klank.ist

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klank.ist is a not-for-profit collective making music through composition, improvisation, sound art and performance, between Istanbul, Berlin, Strasbourg and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Next concert: Sonic Cartographies, Friday 4 December 2026, 8 pm, 2727 California Street, Berkeley. Add to calendar

klank.ist ensemble on a dark stage: electronics at a table on the left, a player at a lit screen in the middle, and a cellist on the right. ▶ Play video
klank.ist ensemble, SALT Beyoğlu, Istanbul, 29 November 2019. Video: Ecem Güleç and Özge Kepenek.

About

klank.ist is a not-for-profit interdisciplinary collective founded in 2017 by Eda Er and Mertcan Şeker. It initiates projects that span performance, production and publication: organizing events, releasing albums and trying out experimental formats.

At its core, klank.ist is driven by intercultural exchange and international collaboration. It works with a wide network of artists and cultural practitioners to foster cross-cultural dialogue and mobility, through three platforms: klank.ist soca, klank.ist ensemble and klank.ist impro.

klank.ist soca

Sonic Cartographies, a concert series between four cities. Each concert performs a video or graphic score written by a member in another city. More below.

The four members of klank.ist ensemble standing between two tables of electronics on a dark stage, under a large blue projection, seen from the audience.

klank.ist ensemble

A female-identifying and minority-led group of composers and improvisers, working from free improvisation through semi-structured improvisation, comprovisation and open form. Hierarchy is questioned; boundaries stay fluid. Open to all who share a spirit of curiosity, mutual respect and radical openness.

Eda Er, Zeynep Ayşe Hatipoğlu, Aslı Kobaner, Merve Salgar, Fulya Uçanok

SALT Beyoğlu, Istanbul, 29 November 2019. Video still: Ecem Güleç and Özge Kepenek.

A dancer improvising in a lit room with a small audience watching.

klank.ist impro

A monthly open improvisation session, about 50 minutes long, for anyone who wanted to move, dance or just watch: you could join in or step back, and change your mind as often as you liked. The sessions ran in Istanbul in 2018 and 2019, with one online in 2021, and are paused for now. Write to us if you would like them back.

Curated by Ekin Tunçeli, with klank.ist ensemble

▶ Watch: Mola/Pause, Abud Efendi Konağı, 19 May 2019

Sonic Cartographies

A concept by Eda Er. Every location is both a point on the map and a sonic node, with its own stories, histories and resonances, connected to the others through shared work.

The series links the San Francisco Bay Area, Strasbourg, Berlin and Istanbul. In each city the local curator puts together duos, trios or small ensembles from local and visiting artists. Every concert includes a video or graphic score made by a klank.ist member in one of the other cities, played by musicians in the host city.

It started in Berkeley in April 2025 and came to Istanbul that September. A concert at Café Plume in Berlin in June 2024 tried the idea out first. Istanbul now has a concert roughly every two months and the Bay Area several a year; Strasbourg is next. Max Abner curates the Bay Area editions and Aslı Kobaner the Istanbul ones. Every date so far is listed under Concerts.

If you would like to bring the series to your city, write to us and put the city in the subject line.

Three improvisers in a high white room: trombone in the foreground, saxophone and voice further back.
Sonic Cartographies, Berkeley, 25 April 2025. Photo: Ken Ueno.
Players gathered in a white room facing a pink projected score with a single waveform line.
The projected score, same evening. Photo: Ken Ueno.

Concerts

2026
4 Dec Sonic Cartographies, 2727 California Street, Berkeley, 8 pmLine-up to be announced.
4 Nov Sonic Cartographies, Karga, Kadıköy, IstanbulDora Daema, Zeynep Eldem, Jashiin, Aslı Kobaner, Min Yu, Constant Variant Duo
25 Oct Sonic Cartographies, Parma, Beyoğlu, IstanbulYaren Eren Budak, Aslı Büyükköksal, Cedrik Fermont, Gülce Özen Gürkan, Aslı Kobaner, Utku Öğüt. Visuals by Ecem Güleç.
19 May Sonic Cartographies, Karga, Kadıköy, IstanbulDora Daema, Selçuk Canberk Dağtekin, Zeynep Eldem, Jashiin, Metehan Köktürk, Min Yu. Visuals by Ecem Güleç.
29 Mar Sonic Cartographies, Karga, Kadıköy, IstanbulNidal Aras, Yaren Eren Budak, Negative Infinity, Aslı Kobaner. Graphic scores by Eda Er, Aslı Kobaner and others; visuals by Ecem Güleç.
15 Mar Sonic Cartographies, Tank Hill Park, San FranciscoAn afternoon in the park with Zekarias Musele Thompson, Emily Pothast, K. Francis Messer, Chris Cooper, Max Abner and guests. Graphic score by HueyChing Chong.
5 Jan Sonic Cartographies, Karga, Kadıköy, IstanbulAslı Büyükköksal, Aslı Kobaner, Enis Gümüş, Gülce Özen Gürkan, Nazlı Saki, Onur Başkurt. Video by Eric Theise.
2025
13 Nov klank.ist, a night of free improvisation, Istanbul Bilgi UniversityZeynep Eldem, Gülce Özen Gürkan, Cedrik Fermont, Yaren Eren Budak, Gökçe Uygun. With the university’s music department.
5 Nov Sonic Cartographies, Karga, Kadıköy, IstanbulAslı Kobaner, Furkan Keçeli, Jashiin, Nidal Aras, Oğul Köker, Zeynep Eldem. Live visuals by Ecem Güleç, graphic scores by Max Abner and others.
17 Oct Sonic Cartographies, 2727 California Street, BerkeleyLisa Mezzacappa, Sadie Greyduck, Tasya Abbot, Max Abner, Ari Brown, Emzi Jane, Spat.
15 Oct Sonic Cartographies, Karga, Kadıköy, IstanbulAslı Kobaner, Yaren Eren Budak, Enis Gümüş, Gökçe Göknel, Gülce Özen Gürkan, Gökçe Uygun. Live visuals by Ecem Güleç; visuals by Eric Theise and Max Abner.
10 Sep Sonic Cartographies, Karga, Kadıköy, IstanbulAslı Kobaner, Eda Er, Enis Gümüş, Gökçe Göknel, Gülce Özen Gürkan, Zeynep Eldem. Visuals by Eric Theise, Max Abner and Ecem Güleç.
29 Aug Sonic Cartographies, 2727 California Street, BerkeleyMax Abner, Eda Er, David Coll, Brendan Lai-Tong, Jessie Nucho, George Papajohn, Danniel Ribeiro, Danishta Rivero, Petra Zélie.
15 Aug AbnEr, CNMAT, BerkeleyThe duo of Max Abner and Eda Er, on a bill with Euphotic, Petra Zélie and an installation by David Coll.
11 Jul Sonic Cartographies, 2727 California Street, BerkeleyEda Er, David Coll, Nathan Corder, Brendan Lai-Tong, Cheryl E. Leonard, Mat Muntz, George Papajohn, Danniel Ribeiro, Danishta Rivero. Live visuals by Eric Theise, video score by Ecem Güleç (Yalova).
5 Jun In the Liminal, CNMAT, BerkeleyMax Abner, Eda Er, Danniel Ribeiro, Nathan Corder, Mat Muntz.
25 Apr Sonic Cartographies, 2727 California Street, BerkeleyThe first concert of the series. Nathan Corder, Eda Er, Sarah Grace Graves, Brendan Lai-Tong, Jessie Nucho, Danniel Ribeiro, Matthew Evan Taylor. Scores and recordings sent by Jeremy Woodruff (Graz), Merve Salgar (Strasbourg), Zeynep Ayşe Hatipoğlu (Berlin), Aslı Kobaner (Istanbul) and Ecem Güleç (Yalova).
2024
2 Aug Ayrılış, SALT Galata, Istanbulklank.ist WIP: Eda Er and Aslı Kobaner. A site-specific piece, free entry. Preview in Artful Living (Turkish).
13 Jun Sonic Cartographies, Café Plume, BerlinThe Berlin forerunner of the series, before its official start in Berkeley in 2025. Zeynep Ayşe Hatipoğlu (cello) and Merve Salgar (tanbur) improvising with fixed media pieces by Eda Er, Aslı Kobaner and Fulya Uçanok. Artwork by İrem Nalça.
2021
27 Jul Listening Biennial, Beşiktaş İskele, Istanbulklank.ist was one of the Biennial’s participating collectives in 2021 (e-flux announcement).
19 Jul Listening Biennial, İzmir
23 Jun Kolektifler Konuşuyor, a conversation with dadansOnline, on the dadans YouTube channel.
27 May klank.ist impro at ImprodancefestOnline. Curated by Ekin Tunçeli, with Eda Er, Ali Onur Olgun, Merve Salgar, Aslı Kobaner, Zeynep Ayşe Hatipoğlu, Jeremy Woodruff, Fulya Uçanok, Serkan Sevilgen.
2020
10 Feb Ertuğrul Oğuz Fırat Anısına, İTÜ MİAM, IstanbulA concert in memory of the composer Ertuğrul Oğuz Fırat, in the İlhan Usmanbaş Concert Hall. Eda Er, Aslı Kobaner, Zeynep Ayşe Hatipoğlu, Fulya Uçanok.
16 Jan klank.ist ensemble, Karga, Kadıköy, Istanbul
2019
29 Nov klank.ist ensemble, SALT Beyoğlu, IstanbulEda Er, Zeynep Ayşe Hatipoğlu, Aslı Kobaner, Fulya Uçanok. Sound by Kıvılcım Konca, video by Ecem Güleç and Özge Kepenek. Preview in Daily Sabah.
30 Oct klank.ist ensemble, İTÜ MİAM Gallery, IstanbulEda Er, Aslı Kobaner, Zeynep Ayşe Hatipoğlu, Fulya Uçanok, Jeremy Woodruff. Opening concert of the Distopya / Dystopie sound art festival, shared with Cevdet Erek and Sair Sinan Kestelli.
12 Jul klank.ist ensemble, Errant Sound, BerlinThe first Berlin performance of the album, with installations and improvisations. Eda Er, Zeynep Ayşe Hatipoğlu, Aslı Kobaner, Fulya Uçanok, Merve Salgar, Jeremy Woodruff.
17 May klank.ist ensemble, Elektrikli Müzik Günleri, İTÜ Maçka, IstanbulCurated by Selçuk Artut at the İTÜ Music Technologies department.
19 Feb klank.ist and SAVT, Dunia, Kadıköy, IstanbulFree improvisation on moving graphic scores by İrem Nalça, who guided the players live. Merve Salgar, Elif Canfezâ Gündüz, Zeynep Ayşe Hatipoğlu, Eda Er, Fulya Uçanok.
Dec–May klank.ist impro, monthly sessions, IstanbulCurated by Ekin Tunçeli. Umut/Hope (16 Dec 2018), Taze/Fresh, Eksik/Missing (17 Feb), Işık/Light (22 Mar), Bağ/Bond (29 Apr) and Mola/Pause (19 May, at Abud Efendi Konağı).
2018
9 Oct Intercultural Music: Explorations from Turkey, Ondokuz Mayıs University State Conservatory, Samsun
11 May Where Do You Belong?, twelve new pieces for solo violinFull concert on YouTube
Mar Hyperborean Race, Bomontiada, Istanbul
Jan Nure Onna, klank.ist WIPGraphic notation. Eda Er, Aslı Kobaner, HueyChing Chong, Safa Kocaoğlu, Özgür Yılmaz, Ekin Tunçeli.

Photos and short videos from most of these are on Instagram.

Press

Photos

Two improvisers in a white room, one at a microphone with a trombone beside him, the other playing saxophone.
Sonic Cartographies, Berkeley, 25 April 2025. Photo: Ken Ueno.
Two vocalists singing into microphones behind a table of electronics.
Sonic Cartographies, Berkeley, 25 April 2025. Photo: Ken Ueno.
A wide view of the room: trombone in front, players at a table, a singer at the back.
Sonic Cartographies, Berkeley, 25 April 2025. Photo: Ken Ueno.
Four players on a small stage in blue light: keyboard, cello, guitar and electronics.
klank.ist ensemble, Karga, Kadıköy, 16 January 2020.
A cellist bowing on stage in blue light, with keyboards and amplifiers around her.
klank.ist ensemble, Karga, Kadıköy, 16 January 2020.
The ensemble on the same stage in red light, cello, guitar and laptop.
klank.ist ensemble, Karga, Kadıköy, 16 January 2020.
Performers standing in near darkness, one in a red coat.
klank.ist ensemble, SALT Beyoğlu, 29 November 2019. Video still: Ecem Güleç and Özge Kepenek.
Close view of a cellist and another player lit warmly against a dark stage.
klank.ist ensemble, SALT Beyoğlu, 29 November 2019. Video still: Ecem Güleç and Özge Kepenek.
A cellist and a player at a table of electronics on a dark stage.
klank.ist ensemble, SALT Beyoğlu, 29 November 2019. Video still: Ecem Güleç and Özge Kepenek.
A cellist in a yellow jumper playing beside a player at electronics.
Distopya festival opening, İTÜ MİAM Gallery, 30 October 2019. Video still.
A dancer in a black hat raising one arm against an old plaster wall, others watching behind.
klank.ist impro, Mola/Pause, Abud Efendi Konağı, 19 May 2019. Video still.
Several people moving and singing together in a bare room with worn walls.
klank.ist impro, Mola/Pause, Abud Efendi Konağı, 19 May 2019. Video still.
A dancer with arms spread wide among other movers in an old building.
klank.ist impro, Istanbul, 2019. Video still.
A dancer crouched on the floor of a dark stage, a cellist and other players behind her.
Hyperborean Race, Bomontiada, Istanbul, 2018.
Musicians rehearsing in a bright room with piano, guitar and music stands.
Rehearsal for Intercultural Music: Explorations from Turkey, 2018.

Projects

Poster for Where Do You Belong?: a violin over a red field, with the composer list set in typewriter type.

Where Do You Belong? / Nereye aitsin?

11 May 2018. Concept: Eda Er. Visuals and poster: Mertcan Şeker.

We have been taught for centuries that belonging matters: to a geography, to a community, to an identity. If we wanted to say what that question feels like in one shared language, what would we actually want to pass on?

The collective commissioned twelve composers from around the world to write for solo violin on the theme of belonging, with visuals made for the program.

Performers and composers

Violin: Seçil Işıksoy, Christine Cornwell.
Composers: Eda Er, HueyChing Chong, Max Gibson, David Mastikosa, Christine Cornwell, Aslı Kobaner, Sabina Khujaeva, Orkun Akyol, Giovanni Zaniol, Okan Yaşarlar, Umut Eldem, Mbiad (Anne van de Star and Eda Er).

Poster for A Quest for New Turkish Sonority in Intercultural Music, with a red ney on a black field.

Intercultural Music: Explorations from Turkey I and II

From 9 October 2018, Ondokuz Mayıs University State Conservatory. Concept: Eren Arın. Coordination: Eren Arın and Eda Er. Graphic design: Serhat Kaya.

A two-part series bringing Turkish makam instruments together with body percussion and Western instruments, with new music by composers whose paths cross in Turkey, performed with the collective and invited musicians. The second edition was also live-streamed.

Performers and composers

Part I, performers: Au Arias (conductor), Ayça Arın (ney), Paşa Güven (oud), Nurcan Alkaç and Ayşegül Keleşler Gümüş (soprano), Olga Hasanoğlu, Emin Ersöz Yiğit and Valeriya Özkan (piano), Seyhan Bulut (flute), Özgü Bulut (body percussion), Mustafa Çağatay Erol (guitar), Barış Aygün (cello).
Part I, composers: Eda Er, M. Eren Arın, Aslı Kobaner, Okan Yaşarlar, Ayşegül Kostak, Onur Türkmen, Au Arias, Ebru Güner Canbey, Egemen Kesikli.
Part II: Au Arias (conductor), Ayça Arın (ney), Boran Mert (bağlama), Barış Aygün (cello), Kıvanç Fındıklı (clarinet), Mert Ünal (trombone). Composers: Jeremy Woodruff, Eda Er, Aslı Kobaner, Atilla Kadri Şendil.

A dancer mid-gesture in a dark hall, with violin and cello playing behind a blue projection.

Hyperborean Race

March 2018, Bomontiada, Istanbul. Concept and composition: Eda Er. Visuals: Mertcan Şeker. With Seçil Işıksoy (violin), Sabina Khujaeva (keyboard), Zeynep Ayşe Hatipoğlu (cello), Eda Er (voice and electronics), Ekin Tunçeli (dance).

Named after the mythical land of eternal light, this performance brings together live music, voice, visuals and movement as a reflection on transformation and collective presence. Each performer carries a different part of the story; together they trace memory, displacement, and the line between self and other.

A grid of generative face-like forms in white and red on black, from the Object 9 animation.

Object 9

For Sónar, 2018. Visuals: Mertcan Şeker. Sound design: Eda Er. 3D objects: Tridi.

Energy is neither created nor destroyed; it only changes form. Everything grows out of one small point, and that point triggers the next, until the whole structure becomes legible.

A three-minute audiovisual installation in which image and sound act on each other, and the energy that results becomes a concrete object: 3D-printed forms designed by Tridi.

A performer with arms outstretched, a projection of a sea breaking across their body in a dark room.

Not a Fashion Show / reflect

January 2018, Bomontiada, Istanbul. With the brand “This is not a fashion show”. Creative director: Emirhan Akın. Visuals: Mertcan Şeker. Sound design, music and performance: Eda Er. Performer: Ayça Ceylan.

Instead of approved or canceled, the passports here are stamped YOU MADE IT, because everyone who has come through the journey has made it.

Part performance, part critique, the piece looks for the stories behind walls and borders rather than the figures usually quoted about them. Clothes are the surface we carry with us on a journey, and the stories are reflected back through them. What would you do if it happened to you?

Discography

Album

V.DIALOGS album cover

V.DIALOGS

klank.ist ensemble. Album, 4 tracks. Recorded 2019 in Istanbul, released April 2021. On CD from Bandcamp and on all digital platforms. Cover art by Ömer Özçelik.

Listen on Bandcamp

Bandcamp / Spotify

Singles

1.5 single cover

1.5

klank.ist WIP: Aslı Kobaner and Eda Er. Single. Recorded May 2020 in Istanbul, released October 2020. An electroacoustic duo piece made during the quarantine.

Listen on Bandcamp
From Afar / Uzaktan single cover

From Afar / Uzaktan

klank.ist ensemble: Zeynep Ayşe Hatipoğlu and Merve Salgar. Single. Recorded April 2020 in Istanbul, released September 2020.

Listen on Bandcamp
LOCKDOWN#2 single cover

LOCKDOWN#2

klank.ist ensemble: Zeynep Ayşe Hatipoğlu, Merve Salgar, Eda Er, Fulya Uçanok and Aslı Kobaner. Video July 2020, single September 2020.

LOCKDOWN#2 video ▶ Play video

Bandcamp

LOCKDOWN#1 single cover

LOCKDOWN#1

klank.ist ensemble: Zeynep Ayşe Hatipoğlu, Merve Salgar, Eda Er, Fulya Uçanok and Aslı Kobaner. Video May 2020, single September 2020.

LOCKDOWN#1 video ▶ Play video

Bandcamp

Collaborators

Everyone who has played, composed, curated or made visuals, photos or design for klank.ist, apart from the members of the ensemble.

Contact

For collaborations and programming, Sonic Cartographies, or the open impro sessions. You can also use the form.

Instagram / Facebook / Bandcamp / Spotify / YouTube / Vimeo