Erdem Helvacioglu

We recently reviewed Erdem Helvacioglu’s CD Altered Realities, saying that “The sound of Altered Realities is an intriguing blend of abstronica and sparse guitar work. While the compositions are solidly grounded in the world of electroacoustic performance, there’s an emphasis and focus on Helvacioglu’s guitar, which gives the pieces an accessible sound and a sense of intimacy.”

He’s interviewed in this month’s EM magazine, and has some interesting thing to say about his sound design process:

“A lot of live-electronics albums with guitar — or with any other instrument — are based on looping,” says Helvacioglu. ” First you loop a sound, then you change it a little bit, and then maybe you add something. But the sounds themselves don’t evolve that much. I’m trying to make everything evolve.”

“I’ve used lots of other sequencing and sound-design programs, like [Steinberg] Cubase, [U&I Software] MetaSynth, and even a little [Cycling '74] Max/MSP,” explains Helvacioglu, “and at first I used AudioMulch basically for sound design — importing a sound, processing it, and then using it for something else. But then I started getting into more of the live-electronics aspect of it, and I found that it’s very intuitive. Pretty soon I incorporated it with the hardware side [FireworX], and so it’s gone on from there.”

See the article for more gear and process details.

Altered Realities is a new album electroacoustic guitar music by Turkish composer Erdem Helvacioglu. On the CD, Helvacioglu makes very interesting use of electronics, recording all the compositions in real time directly to tape. No overdubs or post-processing was used on the material, so the CD captures ideal live electroacoustic performances.

The music is a collection of solo acoustic guitar, enhanced with effects and computer processing. Helvacioglu plays an Ovation Legend, using a TC Electronic Fireworx multi effects processor, Behringer FCB1010 midi foot controller and Audiomulch, a Windows-based audio processor optimized for experimental performance work.

The sound of Altered Realities is an intriguing blend of abstronica and sparse guitar work. While the compositions are solidly grounded in the world of electroacoustic performance, there’s an emphasis and focus on Helvacioglu’s guitar, which gives the pieces an accessible sound and a sense of intimacy. Read more…