Murat Ses

Murat Ses (Ses means sound or voice in Turkish) (born 1946, Bayrakli, Izmir, Turkey) is a Turkish keyboard player and composer with strong Eurasian electronic elements. He is creator of the Anadolu Pop style, a synthesis of Anatolian Music and Western elements that has been influencing Turkish music scene for decades.

He worked with several bands: Meteorlar (Meteors) (1966-1967), Silüetler (Shadows) (1967), Moğollar (Mongols) (1967-1972), Barış Manço and Kurtalan Ekspres (Express) (1973-1974), Edip Akbayram and Dostlar (Friends) (1974) and Cem Karaca and Dervişan (Dervishes) (1975-1976). Also, he founded Ağrı Dağı Efsanesi (Legend of Mount Ararat) band. This band was dissolved in 1976 and 3 45 rpms. He migrated to Austria in 1979.

His album Danses et Rythmes de la Turquie d'hier à aujourd'hui was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque by the Charles Cros Academie in Paris, France with Moğollar. The albums Automaton (Slave with Ewer Device), Binfen (feat.Tan) and Culduz, all released in the 1990s, are parts of a trilogy with the concept: "The Timeless and Boundaryless Context of Culture and Civilization". Ses has had excellent press (US Keyboard, Audion, i/e, Expose ...) and airplay (Automaton² was no.1 in Rhode Island, Binfen no.7 in Ohio). His main influences are Pink Floyd, Traffic, Jimmy Smith, Eastern Mediterranean music, Levantine, and Central Asian cultures and music. He is the most important Turkish artist still internationally active and shaping today's independent electronic music scene.

His earlier (late 60s early 70s) psychedelic-Anatolian works with English lyrics released under US, Dutch, German and Canadian labels in the late 1990s through 2002. Murat's album with his "San Francisco/Miami Impressions" was recorded in Miami, Florida and was published in 2005 as Automaton² (Automaton Squared) followed by "Binfen 2005 Remix", "Electric Levantine" (2006), "Umami" (2007) and "Beside the Sun" (2010) . His newest release is "Light Cone" (2012), his ninth solo album in a row.

In the early 1990s Murat Ses developed a musical style he terms Electric Levantine. The main elements of the style are microtonal properties created on authentic Levantine scales, electronically produced instrument timbres and Western music. It's an experimental form of Anadolu Pop. His typical Electric Levantine sound can be heard on his album AUTOMATON (Slave with Ewer Device) and on the subsequent albums of his 90's trilogy.

In 2007 Advertising agency TBWA decided to use the early 70s Moğollar song 'Garip Çoban' (meaning Poor Shepherd in Turkish), composed by Murat Ses, in PlayStation 3 campaigns commercial.