#86 - Erkan Oğur - Gnossienne No.1
Erkan Oğur transformed Erik Satie’s 1890 minimalist masterpiece into a microtonal meditation bridging French impressionism and Turkish maqam traditions.
Story Behind “Gnossienne No.1”
When French Impressionism Meets Anatolian Microtonality
“Gnossienne No.1” emerged as a profound cultural bridge on Erkan Oğur’s 2012 album Dönmez Yol (meaning “The Road That Doesn’t Return”), released March 26, 2012, through Kalan Müzik. This cover of Erik Satie’s 1890 composition represents more than mere interpretation—it’s a testament to how the fretless guitar, which Oğur invented in 1976, can reveal hidden microtonal possibilities in Western classical music. In his music, he blends Turkish maqams with jazz and blues, and this arrangement of Satie’s enigmatic piano piece according to his style and instruments demonstrates how fundamentally Eastern and Western musical traditions can speak to each other when mediated through the right instrument.
From Physics Student to Guitar Revolutionary
The journey to “Gnossienne No.1” began decades earlier when Oğur, born April 17, 1954, in Ankara and raised in Elazığ in eastern Turkey, was studying physics in Munich on scholarship. Hearing Jimi Hendrix on the radio was a major shock, leading him to abandon his physics engineering studies to dedicate fully to music. He developed a bad inflammation of the wrist while mastering classical guitar repertoire, and this—combined with the idea of playing on guitar in the microtonal style of Turkish maqams—was a key motivation to invent the fretless guitar. By 2012, with decades of mastery behind him, Oğur was perfectly positioned to reimagine Satie’s mysterious composition through the lens of his pioneering instrument.
“Gnossienne No.1” Recording and Production Details
Kalan Müzik and the Dönmez Yol Sessions
Recorded and released through Kalan Müzik, Turkey’s premier world music label, “Gnossienne No.1” showcases Oğur’s complete mastery of his self-invented instrument. The 4:39 track appears as part of Dönmez Yol, a 19-track album that demonstrates the breadth of Oğur’s musical vision. The production emphasizes the organic timbres of the fretless guitar, allowing the instrument’s ability to slide between notes—essential for Turkish maqam music—to transform Satie’s originally rigid piano composition into something fluid and breathing.
The Maqam Approach to Western Minimalism
Oğur’s production philosophy centers on what he describes as the need for Turkish music sounds in the sense of maqam. Since he needed detailed sounds from a guitar in order to obtain Turkish melodies, he modified his guitar and invented the fretless classical guitar in 1976. This instrument allows him to access the microtonal intervals that define Turkish maqam music but are impossible on standard Western fretted guitars. Applied to Satie’s “Gnossienne No.1,” this approach reveals how the French composer’s mysterious, modal composition contains spaces between the notes where Eastern melodic sensibilities can flourish. The result sounds neither purely Turkish nor purely French, but exists in a liminal space that both traditions share.
Notes About “Gnossienne No.1” by Erkan Oğur
Release Date: March 26, 2012
Duration: 4:39
Genre: World Music / Classical Crossover / Turkish Classical / Experimental
Album: Dönmez Yol (19 tracks)
Original Composer: Erik Satie (1890)
Arranger: Erkan Oğur
Label: Kalan Müzik
Language: Instrumental
Erkan Oğur “Gnossienne No.1” Era Band Details
Album Details
Album: Dönmez Yol (”The Road That Doesn’t Return”)
Release Date: March 26, 2012
Label: Kalan Müzik
Total Tracks: 19
Album Concept: Personal journey through Turkish and world music traditions
Recording Approach: Solo fretless guitar interpretations and original compositions
Band Members/Personnel
Erkan Oğur - Fretless Classical Guitar, Fretless Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Kopuz, Bağlama, Composition, Arrangement
Production Notes
First solo album since The Istanbul Connection (2006)
Followed collaboration albums with Djivan Gasparyan (Fuad, 2001)
Part of extensive Kalan Müzik catalog documenting Turkish musical innovation
Album includes mix of traditional Turkish pieces, original compositions, and Western interpretations
Demonstrates full range of fretless guitar’s expressive possibilities
Available on CD and digital platforms globally
Represents mature period of Oğur’s career, 36 years after inventing fretless guitar
Interesting Facts About “Gnossienne No.1”
The Inventor Who Changed Guitar History
“Gnossienne No.1” gains profound significance when understood as the work of the man who invented the first fretless classical guitar in 1976. As Oğur explains, “In Germany during 1976, I created the fretless guitar. First, there was a need for Turkish music sounds (in the maqam sense). I grew up familiar with Turkish music maqams since childhood. That need was always inside me. I made it by removing the frets due to the need for Turkish music and folk music maqam sounds.” This invention wasn’t merely technical innovation—it was cultural necessity, driven by the impossibility of expressing Turkish melodic sensibilities on standard Western instruments. When applied to Satie’s composition, the fretless guitar reveals hidden modal possibilities in Western music, suggesting that the boundaries between Eastern and Western musical systems are more permeable than traditional musicology suggests.
From Blues Roads to Turkish Traditions
Before recording “Gnossienne No.1,” Oğur lived a remarkably diverse musical life. After meeting Robert “One Man Band” Johnson in Istanbul, he went to the U.S. for two years in 1989, playing blues on the road and introducing fretless guitar into blues music. He returned to Turkey in the ‘80s, finished his Conservatory studies at Istanbul Technical University, and his guitar and saz fills were soon very much in demand. By the time he recorded Dönmez Yol, Oğur had collaborated with Armenian duduk master Djivan Gasparyan (Fuad, 2001), worked extensively with vocalist İsmail Hakkı Demircioğlu, and composed numerous film soundtracks including the acclaimed Eşkıya (The Bandit, 1997). This cross-cultural experience informs his interpretation of Satie—he approaches the French composer not as a Western classical musician looking East, but as a Turkish musician who has walked American blues roads, learned Western classical traditions, and returned home to synthesize these experiences. His version of “Gnossienne No.1” proves that the most powerful interpretations come not from technical mastery alone, but from artists who have lived between multiple musical worlds and can hear the universal in the culturally specific.