Bülent Ortaçgil
Encyclopedia
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and singer.
Biography
He was born in AnkaraAnkara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
in 1950. He moved to Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
after starting elementary school which he finished at Sultanahmet Elementary School in Istanbul. He completed his middle school and high school education at Kadıköy Anadolu Lisesi
Kadiköy Anadolu Lisesi
Kadıköy Anadolu Lisesi, also commonly known as Kadıköy Maarif College, abbreviated Kadıköy Maarif or KAL, is one of the oldest, most prestigious Anatolian High Schools and internationally renowned high schools of Turkey; located in Moda, Istanbul. The education languages are Turkish and English...
(former Kadıköy Maarif Koleji). He graduated from the University of Istanbul, Faculty of Chemistry.
Musical career
He started playing guitar while at Kadıköy Maarif Koleji. Another popular composer and singer Mazhar AlansonMazhar Alanson
Mahmut Mazhar Alanson is a Turkish musician, guitarist, member of the popular Turkish pop music band MFÖ and an actor.- Early life :...
(from the band MFÖ
MFO
-Organisation:* Maison Française d'Oxford, a French research institute based in Oxford, England* Multinational Force and Observers, an international peacekeeping force; or the related medal...
) was at the same school although it is not clear whether they were friends. He played with some, including Damlalar (Drops). His music has been influenced by various artists, including The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, Cat Stevens
Cat Stevens
Yusuf Islam , commonly known by his former stage name Cat Stevens, is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, educator, philanthropist, and prominent convert to Islam....
, Donovan
Donovan
Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
and Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
. His first long play was called “Anlamsız” (Meaningless), which he published while in college.
In 1974, his first album was released under the title “Benimle Oynar Mısın?” (Will You Play with Me?), considered to be a classic. Onno Tunç
Onno Tunç
Onno Tunç was a leading Turkish-Armenian musician, working mainly as a composer and an arranger. Tunç also played bass guitar and occasionally double bass, contributing to the albums of several musicians. He was the elder brother of musician Arto Tunçboyacıyan.-Early years :Onno Tunç was born in...
and Ergun Pekcan were among those who helped the recording and mastering of his albums.
He took a ten year break from music after he got married. During this time, he worked as a chemical engineer
Chemical engineer
In the field of engineering, a chemical engineer is the profession in which one works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products, and deals with the design and operation of plants and equipment to perform such work...
at companies like Pfizer
Pfizer
Pfizer, Inc. is an American multinational pharmaceutical corporation. The company is based in New York City, New York with its research headquarters in Groton, Connecticut, United States...
and Netaş
Ñetas
The Ñeta Association is the name of a Puerto Rican gang that began in the Puerto Rico prison system and spread to the United States...
Telecom. During 1985, Ortaçgil played with Fikret Kızılok
Fikret Kizilok
Fikret Kızılok was a Turkish musician. He was a pioneer of Turkish rock music and an early experimentalist...
at "Çekirdek Müzikevi"; this performance yielded to a non-published copy album “Bizim Şarkılarımız …”.
The album “Pencere Önü Çiçeği” (Windowsill Flower) was published in 1986. The song Pencere Önü Çiçeği was another classic, criticizing an intellectual, isolated life against a life "outside the window."
In 1991 came the album called “Oyuna Devam” (Let the game continue). The album gathered some of his old band friends such as Erkan Oğur
Erkan Ogur
Erkan Oğur , or Erkan Ogur in the West, is a Turkish musician. A pioneer of fretless guitars, he invented the first fretless classical guitar in 1976.Martinelli, op. cit.Unfretted, op. cit. A composer, he has influenced many musicians with his compositions combining the sounds of Turkish folk...
, Cem Aksel and Gürol Ağırbaş, who had been playing together for over 10 years.
In 2000, a tribute album called “Şarkılar bir Oyundur” (Songs Are a Game) was published, featuring performances from 22 different Turkish singers and bands, spanning a wide genre of music among them.
He frequently uses the theme "game"/"play" in his songs.
Albums
- 1974 - Benimle Oynar Mısın?
- 1984 - Rüzgara Söylenen Şarkılar
- 1985 - Biz Şarkılarımızı...
- 1986 - Pencere Önü Çiçeği
- 1990 - 2. Perde
- 1991 - Oyuna Devam
- 1994 - Bu Şarkılar Adam Olmaz
- 1998 - Light
- 1999 - Eski Defterler
- 2000 - Şarkılar Bir Oyundur (tribute album)
- 2003 - Gece Yalanları
- 2010 - Sen