Erdem Helvacioglu
Turkish multiinstrumentalist Erdem Helvacioglu focuses music of his musical activity on electroacoustic music incorporating traditional Turkish instruments, processed environmental sound and live processing. On his locust release, A Walk Through the Bazaar, Erdem Helvacioglu takes us through an Istanbul marketplace and captures the energetic day to day activities of hawkers buying and selling goods, children running about, traditional music in the distance and cell phones playing unfamiliar melodies. His response is almost like an enriched memory of the market's cultural texture: it musically retains much of that raw earth feeling one initially encounters on the field recording but the source material is elevated as field recorded voices are transformed into a rich chorus ensconced in an infectiously pulsing electronic trance that seems to float above the market itself A Night at the Bazaar is the fourth installment in locust music's MetLife series of field recordings and sound responses. Shortly after its release, A Walk through the Bazaar quickly captured the fascination of the Turkish mainstream press. Erdem appeared on several major television stations in Turkey including Cnn Turkey and was written up in all of the nation's major newspapers.
