Erol Alkan has never played by dance music's rules, which might explain how he's lasted so long through changing trends and fickle tastes. Since the halcyon days of Trash, his influential decade-long night-club in London and later, as a resident at Bugged Out, Alkan has long been blending orthodox dance music with unorthodox tastes. Bringing alternative flair to Dj sets, informed by an adolescent diet of psychedelic and indie rock bands, Alkan mixes techno, house and rock music in a way that most other DJs cannot. All of that means these sets are as exciting for techno heads as those on the peripheries of dance music—in other words, Alkan bridges the gap between two musical worlds and shows there doesn't need to be a divide in the first place.

Gülşah Görücü

A sociologist, radio programmer, booker and music writer, Gülşah Görücü has been thinking, talking and writing about music since 2007.  She completed her graduate studies on the city and the relationship between independent music. Görücü is looking forward to starting her doctorate studies in independent music industries. Gülşah will be in conversation with Erol Alkan at Sonar Istanbul 2018 about the music industry’s evolution from London Trash to contemporary music. How does music travel from the ear through the heart? Is there a spiritual side to radio programming? How does one connect spatially with the audience behind the DJ cabinet? Are some of the questions that Gülşah is wondering about...