Erkan Ogur
Encyclopedia
Erkan Oğur or Erkan Ogur in the West, (born 1954) is a Turkish
musician. A pioneer of fretless guitar
s, 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 music
, classical music with the ancient traditional music. He has played many concerts all over the world. He is regarded as a master of the kopuz
and bağlama
lutes.
, Turkey
. He spent his childhood in Elazığ
, eastern Turkey, where he became interested in violin
and the Turkish bağlama
lute, and started to practice them frequently. He graduated from high school in Elazığ, then moved to study physics at the Ankara University Faculty of Science from 1970 to 1973. As a result of encouragement to be a scientist by his father, he started to study chemical engineering and in 1974 continued his education in The Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich, Germany
, for three years. He was introduced to guitar
education in 1973. Instead of being a scientist, he chose to be a musician. Since he needed detailed sounds from a guitar in order to obtain Turkish melodies, he modified his guitar and invented the fretless classical guitar
in 1976.
In 1980, he returned to Turkey, and started to study at the State Conservatory of Istanbul Technical University
. After his military service, he worked as an oud
lute teacher. He had live performances with Fikret Kızılok
and Bülent Ortaçgil
where he contributed to scene with fretless guitar. He released his first album in Germany called Arayışlar ("Searches"). In 1989, he went to the U.S.
to work with numerous local blues artists. He introduced fretless guitar into blues
. A year later, he released his first album in Turkey, Bir Ömürlük Misafir ("A Lifetime Guest"), which was ranked 4th in European lists. He still performs concerts through the world and in Turkey. He works with Kemal Eroglu on technical improvements on bağlama lute; and continues his performances with Fahir Atakoglu
and Bülent Ortaçgil. In 2004, he played on Yansımalar
's album Pervane ("Moth"). He is a member of the Telvin trio, which mainly performs Turkish folk music in improvised jazz style, with İlkin Deniz and Turgut Alp Bekoglu, and has released an album called Telvin in 2006.
His soundtrack for the 2004 movie Yazı Tura by Uğur Yücel
won two awards: the 2004 Golden Orange for Best Music at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival
, and the 2005 award for Best Music at the Ankara International Film Festival
.
Early works and collaborations
Soundtrack albums and collaborations (by film date)
Solo and collaboration albums
Featured on albums
Other sites
– some inaccuracies in dates and spellings
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
musician. A pioneer of fretless guitar
Fretless guitar
A fretless guitar is a guitar without frets. It operates in the same manner as most other stringed instruments and traditional guitars, but does not have any frets to act as the lower end point of the vibrating string...
s, he invented the first fretless classical guitar
Classical guitar
The classical guitar is a 6-stringed plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones...
in 1976.Martinelli, op. cit.Unfretted, op. cit. A composer, he has influenced many musicians with his compositions combining the sounds of Turkish folk music
Turkish folk music
Turkish folk music combines the distinct cultural values of all civilisations that have lived in Anatolia and the Ottoman territories in Europe and Asia...
, classical music with the ancient traditional music. He has played many concerts all over the world. He is regarded as a master of the kopuz
Komuz
The komuz or qomuz , Azeri Gopuz, Turkish Kopuz, is an ancient fretless string instrument used in Central Asian music, related to certain other Turkic string instruments and the lute....
and bağlama
Baglama
thumb|180px|Cura and bağlamaThe bağlama is a stringed musical instrument shared by various cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean, Near East, and Central Asia....
lutes.
Biography
Erkan Oğur was born in 1954, 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...
. He spent his childhood in Elazığ
Elazig
Elâzığ is a city in Eastern Anatolia, Turkey and the seat of Elâzığ Province. It has a population of331,479 according to the 2010 census, and the plain on which the city extends has an altitude of 1067 metres....
, eastern Turkey, where he became interested in violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
and the Turkish bağlama
Baglama
thumb|180px|Cura and bağlamaThe bağlama is a stringed musical instrument shared by various cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean, Near East, and Central Asia....
lute, and started to practice them frequently. He graduated from high school in Elazığ, then moved to study physics at the Ankara University Faculty of Science from 1970 to 1973. As a result of encouragement to be a scientist by his father, he started to study chemical engineering and in 1974 continued his education in The Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, for three years. He was introduced to guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
education in 1973. Instead of being a scientist, he chose to be a musician. Since he needed detailed sounds from a guitar in order to obtain Turkish melodies, he modified his guitar and invented the fretless classical guitar
Classical guitar
The classical guitar is a 6-stringed plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones...
in 1976.
In 1980, he returned to Turkey, and started to study at the State Conservatory of Istanbul Technical University
Istanbul Technical University
Istanbul Technical University is an international technical university located in Istanbul, Turkey. It is the world's third oldest technical university dedicated to engineering sciences as well as social sciences recently, and is one of the most prominent educational institutions in Turkey...
. After his military service, he worked as an oud
Oud
The oud is a pear-shaped stringed instrument commonly used in North African and Middle Eastern music. The modern oud and the European lute both descend from a common ancestor via diverging paths...
lute teacher. He had live performances with Fikret Kızılok
Fikret Kizilok
Fikret Kızılok was a Turkish musician. He was a pioneer of Turkish rock music and an early experimentalist...
and Bülent Ortaçgil
Bülent Ortaçgil
Bülent Ortaçgil is a Turkish composer and singer.-Biography:He was born in Ankara, Turkey in 1950. He moved to Istanbul 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...
where he contributed to scene with fretless guitar. He released his first album in Germany called Arayışlar ("Searches"). In 1989, he went to the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to work with numerous local blues artists. He introduced fretless guitar into blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
. A year later, he released his first album in Turkey, Bir Ömürlük Misafir ("A Lifetime Guest"), which was ranked 4th in European lists. He still performs concerts through the world and in Turkey. He works with Kemal Eroglu on technical improvements on bağlama lute; and continues his performances with Fahir Atakoglu
Fahir Atakoglu
Fahir Atakoğlu is a Turkish pianist and composer who has worked with a wide range of artists across many genres of music, ranging in style from symphonic scoring to advertising jingles. He was born in Istanbul, Turkey.-Early life:...
and Bülent Ortaçgil. In 2004, he played on Yansımalar
Yansimalar
-External links:Official sites - official website* at Kalan.comOther sites...
's album Pervane ("Moth"). He is a member of the Telvin trio, which mainly performs Turkish folk music in improvised jazz style, with İlkin Deniz and Turgut Alp Bekoglu, and has released an album called Telvin in 2006.
His soundtrack for the 2004 movie Yazı Tura by Uğur Yücel
Ugur Yücel
Uğur Yücel is a Turkish film actor, producer and director. He graduated from the Theater department at the Istanbul Municipality Conservatory . He took part in several plays between 1975 and 1984 in Kenter Tiyatosu , Tef Kaber Theatre, Dormen Theatre, and Şan Müzikholü...
won two awards: the 2004 Golden Orange for Best Music at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival
Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival
The Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival is a film festival, held annually since 1963 in Antalya, is the most important national film festival in Turkey...
, and the 2005 award for Best Music at the Ankara International Film Festival
Ankara International Film Festival
The Ankara International Film Festival is a film festival, organized by The World Mass Media Research Foundation and accredited by FIPRESCI, which has been held in Ankara, Turkey since 1988.-Editions:...
.
Discography
Chronologically, subsections by the date of their first item:Early works and collaborations
- 1982 - Istanbul'da Bir Amerikalı
- 1983 - Perdesiz Gitarda Arayışlar - small-distribution cassette
Soundtrack albums and collaborations (by film date)
- 1989 - Sis OST - Zülfü LivaneliZülfü LivaneliÖmer Zülfü Livanelioğlu is a popular Turkish folk musician , a novelist, newspaper columnist and a film director who has been highly popular for decades...
film soundtrack - 1996 - Eşkiya OST (The Bandit) - with Aşkın Arsunan, Yavuz TurgulYavuz TurgulYavuz Turgul is a Turkish film director and screenwriter, who is best known for his box-office hit The Bandit and who has won the Golden Orange for Best Screenplay four times for Abbas in Flower , The Agha , Mr. Muhsin and The Shadow Play ; Golden Oranges for Best Film for Mr...
film EşkıyaEskiyaThe Bandit is an award-winning 1996 Turkish film written and directed by Yavuz Turgul and starring Şener Şen and Uğur Yücel....
soundtrack (Kalan, released 2000) - 2003 - Yazı Tura OST - Uğur YücelUgur YücelUğur Yücel is a Turkish film actor, producer and director. He graduated from the Theater department at the Istanbul Municipality Conservatory . He took part in several plays between 1975 and 1984 in Kenter Tiyatosu , Tef Kaber Theatre, Dormen Theatre, and Şan Müzikholü...
film soundtrack, (Kalan, released 2005)
Solo and collaboration albums
- 1993 - Fretless (Feuer und Eis)
- 1996 - Bir Ömürlük Misafir - reworked reissue of Fretless (Kalan)
- 1998 - Gülün Kokusu Vardı - with İsmail Hakkı Demircioğlu (Kalan)
- 1999 - Hiç ("Nothing") - with Okan Murat Öztürk (Kalan)
- 2000 - Anadolu Beşik - with İsmail Hakkı Demircioğlu (Kalan)
- 2001 - Fuad - with Djivan GasparyanDjivan GasparyanDjivan Gasparyan is an Armenian musician and composer. He plays the duduk, a double reed woodwind instrument related to the orchestral oboe. Gasparyan is known as the Master of the duduk.-Biography:...
- 2006 - Telvin - in Telvin trio
- 2007 - The Istanbul Connection
Featured on albums
- 1989 - Mideast/Midwest - recording of live performance with Robert 'One-Man' Johnson
- 1995 - The Other Side of Turkey - compilation, includes Oğur (Feuer und Eis)
- 2004 - Pervane ("Moth") by YansımalarYansimalar-External links:Official sites - official website* at Kalan.comOther sites...
- studio album, Oğur on four tracks (Kalan)
External links
Official sites- Discography of Erkan Oğur at label KalanKalan MüzikKalan Müzik or Kalan Music for the West is a Turkish independent record label company based in Istanbul. It was founded in 1991 by Hasan Saltık. It specializes in releasing Saltık's recordings of classical and traditional ethnic and folk music from Turkey and the surrounding region. It is sometimes...
.com – with MP3 samples - Discography of Telvin at label KalanKalan MüzikKalan Müzik or Kalan Music for the West is a Turkish independent record label company based in Istanbul. It was founded in 1991 by Hasan Saltık. It specializes in releasing Saltık's recordings of classical and traditional ethnic and folk music from Turkey and the surrounding region. It is sometimes...
.com – with MP3 samples
Other sites
– some inaccuracies in dates and spellings