10.02.2024 – Ahmed Adnan Saygun Arts Center
Impromptu / Rockforms – Audiovisual Concert
Kaan Bulak & Ali M. Demirel
Impromptu
Kaan Bulak’s first album ‘Impromptu’ focuses on the musical moment. The first section of the album, 16 Impromptus, consists of improvised piano pieces that were recorded in a single take. Out of the moment, without any preparation, music emerged as diffused clusters, atonal polyphony, resulting in melodic harmonies with an oriental touch. Bulak relived this moment by creating 4 Repromptus – four electroacoustic pieces that exclusively use samples from 16 Impromptus. Hence, the album is created through combining two perspectives on a single moment.
Rockforms
The subject of Ali M. Demirel‘s ‘Rockforms’ series is coastal geography, the study of the dynamic interface between the ocean and the land. Rockform images were captured together with Barbara Klein on the Cape Otway coast, during a field trip in Australia. Overlaid with different seascapes captured around the world, the artist is looking at solid and liquid forms, interpreting how they resemble and shape each other. This series is dedicated to the timeless relationship of two different forms of being.
On stage both concepts collide and inspire each other with open results. Piano improvisations and its soundscapes may depend on the visual experience and vice versa. The live concert consists of two artists stepping in a dialog, each in his own language.
Kaan Bulak
Composer and pianist Kaan Bulak writes music, performs on stage and creates sonic experiences.
Kaan Bulak was born in Aachen (DE) in 1991 and spent his childhood in Istanbul (TR) where he started to play the piano at the age of 5. During high school in Stuttgart (DE) Bulak grew up at the piano as a student of Andrej Jussow. Instead of pursuing plans as a pianist, after some detours into mathematics and economy, he studied audio engineering, followed by a master in sound art and composition at the University of Arts Berlin. From 2018 until 2020 Bulak was a fellow of #bebeethoven for the Beethoven jubilee. During this time he researched his concept of the Augmented Piano, wrote and recorded several electro-acoustic works as an artist-in-residence at ZKM Karlsruhe.
Influenced by his two hometowns Istanbul and Berlin, Bulak found his unique way of composing beyond geographical or cultural boundaries. In a similar fashion, Bulak disregards distinctions between acoustic and electronic instruments and performs new works and arrangements of early music with his own electro-acoustic ensemble. In collaboration with Martion Audiosysteme, Bulak developed the 360° speaker ‘Lynch’ for augmenting classical instruments. So far, Bulak’s music was presented on stages such as Philharmonie Berlin, Opernhaus Zürich, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Verbier Festival, LSO St.
Luke’s London, Şerefiye Sarnıcı Istanbul, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Konzerthaus Berlin, Schloss Elmau, ZKM Karlsruhe, Sónar Istanbul, Beethovenfest Bonn, Podium Festival, XJazz Berlin & Istanbul. On stage, in studio and on records Bulak has collaborated with artists from all over the spectrum such as Ali M. Demirel, Tarik Barri, Sarah Aristidou, Anastasia Kobekina, Johan Dalene, Robert Lippok, Ricardo Villalobos, Cosmin TRG, Luise Enzian, Taner Akyol Trio, Julien Quentin.
Bulak is currently living and working in Paris as artist-in-residence at Cité Internationale des Arts, writing his opera for orchestra, electronics, and visuals. Furthermore, he is the founder and artistic director of Feral Note, a label and studio for audiovisual art and performances based in Berlin.
Ali M. Demirel
Ali Mahmut Demirel, born in Turkey in 1972, is a Berlin-based artist. He studied nuclear engineering and architecture before pursuing art. Demirel started to make video and sound work in the early 90’s while he was a researcher at Middle East Technical University, Audio-Visual Research Center. In the 2000’s, he focused his work on real-time computer-generated images and began to create interactive live audiovisual performances. Following this period, Demirel returned to video installation work with a trilogy under the theme ‘Post-Apocalyptic Utopias.’ Those videos formed Demirel’s solo show titled ‘ISLE’ at Arter Istanbul in 2018. Recently he is working on a series that connects ecology, nature and myth.
His work has been presented at Guggenheim Museum, New York; Arter, Istanbul; CTM, Berlin; TodaysArt.NL; ifa Galerie, Berlin; ICA, London; ACAW, Max Protetch Gallery, New York; Sammlung ESSL, Wien; European Media Art Festival, Osnabruck; International Short Film Festival, Hamburg; among others. He has performed live at Sonar Festival, Barcelona; Mutek Festival, Montreal; Coachella, USA; Brixton Academy, London; L’Olympia, Paris; ADE, Amsterdam; Daimler Contemporary, Berlin; Fotografiska, Stockholm; Fuji Rock Festival, Japan; Future Music Festival, Australia; TimeWarp, Mannheim; among others.
