Sounds only

Februar / März 2012

Electroacoustic Compositions by Mehmet Can Özer

01. 22 /2006 / 9:06
02. Hommage a Leibniz / 2006 / 14:14
03. In the Arctic Cave / 2006 / 12:00
04. Reflections V for Horn and Live Electronics /11:01
05. Reflections III /2007 / 12:17

Pressestimmen
... Der knapp 30-jährige Özer ist dabei strukturell, konzeptionell und was das sinnliche Erlebnis betrifft weiter als manche Akustiktüftler in unseren Breiten.
Jörn Florian Fuchs (Wiener Zeitung)

A big name in electronic music.
Animafest (Belgium)

Mehmet Can Özer was born in 1981. His professional career started when he was accepted to Bilkent University FMPA composition division with full scholarship. He's studied composition and orchestral conducting with Bujor Hoinic. After graduating, he was accepted to Conservatoire de Géneve for both electroacoustic and intrumental composition divisions. There he's worked with Michél Jarrell and Rainer Boesh. Later he's studied in Zurich HMT with Gerald Bennett. In 2005 he moved to Turkey and took a job in Baskent University as a Lecturer.
He took part in the Halici-Midi Composition Competition (1998), Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition (2003 and 2007), received the Goethe Institute Artist Award (2006) and SWR Experimental Studio Grant (2008).
He has performed in several international festivals such as Bourges (France), AudioArt (Poland), Remusica (Kosovo), Busan Biennale (Korea), Pyramidale (Germany), Acousmania (Romania), SMC (Greece), Generator (Switzerland), Electro-Globe (Belgium), Create (USA), EMUfest (Italy), Ankara International Music Festival (Turkey), Granada Festival (Spain), Estoril Festival (Portugal), DE:Sonanz (Macedonia) and Apparat (Denmark).
Apart from being commissioned at home, he received commissions from I.M.E.B. (France), Musiques-Recherches (Belgium) and EMS (Sweeden) and has been invited from their studios to realize a piece. In 2005 he has started electroacoustic music concert series in Ankara and organized many concerts up to 2007. In 2008, he has commissioned by Goethe Institute for Ernest Lubitsch's silent movie "The Oyster Princess" and gave improvised concerts through Turkey.
In 2009, first electroacoustic music CD in Turkey "Siyah Kalem's Dance" has been released. In 2010, he has been commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (Vienna) for "The Morning Line" sound pavillon and by Visisonor Foundation(Amsterdam) for his "Siyah Kalem" project. Currently he is working on his software "Asure" and giving concerts with it. Mehmet Can Özer's instrumental compositions also played in various places and he continues to write for both instruments and electronics. Currently he is a lecturer in Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory.
www.mehmetcanozer.com



Program Notes

22 (2006)

Apart from being one of my favorite number 11's double, twenty-two shares same destiny with it as "same meaning from backwards". Couple of years ago I've composed 2 minutes of electroacoustic music and incidentally I found in February 2006, named "22" and unfortunately I can't remember that why I choose that name at that time. To me, personally, trying to describe music and sadly expecting that people understands after program notes is simply an illusion. Music has always composed for listening. Do you think that Schubert or Dede Efendi* felt an obligation to write on their music? Like them I don't prefer to say technical or aesthetical annotations on my music. My principal aim was to create a 3 dimensional sound environment can really touch the audience. And finally, as you can easily understand, this piece is a metaphoric circle, based on anything occurs usually, like day and night or eating-digesting-externalizing and again eating. I am inspired by that motion and tried to reflect my interpretation.


Hommage a Leibniz (2006)
Commissioned by I. M . E . B.

For some of the philosophers, philosophy starts with a question that Leibniz asked in French; "Pourqui - il y a quelque chose que plutot rien?"
Can be translated as "why there is something, rather than nothing?". This piece has based on that sentence and reflects my discernments that I can express only with sounds. If listener is leaded thinking by the piece, then it can be evaluated as a succesful attempt for the whole process.
All sounds has been recorded in the forest of northern Bourges, National Conservatory of Bourges and composers' house. Compositionally, first motivation is exploring the space with perceptional limitations like depth, panorama, height and distance. Natural sounds either used in their context or abstracted, transformed and associated with the others. Main aim of the process is to be able to trigger the subconcious codes in a musical way with many different sound sources and at the end to create a unique sonic environment that listener hasn't yet experienced.


In the Arctic Cave (2006)
for Ney, Piano and Electronics
Ney: Halkar
Piano: Mehmet Can Özer

"In the Arctic Cave" is not the sonic description of arctic caves can be found in the poles. In fact, it designed as a starter of an inner journey of human being or basic requirement-the music of the journey. Structurally and partly it has influenced from the rituals of Whirling Dervishes, "Mevleviler". The piece has occurred after impressions and thoughts on motion and love concepts.

Sound materials of the piece varies from manipulations of acoustic recordings of piano and ney (in general nay) to synthesized sounds in digital media. In live part of the piano, mainly concentrated on sonic possibilities of inside-on strings, harmonic series and percussive usage apart from melodic lines. Both prepared and live parts of sounds have symbolic meanings and references to Traditional Turkish Ritual Music. The chose of piano is also a reference to Whirling Dervishes, who tried to use piano on their rituals in 18th century.
(Dedicated to Yüksel Erimtan)


Reflections III (2007)
for Violin, Tape and Live Electronics
Violin: Eda Delikçi

This is the 3rd piece of the series of compositions, named "Reflections" by me. As a composer I always collect ideas about my music, critics, ideas, etc. This is also a reflection of the piece or the concept. 12th century Turkish philosopher Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi once said; "Your knowledge is limited with the perception of the listener". This sentence had affected me in 2004 and later I wanted to create an interaction between the player, computer and tape. Written music is an abstraction of the meanings of the traditional Turkish music. Score can explain what I wanted to compose but music may vary from one person to the other. In that series of pieces, I am searching of that "reflection" in both physical and metaphysical ways.

Hier werden Produktionen aus Archiven der Elektroakustischen Musik, wie z.B. dem Archiv der DEGEM oder dem IDEAMA- und dem DEGEM-Archiv des ZKM, dem Archiv des elektronischen Studios der TU Berlin sowie anderen internationalen Archiven und Dokumentationen elektroakustischer Kunst unter verschiedenen Aspekten präsentiert.