Johann Merrich’s Brevi Storie: The EMS Series

Johann Merrich’s Brevi Storie [Short Stories] inaugurates a new chapter dedicated to the past, present and future of Electronic Music Studios: are EMS still active? Who works there and how? The podcast series includes a collection of interviews, sounds and music to discover EMS’ legacies and new talents.

Episode #5 From Istanbul to Berlin is dedicated to the history of Turkish electronic music, narrated by Başak Günak.

Berlin-based, Istanbul born Başak Günak is a musician, composer and sound artist, also internationally known as AH! KOSMOS in the field of electronic music.

She released two LPs from Compost Records & Denovali Records and numerous EPs. Both timeless and otherworldly, Günak’s work unconsciously defies being tied to a genre, tapping into something beyond an immediate surrounding or experience to communicate something more transcendental. Günak uses polyrhythms, electronic composition and found sounds to build a mystical world of modulation into which one can sink and be carried away.Günak pursues her sound experimentations as a sound artist, composing soundscapes for theater, contemporary dance, film and visual art projects, and realising site-specific performances. Her works have been featured worldwide in several festivals and institutions, such as Barbican Theatre, Berlin CTM, Sonar Festival, Rotterdamse Schouwburg, Kunstmuseum Basel, Prague Quadrennial and Istanbul International Theatre Festival. In 2020, she presented her latest solo sound installation THE WELL, a piece for 11 speakers and performance in VKV Museum Istanbul.

In 2021, she has done composition and sound design for Berlin State Museums, Kunstmuseum Basel and granted a residency in HELLERAU for her upcoming sound installation. Currently, she is working on compositions for a project in Martin-Gropius Bau.

More about Ah! Kosmos: https://ahkosmos.com/

http://instagram.com/ahkosmos

Picture credit: Arda Funda

Track list:

1. Ah! Kosmos, “Out-Ro-In-Growth”

2. Ah! Kosmos, “Trace of Waterfalls”

3. Bülent Arel/Daria Semegen, “Music for String Quartet and Tape” [excerpt], 1980

4. Ilhan Mimaroğlu, “Immolation Scene"[excerpt], 1983

5. Gökçen Kaynatan “Cennet Dünyamiz" [excerpt], 1968 c.a.

6. Bülent Arel, “Stereo Electronic Music N°1” [excerpt], 1960

7. Cenk Ergün, Forge, 2008

8. Alper Maral, "Sho", 2001

9. Ilhan Mimaroğlu, “Agony”, [excerpt], 1965

Do not miss the previous episode: From From Athens to Toronto -> https://www.spreaker.com/user/8877612/brevistorie-ems-ep-4-mantha-katsikana