Amithāba is the principal Budhha in Pure Land Buddhism, who is known as Amitāyus. Amithāba means “Infinite Light” or “Infinite Life” in Sanskrit.

The structure of Amithāba is based on a textile weave, where each voice has its own repetition. Throughout the piece, the change of each repetition depends on theimprovisation of singers who can use the “techniques” of the oldest singing style known as Drupha Darbar, which uses sounds and syllables rather than words. I am using the scale of Indian Sāranga raga, which expresses no pathos, but only tenderness. 

Over the course of the work, the role of the interweaving-repetitive patterns is to create the sound of the abstract, which goes beyond boundaries and is limitless.

The work was commissioned by the Melos - New Vocal Music Collective and premiered by the Melos - New Vocal Music Collective (Justina Leinartaitė, Karolina Macytė, Gabrielė Bilevičiūtė, Gabija Adamonytė, Karolina Ramonė, Ūla Marija Barbora Zemeckytė, Augustė Andrijauskaitė, Evita Rudžionytė ir Juta Pranulytė) and the Cello Club (Povilas Jacunskas, Domas Jakštas, Arnas Kmieliauskas, Evaldas Petkus ir Rokas Vaitkevičius) in 2022.

Amithāba

Szilárd Benes: Clarinet
Emil Kuyumcuyan: Percussion
Andreas Arend: Theorbe
David-Maria Gramse: violin I
Rebecca Beyer: violin II
Vladimir Waltham: cello 
James Banner: contrabass
Miguel Pérez Iñesta: conductor
A concert recording, RadialSystem Berlin (August 2022)

Fakelore Narratives, for clarinet, ensemble and electronics

there was no light at our place

premiered by Ensemble NEXT at Conservatoire de Paris, Espace Maurice-Fleuret, March 21, 2023.

Simon Proust, conductor
Minaya Chapelain, flute
Jasmine Daquin, oboe
Akiho Nishimura, bass clarinet
David Mengelle, percussion I
Quentin Broyart, percussions II
Arzhel Rouxel, piano/celesta
Julia Sinoimeri, accordeon
Reika Sato, violin
Sengyun Kim, viola
Yi Zhou, violoncello
Vincent Alves De Palma D'Elia, contrabass
Nathan Robain, mix and mastering

Interruptions in the Hallucinatory Realm

STORM (2023)

Commissioned by Duo Signal

Alejandro Oliván - alto saxophone
Adrián Albaladejo Díaz - trombone

April 20th, 2023 Live at Unternehmen mitte – Safe Theater, Basel, Switzerland

[pictured: David Rabinowitch, "Elliptical Plane in 3 Masses and 4 Scales III," 1973–75]

An altar in three frames (2022) for alto saxophone and trombone

Düş Kapanı - Performed by Ums'n Jip ( May 2023 Istanbul/Turkey)

a quick tip from a loser

18 July 2024, Chiesa Santo Maria dei Servei (Sansepolcro)

Chiara Franceshini, violin
Simone Nocchi, prepared piano

''Raqs” means dance in Arabic. The title of the piece is intended as a reference to Ravel’s “Pavane pour une infante défunte”. This piece of Ravel has always inspired me with its unique multivalence as if it is both lament and lullaby at the same time. Along the process, I tried to reflect on this inspiration and dreamed a song that evokes such multivalence by blurring the borders of song, dance, childishness, tragedy, peace, hate, love, grief, joy, satire, naive, heavenly, hellish etc.

“Just as none of us is outside or beyond geography, none of us is completely free from the struggle over geography. That struggle is complex and interesting because it is not only about soldiers and cannons but also about ideas, about forms, about images and imaginings.”
-Edward W. Said


Cover: Malcolm Browne


Raqs (2024) for violin and prepared piano

Written for the 'Hyperorgan' at Orgelpark, Amsterdam. Performed by Ere Lievonen (15.02.20)

The Path Contorts as the Traces Fade

I Sing the Body Electric (2020)
by Claudia Jane Scroccaro
Florentin Ginot, double bass
Claudia Jane Scroccaro, live electronics
Arnaud De la Celle, sound engineer
Mikhail Malt, Encadrement Pédagogique

Recorded the 1st of July 2020 in the Grand Salle du Centre Pompidou
Manifeste Festival 2020 - IRCAM, Paris

I sing the body electric (2020) for Double Bass and Electronics - Florentin Ginot

based in izmir
toykanefekahraman@gmail.com

Toykan Efe Kahraman (b.1999, Izmir, Turkey) is a composer based in Izmir/Turkey who focuses on treating sound as a single hybrid entities derived from the dialectical juxtaposition of elements such as rigidity - fluidity, flowness - frozenness resulting from the combination of single sound organism. This enjoy portraying sonorous narratives, and this inclination consistently transforms their behaviors into a sonic experiment.

there was no light at our place

Toykan Efe Kahraman

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