Elif Yalvaç. Born and raised in Turkey, Elif Yalvaç creates music using an array of instruments including guitar, synthesizers, and Game Boy. Her works embrace opposites: microsound glitches and slow builds; celestial beauty and abrasive energy. Her music has received international acclaim including reviews in the Guardian and the Wire Magazine, alongside international invitations especially to Iceland and Norway. She holds an MA degree in Sonic Arts from Istanbul Technical University and delivers workshops on her thesis project: how to create music with chip music instruments. Alongside her solo projects, she collaborates with others extensively, including her experimental rock project Diaries of Destruction and her most recent solo album Green Drift with Expert Sleepers. Endorsed by Arts Council England, Elif is based in the UK with a Global Talent Visa. She currently performs regularly and works on her music releases and teaches electronic and produced music at GSMD, while delivering workshops on her music research around the UK.
Green Drift by Elif Yalvac, BandCamp, 2022 on #neuguitars #blog #ElifYalvac
Green Drift | Elif Yalvac (bandcamp.com)
Green Drift marks the follow-up to Elif Yalvaç’s internationally-acclaimed Mountains Become Stepping Stones album (NNA Tapes, December 2020). Green Drift, however, was created collaboratively by being in the same place: after she got an endorsement from Arts Council England, Elif moved from Turkey to the UK with a global talent visa, and this album is one of the first creative products made possible by this move.
Following years of making music at a distance, Elif and Andrew Ostler met in Edinburgh in April 2022 to record this album as live improvisations with bass clarinets, guitars, and modular synthesiser, followed by careful editing and re-composition. Over several days of recording and several weeks of listening and discussing, a coherent sound emerged from their distinctive and contrasting sonic approaches.
Green Drift represents the special places that were often inaccessible for Elif. The music was also directly inspired by the green views of Edinburgh and her current South of England home when it was recorded and finalised.
But ‘there’s a reason for green’: as the cover and album title suggest, this living, beautiful green is also fragile and increasingly at risk.
credits
released September 23, 2022
Andrew Ostler: Bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet, synthesiser
Hazal Elif Yalvaç: Guitar, synthesiser, laptop
Michael Bearpark: Morleytron
Recorded by Elif Yalvaç and Andrew Ostler
Produced and mixed by Elif Yalvaç
Mastering: James Edward Armstrong
Cover artwork: Carl Glover
Additional photography: M J Harvey
Special thanks: Arts Council England, Creative Informatics (Melissa Terras and Ingi Helgason), White Space Art Gallery Edinburgh, ZB
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