“Hailing from Elazig, a town in East Anatolia, but born in Ankara in 1954, Erkan Oğur started on violin as a child and learned cumbus, a small fretless lute, from local musicians playing traditional dances at weddings. Hearing Jimi Hendrix on the radio was a major shock, and in high school he began studying guitar. While in Munich on a scholarship to graduate in physics, he decided to dedicate fully to music and threw himself full-time into a classical repertoire. He developed a bad inflammation of the wrist, and this — with the idea of playing on guitar in the microtonal style of Turkish maqams — was a key motivation to invent the fretless guitar.”
In his music, he blends Turkish maqams with jazz and blues. This song is a cover of “Gnossienne No.1” by Erik Satie, the French composer and pianist. Erkan Oğur arranged it according to his style and instruments. The winds of Anatolia can be felt strongly in this cover. While respecting the roots of Turkish music, Oğur crosses the Bosphorus to take inspiration from the West.
You can learn more about Erkan Oğur here:
About the curator – Ada Bayramoglu
Ada is a high schooler from İstanbul who cannot be seen without her headphones. She is a “support your local” kind of girl who knows all the best places to drink coffee in her hometown. Her subconscious is full of “Turkish Classical Music”, which she has been listening to since she was born. She likes everlasting conversations with her friends about music and art. If you don’t know where she is just look at the nearest concert hall and she’ll be there.