Korhan Erel is a computer musician, improviser, sound designer based in Berlin. He plays instruments he designs on a computer by employing various controllers. He also uses analog and digital electronics. He is a founding member of Islak Köpek, Turkey's pioneer free improvisation group, which is regarded as the band that started the free improvisation scene in Turkey. He composes and designs sounds for dance, theater, installations and film. He collaborates with dancers, video artists and spoken word artists.
Early life
Korhan Erel was born on 26 August 1973 to Şaziye Erel and Recep Celil Erel. At the time, Şaziye Erel was working in the Turkish Customs as a clerk, while Recep Celil was working in Anadolu Sigorta. Şaziye Erel's first memory of Korhan's deep interest in sounds was when Korhan as a toddler would make her take him to a bathroom and there she would have to flush the toilet numerous times while Korhan listened to the flushing of the water and the refilling of the reservoir. If she stopped before Korhan had heard enough, Korhan would cry and she'd have to continue, during a serious financial crisis in mid-70s Turkey where even water was rationed and sparse. After elementary school, Korhan studied secondary and high school at Robert College, an American-Turkish secondary education institution in Istanbul, from 1985 until 1991. During this period, he had his first computer, a Commodore 64, in the summer of 1985. After a year of only playing computer games, Korhan realized the incredible sounds the computer was able to produce, and started to learn coding. With the Commodore 64, he was not able to go a great distance, but the Commodore Amiga he acquired in 1989 changed things forever with its sample playback capability.
David Rothenberg met Erel during his one-year residency in Berlin. Berlin is one of the most important cities in Europe for nightingales, which is one of the key routes of immigration from Africa through Europe in the spring. David Rothenberg and Erel started to improvise with nightingales in Berlin's parks at midnight. The first concert held on 9 May 2014 and this concert's recordings used for the albumBerlin Bülbül in 2015. The album launch concerts happened in Borusan Music House on 3 April 2015 and in Sammlung Hoffman on 10 May 2015. Since 2014, Rothenberg and Erel are playing with nightingales every May in Berlin.
The Liz
The Liz is a power trio comprising Liz Allbee, Liz Kosack and Korhan Liz Erel. The projects is the story of transformations and multiples: a maiden Sphinx, Anubis the dog of death, and Oedipus, as narrated by Kathy Acker. Drawing from traditional Greek myth, as well as Jean Cocteau's 'Infernal Machine' and Acker's 'Blood and Guts in High School', The Liz translates the riddles of the Sphinx into an engine for the musical re-production of resistance, and of subliminal and mythic resonance. The Liz premiered "Book of Birds" at Quiet Cue on 30 April 2016. It is also performed at Moers Festival in 2016 summer and broadcast live via Arte television channel online.
