Koray Kantarcıoğlu

Koray Kantarcıoğlu is a Turkish sound and visual artist, whose work cannot be pinned down to a single discipline. Koray’s visual art frequently focuses on microscopic particles and their combinations, resulting in geometrical visual structures. His images are sharp and warm at the same time, notable for their textural essence and architectural composition. Some of his work investigates the strange aesthetics of the mundane. For example, Air Conditioners presents a series of photos of conditioners in various urban environments, while Steak Fries examines Turkish food culture and its forms in a series of pencil-drawn images. Apart from his visual endeavours, Koray is also known for his musical work. He is a part of the Teyp Quartet and has also created sound design for Bjorn Renner’s installations. His album Loopworks initially released on Wounded Wolf Press and re-released this year on Discrepant is a beautiful exercise in nostalgia and hauntology, composed of samples taken from Turkish records released in the ‘60s and ‘70s. In its lush physicality of disintegrating vinyl sounds turned into hypnotic loops, it recalls the work of artists such as William Basinski, Philip Jeck or The Caretaker.

In the records

STM 274 is an exploration of contemporary Turkish experimental music and its rich myriad of sounds and moods. It is a dreamy affair with a very organic flow, immersing the listener into a state of pleasant reverie or daytime contemplation. Starting with the murky and shiny tones by Dalt Wisney, it continues with the hushed lo-fi slowcore of Bicycle Day, before shifting into the homely sublimity of compositions by Koray himself. The mix leads us across different textures, which could evoke abstract or very specific visions. Towards the end, things get surprisingly more intense with such numbers as Pam (Dub Version) by Muca Ozer, bursting with its acidic pulsations, or Biblo’s Titled 01 with its crackling and submerged dub techno. So let these touching sounds complement your surroundings and dive deep into your ears and heart.