Erkin Koray

Erkin Koray — Biography

Mustafa Erkin Koray (24 June 1941, Kadıköy, Istanbul – 7 August 2023, Toronto) was a Turkish singer, guitarist, songwriter and composer. He is counted among the pioneers of rock music in Turkey and is considered one of the founders of the Anatolian rock movement, leaving behind an extensive original catalogue spanning Anatolian rock, psychedelic rock and hard rock. He studied in Istanbul, attending the German High School and later Haydarpaşa High School.

Koray took up the piano as a child, encountered rock and roll during his school years, and put together a small band with friends under the name Erkin Koray ve Ritimcileri. He performed on stage from the 1950s and put out many 45 rpm singles through the 1960s; during that decade he went to Germany and experienced firsthand in Hamburg the musical world shaped by the Beatles and other British groups. When he came back to Turkey, his long hair and rock and roll lifestyle had turned him into a cultural symbol, not simply a performer. In 1969 he established the band Yeraltı Dörtlüsü, which opened the way for Turkish rock music's development.

At the core of his sound lies the merging of psychedelic rock with traditional Turkish music. Work that joined Eastern and Western sonorities inspired generations of musicians after him, and his fresh arrangements of folk songs helped keep Anatolia's cultural legacy alive. In the late 1960s, wanting the bağlama to carry better in venues and to bring the instrument into rock, he created the electric bağlama together with Orhan Gencebay.

His repertoire ranged widely: from folk music he interpreted Cemalim and Köprüden Geçti Gelin, and from classical Turkish art music Nihansın Dideden and Kıskanırım. He recorded arabesque-rock numbers such as Şaşkın, Estarabim, Çöpçüler and Fesuphanallah; psychedelic-leaning pieces such as Mesafeler, Yağmur and Gün Doğmuyor; and tracks edging toward metal such as Krallar, Akrebin Gözleri and Öfke.

His album career opened in 1973 with the self-titled Erkin Koray; Elektronik Türküler and Mesafeler followed in 1974. Later releases included Erkin Koray Tutkusu, Allah Aşkına, İlla ki, Ceylan, Hay Yam Yam, Tamam Artık and Devlerin Nefesi, while the Dünden Esintiler series, launched in 1991, gathered his older recordings.

He also maintained ties with film and television: he acted in pictures such as Naylon Leyla, Dönüşü Olmayan Yol and Şaşkın; his music featured in productions including Korkusuz Cengaver, Yüz Numaralı Adam and Abuk Sabuk 1 Film; and he appeared in the series Karambol Kamil and Avrupa Yakası. He played himself in Fatih Akın's 2005 documentary İstanbul Hatırası: Köprüyü Geçmek (Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul). Occasionally dubbed the Turkish Jimi Hendrix, Koray passed away in Toronto on 7 August 2023, aged 82.