, Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Jeeyoung Kim, Ricardo Lorenz, Hasan Uçarsu and Meliha Doguduyal. In addition, she has been expanding her repertoire by transcribing for harp from an array of musical traditions. Over the years she has collaborated in chamber music with violinist Ignace Jang, violist Tatjana Masurenko, flutist Kornelia Brandkamp, harpist Tine Rehling and soprano Ay?e Sezerman, and recently with Israeli percussionist Yinon Muallem, creating an innovative repertoire and commissioning new music for these combinations.<br><br>Pancaroglu has performed at venues such as the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Wolf Trap in Virginia, Sejong Cultural Center in Seoul, Takemitsu Memorial Hall in Tokyo, the Atatürk Cultural Arts Center and the Cemal Re?it Rey Concert Hall in Istanbul. She performed at all the major international festivals in her homeland (Istanbul International Music Festival, International Ankara Festival, Yapi Kredi Art Festival, International Eskisehir Festival, Izmir International Festival, International Mersin Music Festival), Imagine New Music Festival in US, Belgrade Harp Festival in Serbia, Festival de la Ciudad de México in Mexico City, the Berlioz Festival, the Chirens Chamber Music Festival, the Semaines Musicales de Villeveyrac and the Trièves Festival in France.<br><br>In addition, Ms. Pancaroglu was a concerto soloist with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the European Union Chamber Orchestra, the Memphis Symphony, Washington Chamber Symphony, the Hermitage Soloists Ensemble, the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, the Ancyra Chamber Orchestra, and the Akbank Chamber Orchestra."</em><br>- <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Şirin_Pancaroğlu&quot;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; - <a href="http://www.sirinpancaroglu.com/">http://www.sirinpancaroglu.com/</a>.</strong></span></div></li></ol&gt;