Oğuz Büyükberber’s PROCESSING aims to challenge the listener’s sensory perception. What is acoustic, what is synthesized, what is distorted or altered?
Reflecting on his own distorted and very limited sight, Büyükberber layers gesture over gesture, texture over texture and idea over idea in this hour-long, ever-evolving, intense piece of music full of juxtaposed references. Works by Max Ernst, Cy Twobly, Pierre Boulez, Kraftwerk, Bootsy Collins, Wendy Carlos, Alfred Hitchcock, Mauricio Kagel and, of course, John Cage, as well as Oğuz’s own personal history, dreams and nightmares form the basis of what inspires the eclectic sound novel that is this work. Between the lines, or sometimes in your face, are elements linked to pop culture, comic books, science fiction, psychoanalysis, architecture and family drama.
Oğuz' personal note
“Growing up, I spent more time drawing than doing anything else. Sometimes up to 8 hours a day! Until I finished art school, my paintings were about showing how realistically I could render things regardless of my mere 10% sight.
Somewhere along the way, I became a musician with international success and a ton of output, but never lost my passion for visual arts.
My vision decreased and got distorted over time and it became challenging for me to even keep drawing and painting at all. I’m having much difficulty to focus and my brain cannot compute the sensory input it receives. I can’t do many daily things easily. I went through painful struggles to find how I can make visual art through some serious unlearning and allowing my body to remember what it studied for decades. Same applies for my relationship with electronic music and its equipment.
I’m thankful that art can still be my refuge and a major self healing process. Sounds, shapes, layers, gestures, speed, intensity and density of things and how they interact with each other while I create and interact with them informs the basic principles of my work.
PROCESSING reflects on the restless, ambiguous, distorted, and at times scary visual perception I have. It is a way of processing the traumatic experiences that are caused by my condition on a daily basis, while it’s an internal dialogue between my musician self and the painter one. An exploration of my own emotional response mechanism.”
All the music is composed and performed by Oğuz Büyükberber.
Oğuz Büyükberber - clarinet, bass clarinet, piano, modular synthesizer and voice
Recorded and edited by Oğuz Büyükberber Spring 2023 Utrecht The Netherlands