Field Recordings

Soundscape composed in MIAM Fall Semester (2015)
Thanks Kristoffer Lislegaard for contributing a lot with the recordings. 
And special thanks to Dr. Reuben de Lautour.

Locations: Bergen City Center, Hardangerfjord, Akerselva River

From Across The Fjords

Recorded on July 20 2016

Please credit me if you are going to use this recording for your own purposes

Singing Ringing Tree

Full version here: https://soundcloud.com/hazalelif/elif-yalvac-computer-music

Made from the sounds recorded at Imperial College's HPC Data Centre on July 7

Please credit me if you are going to use this recording for your own purposes

Computer Room is part of an ongoing field recording project focusing on recording of data centers. Field recordings were taken so far at HPC Imperial College London and UHeM Istanbul Technical University by Hazal Elif Yalvaç and Michael Bearpark. In the composition, the machines generating sounds as a result of workload are treated like ambient music and noise music machines. To this end, recordings are either processed intensively or left almost unprocessed to draw attention to the timbral and pitch characteristics and achieve a musical composition, i.e., music played by machines used at data centres.

Computer Room 1 excerpt

Mastered album version: https://hazalelif.bandcamp.com/track/computer-room

Computer Room is part of an ongoing field recording project focusing on recording of data centers. Field recordings were taken so far at HPC Imperial College London and UHeM Istanbul Technical University by Hazal Elif Yalvaç and Michael Bearpark. In the composition, the machines generating sounds as a result of workload are treated like ambient music and noise music machines. To this end, recordings are either processed intensively or left almost unprocessed to draw attention to the timbral and pitch characteristics and achieve a musical composition, i.e., music played by machines used at data centres.

Elif Yalvac - Computer Room (former version)

Istanbul Soundscape Project: Haydarpaşa'da Bir Gar

Yaklaşık yüz yıldır İstanbul ve Anadoluyu, Avrupa ile Ortadoğu’yu birbirine bağlayan bir düğüm noktası olan Haydarpaşa Garı şuan eskimeye bırakılan banliyö trenleriyle birlikte eski benliğinin, geçmişinin bir gölgesi durumunda. Otel olması için satılması planlanan, çatısında çıkan yangınla birlikte bir kısmı tahrip olduktan sonra son olarak yeniden gar olarak hizmet vereceği açıklanan ve altı yıldan beri tren sirenlerini duyamadığımız Haydarpaşa Garı’nın yokluğunda şehir yaşamında eksikliğini duyduğumuz sesler nelerdi? Trenlerin kalktığı, vapurların yanaştığı ve etrafında uçan yüzlerce martının harika bir senfoni yarattığı gar, yokluğunu hissettiğimiz bir toplu taşıma kompleksinin yanında akustik çehresi ve geçmişten günümüze şehrin ses manzarasına kattıklarıyla birlikte ISP’nin ikinci etkinliğinin konusu oldu.

Etkinlikte kent yaşamında duyabileceğimiz seslerin yanında, Haydarpaşa Garı ile anılabilecek 'ayrılık', 'kavuşma', 'başlangıç', 'bitiş', 'yolculuk' ve 'İstanbul' gibi bağlamlarla üretilen eserlerle birlikte Haydarpaşa’nın akustik çehresini dinlerken, senelerdir duymadığımız tren düdüklerine ve gar etrafındaki doğal hayatın sessel katkılarına kulak misafiri olabileceğiz. Onun üstünde ses sanatçısının mekan için besteledikleri eserleri çalacağı geceye, iki Alman mimar tarafından tasarlanmış bu yaşayan binayla duygusal bağı olan, tren yolculuklarını seven ve şehrin raylar üstündeki akustik ekolojisini merak eden herkesi bekliyoruz. 
İstanbul'un kapısı, Anadolu’dan Batıya giden trenlerin son durağı Haydarpaşa Garı ile bir an önce kavuşmak umuduyla.

**Istanbul Soundscape Project günlük kent yaşamına işitsel bir perspektiften yaklaşırken şehrin akustik ekolojisiyle ilgili farkındalık yaratmayı amaçlıyor. İstanbul'un hızla değişen kent atmosferi karşısında STK ve derneklerle işbirliği yaparak şehrin geleceğinde söz sahibi olmayı amaçlayan proje şehrin akustik ekolojisini korumak için İstanbul'u dinliyor, kaydediyor ve arşivliyor.

https://soundcloud.com/istanbulsoundscape
https://www.facebook.com/istanbulsoundscape/
https://www.instagram.com/istanbulsoundscape/

--

The Istanbul Soundscape Project presents its second event: A Station in Haydarpaşa.
A knot coalescing; the meeting point of Europe and the Middle East for nearly a century, Haydarpaşa Station is now a shadow of its past. In the last five years it has been planned to be sold as a hotel, the roof burned, and then finally, again, announced that it will serve as a station. We have not heard the train whistles of Haydarpasa since six years now. What were the voices we felt, lacking in city life, in the absence of the Haydarpasa Railway Station?
Haydarpaşa Railway Station is a place where the trains depart, the ferries approach, and hundreds of seagulls fly around creating a symphony. Its acoustics, ambience, and all its contributions to the city's soundscape is the subject of ISP’s second event.

In addition to the voices that we can hear in the city life, we can hear the pieces composed within the context of 'separation', 'reunion', 'beginning', 'ending', 'journey', and 'Istanbul’ which we can relate with Haydarpasa. Around ten musicians will play the works they composed. If you are wondering about the city's acoustic ecology on the rails you are invited!
Hoping to travel with Haydarpaşa Station as soon as possible.

Selcuk Artut
Tuna Pase
Ipek Gorgun
Alp Tuğan
Sair Sinan Kestelli
Zeynep Özkan
Esra Genç
Mirko Ettore D'Agostino
Pieter Snapper
Ahmetcan Gökçeer
Gökalp Kanatsız
Görkem Özdemir
Hazal Elif Yalvaç
Kıvanç Tatar
Ozcan Ertek
posters & illustrations Mark Hale

Hazal Elif Yalvac - Dearly Departed

Based in London, Elif Yalvaç (née Hazal Elif Yalvaç) is a producer, composer and guitarist from North Western Turkey. Her journey in sound started as a young girl getting enthusiastic about electric guitar and retro game audio. She has had an over a decade long presence in music with international appearances, especially in the UK, Iceland, and Norway, through solo and collaborative works and performances, music critic reviews, and radio features.

Having worked with others (including the Brooklyn-based label NNA Tapes in 2020) and independently, Elif pushes the boundaries and believes in the value of organic connections in the music scene, defying the obstacles posed by algorithms or capital-oriented PR agencies and their stakeholders. Her latest solo album “Vection” was released in April 2024 by Amsterdam-based label Moving Furniture Records under "Eliane Tapes" series dedicated to pioneering electronic music composer Eliane Radigue. 

Elif’s upcoming solo work features elements of speedcore, noise, IDM, drone, and ambient music, drawing on her versatile approaches and background in music, from using a Game Boy or from guitar playing and singing in rock and metal contexts to sound design with her own software tools for ambient music. Both in studio and live settings, Elif uses a number of instruments including a handmade synth that she calls “Freakbox”, her standard and baritone guitars and pedals, as well as software such as VCV Rack and Ableton Live. She values minimal setup in performance and making the most of limitations, while always attempting to explore and learn tools and instruments to experiment with.

Elif collaborates with others extensively, including Norwegian ambient music artist Kristoffer Lislegaard, her avantgarde metal project Diaries of Destruction; her collaborations with her partner Jordan Muscatello (electric & double bass), her contemporary ambient project with pianist Philamelian, and Green Drift with Expert Sleepers, and primarily with Michael Bearpark. She has performed with a wide range of artists internationally including Eraldo Bernocchi, Colin Edwin, Jon Durant, and Jono Podmore.

Alongside her performance and production efforts, Elif curates and hosts “Talk to the Chip”, a podcast on pioneering electronic music on Resonance FM with Jono Podmore. She is the curator of the bi-monthly live electronics event series “Heart of Noise Cambridge” at Cambridge Junction, and "Electronics At Eight" series in Milton Court Concert Hall in London for Guildhall School. Elif holds an MA degree in Music (Sonic Arts) from Istanbul Technical University, with a thesis on the creative and aesthetic value of limitations in the context of Chip Music. She teaches electronic music composition and production in Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she is the pathway leader for Electronic Music in EPM.