May 17, 2025 • 45 mins
Listen to Part 2 of Art Slut, Ann Wood's interview with classically trained, global touring, Atlanta based experimental musician, Ipek Eginli.
In this episode you will hear a rare recording of her New Orleans performance with acclaimed Saxophonist Kebbi Williams and a sample from her album, Explorers with Daniel Levin.
Hear how long Covid nearly robbed Ipek of the use of her hands. And how her recovery drove Ipek's frenetic (near daily) shows across the globe. Each performance a completely unique improvised composition.
Ipek Eginli is breaking boundaries in experimental and classical music on piano and synth. Her new album, Clouds Carry Me to the Sky Every Morning is available on Purplish Records.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
So we f**ked it
Because it was there...We're Art Sluts
Welcome back.
If you missed episode one, you are now just discovering the dynamic musical experience ofEPEC Eginley.
(00:24):
Here's part two of my interview with EPEC Eginley.
One of the other interesting aspects of your performances, tell me what the role ofrecording your performances is that for you, is it to kind of turn your brain on or is it
to
look at later, like what's the role in recording your performances?
(00:49):
um At the very beginning, it's uh something uh redeeming for me.
As someone who started playing the piano when I was six and started full-time musicconservatory when I was nine and I was there, middle school and high school and college
(01:13):
all in one place.
We didn't have these regular classes, but we had music history, music theory, and harmony,and all of these, hours and hours of music.
And we didn't get to perform.
They didn't have us perform even for each other.
And we were preparing for auditions.
That would happen once a year in June, and we would get our repertoire at the beginning ofthe school year, and would just practice and practice, and we would only play for our
(01:41):
teachers.
And it was just for that audition.
So we would just get to the next year.
Now I'm think about it.
just feels like and it was just, I never recorded myself.
It was, I never was able to record.
I didn't have that idea.
mean, we had Bulkman's and things like that, but
sounds almost athletic, you know?
(02:03):
was very much you can consider that or military.
Wonderful.
But I was so scared of listening to any recording that I like, let's say we would havelike a little concert for our friends and not never the other teachers.
Then if anyone recorded God forbid, I just could not hear it.
(02:24):
It would be my nightmare.
The first I would say over 20 years of my
Like music live was just avoiding having any recording.
And just would not listen to it.
Would not.
I couldn't handle it.
Like it just felt, ugh.
I would hear something and it was like, my God, that was just like give me pain.
(02:48):
So I just really wanted to go against that.
I just said, you're going to watch yourself.
Now you're going to listen to yourself.
Not only that, you're going to watch yourself.
And then I started really
And then before doing that, I said, I'm gonna have an archive.
I'm gonna have an archive of my, and even there are people who knew, who know that goal.
(03:11):
Like before I started playing a lot of concerts, I said, I wanna have an archive.
And that's why I even started creating all these performance opportunities because Iwanted to have a performance archive.
And I started recording every single one of them.
would always make...
Every concert prepared my patches in a way that I could record it on Ableton and then Iwould also have a video recording and then I would watch it to create little clips but
(03:38):
then I would see all of it and I learned so much about myself.
I can't tell you exactly that I made decisions like, okay, don't do this next time.
I don't do that but I just simply watch it and I just learn and it just goes in the backof my head.
without judging.
Yes, it's really important.
I don't just like, this wasn't a good one or this wasn't...
(04:01):
I just kind of remember uh how I was feeling and then I just watch.
then I came to moments and I go like, mmm, this is nice.
I remember feeling I really like that.
That's why you see moments that I smile suddenly.
I just like something I hear.
I really started enjoying.
(04:22):
I really started enjoying the music that I was making.
I did become one of the musicians that I really like listening to and it's a great feelingto think that
It's so fantastic to say that and admit that because I don't know if other people are thatway, but I play for myself, you know, ultimately.
I love that there's nothing wrong with that.
(04:44):
Because it's actually, you're accepting a reality.
If you didn't like what you were doing, you wouldn't do it.
And you wouldn't go out and play for people.
And that's just ultimately, and just accepting a fact in reality.
And that's beautiful.
we can talk about a lot of different details of, I personally don't think of music good orbad.
(05:10):
but I know there are a lot of people do.
So when you can get out of that idea, then it's easier to like your own music becauseyou're not judging it in this, you know, in a way of rating it.
Even when I compare, let's say I'm comparing two of my performances, I compared as like Iwas more connected here than this one.
(05:31):
That is my, let's say judgment on it.
But it's very helpful to remember that.
uh
They're not like this was bad or this was good.
Even as a teacher, I always say, try not to use that.
They are not descriptive.
It doesn't...
When you say good, it doesn't give you any information.
Bad, no information.
(05:52):
Connected, there's more information.
Why were you more connected?
It creates almost like more of...
Like it puts more meaning that you can be curious about.
So and then I used...
I try not to use hard and easy because then...
and the very technically easy piece could be very difficult to interpret, for example, inclassical music.
(06:13):
So I'm a person who very...
I try to be very mindful with the words that I use towards my daughter or with my musicwhile talking to myself.
Because then I can just block myself for anything that I'm gonna do next.
Let's take a listen to an excerpt from her album Explorers with Daniel Levin.
(11:11):
you
you
(11:45):
you
you
(12:56):
you
(17:47):
you
(19:12):
Another interesting thing is you do a lot of duos.
You work with lot of different artists.
Is that something that you have always enjoyed or is that something new in yourexploration of music?
Going back, I was trained in a way that uh I would just be by myself in a piano practiceroom.
(19:38):
I would just practice and practice and practice and I would just go out and talk topeople.
That was my collaboration.
But we weren't put in a place to even play chamber music for a really long time.
Fascinating.
It's hard to imagine.
Yeah, and they also had their own reasons.
uh You know, it's hard to judge it.
(19:59):
Every year I'm thinking of my music background in a different way and I'm always verygrateful and appreciative.
uh Turkey is predominantly a Muslim country.
We have our own culture, we have our own...
And in this little building of 500 people at the most...
trying to do Western classical music.
(20:19):
Like how are you going to make sure that these kids succeed with this really foreign thingto them that they're never gonna hear when they go out?
So how can we create this environment for them that they can really be the best at whatthey do?
And then they make choices, not necessarily helpful or healthy, and they go with a lot oftraditions and things like that.
(20:42):
But I was in a choir and I loved...
being in a choir and even before I started that music school, my first started singing ina professional choir and we weren't singing, know, since we weren't Christian, there was
no religious music in that way.
We were just singing classical music.
They were Christian religious music, but it wasn't uh from our culture.
(21:06):
I...
My first experience being on the stage was Mahler's 8th symphony and it's called Symphonyfor a Thousand which means that there's like a children's choir, uh a women's choir, a
men's choir and a gigantic orchestra.
the way that Mahler wrote it was a thousand people on the stage.
(21:28):
It's crazy and you take an eight-year-old and put her in that?
I felt music with my...
whole body.
I mean, just the melodies, the massiveness and I'm looking at people, everybody'sperforming and I'm looking at hundreds of people watching us and nothing else could have
(21:51):
happened.
just so powerful.
was like, I always think of it like Spider-Man being, you know, bit by spider, like rightthat moment.
I don't think any, I could have been anything else.
It was just like written.
oh
But from that moment, yes, my choir experience continued, but as a pianist, wasn't playingwith anyone.
First of all, was, you you're scared, but I wasn't given that opportunity.
(22:16):
Later, I started playing when I was pursuing a lot of contemporary classical music in NewYork.
I played with a lot of percussionists because that's what I was hired for.
So I got used to playing really difficult rhythm.
and very difficult harmonies and melodies uh playing in a duo setting and I love that, Ilove that.
(22:39):
So when I started doing more improvisation I really wanted to feel that but most of mylife again I wasn't able to collaborate so right now it feels like hunger.
uh
more people um and people might disagree with that sometimes i think of the idea of likewhat if i build something with one person more and i i do that too there are people that i
(23:02):
play and the chris childs daniel levin so these people i play more frequently and i lovecreating that sound world but i also love just
playing with people I don't know and I get to learn myself more.
It's not always as connec...
(23:23):
again, it's not always as connected as other times and that's always a good learningexperience.
It's a learning experience for me, however I want to look at it.
And you pointed out in a great way that I wasn't even noticing as much.
Yes, I specifically love duos.
ah I liked trios and as it gets big...
(23:44):
bigger your position in that group kind of changes, which could be lovely.
But that conversation, I always do really well with one-on-one.
It's like right now and it is, I love one-on-one in music in real life.
EPEC is known for performing duets with little known to famous musicians.
(24:04):
Here is a live improvisation from Zeitgeist, New Orleans, January 2024 with KebbyWilliams.
(25:07):
you
(28:00):
you
(28:43):
As a musician, I left Turkey when I was 20 years old and again, that was mostly my schooltime and I would say in classical music, being a female wasn't that...
This could be arguable.
I think different people have different ideas but that wasn't as uh strikingly differentas in like as a touring musician or improviser doing experimental music or...
(29:11):
There's an overlap with jazz musicians, even though I am not at all a jazz musician, inthat those areas that you definitely see a lot of male.
It's a very male dominant place.
Sometimes I point it out jokingly and they don't even notice it.
I mean, I went to a performance and...
They don't know what they don't know.
(29:31):
Yeah.
Which is very frustrating.
Yeah.
Sometimes there would be a bill of, I don't know, 10 people, I would be the only female.
But there would be really nice people and, you know, there's nothing about...
And they wouldn't even...
People don't choose to do it that way, by the way.
And those are who are making music too.
(29:54):
So it's not like, oh, you're a woman, we're not going to add you.
If anything, they would be more welcoming in a lot of places.
But it's just how it is right now.
I'm more curious in middle school, it's pretty much boys, girls all across the board.
What happens?
Where are these women around?
they, and again, it's just something that I think about and wonder and sort of researchthrough life, talking to different women and observing, but there's no reason why there
(30:22):
shouldn't be more women in music or are there just as many women in music that areuncovered like Rashida Ali when we did
the women of no words, that was her first solo performance.
Whether, right, whether she, I don't know, you know, but I think there are women maybe whoare just not seen.
(30:44):
Yeah, both, I think.
That's definitely this like uh one of the things that I think also sometimes we have thesebiases for ourselves as well.
We believe a certain way.
I was telling someone today because they were telling like, okay, tell us about who youare.
What do you do?
And then people usually start I am this or I am that.
(31:05):
I try to use verbs.
I am doing this because that allows me to not be that thing.
I'm being this and I'm creating these moments and it can change.
most of my music life, I said, I'm a performer, I'm a pianist.
And then I didn't realize it's a whole outfit you put on and you look a certain way andthen you are expected to be a certain way to be a pianist.
(31:35):
Like this is how you need to be to a performer.
I said it so many times to myself that I...
unconsciously and unconsciously that I didn't even think that I could create.
That doesn't even, like I was like, I don't know if, there wasn't even a, I don't know ifI can do it.
It's just, that wasn't a thing.
Choir was when you were absorbed by music and it became part of your life path.
(31:59):
I think everything coming together a little bit, it's...
I always made my own improvisations and my music at home.
I was a kid, I played by myself all the time.
Just random games.
I would act out uh whole stories.
I would turn around a guitar and take a stick and for hours I would act like I'm playingthe cello.
(32:25):
There was this play and improvisation in my whole life.
And really, I have a sister, she's eight years older than I am, but both of my parentswere working there, and I was by myself all the time, all the time.
And I just played and played and played and just made up stuff all the time.
But I almost felt had this two personalities that it was just very strict to do theclassical music, do this and love that.
(32:51):
And then you only do what they're telling you and every two to the little smallest detail.
and then just go home and be whatever you want to be, create whatever you want to createand talk and laugh in any way that you want.
those two things were always going on in my life.
(33:14):
OK, but I didn't live that around other people.
It was it was my still to this day.
Like I like being by myself just to be in that in those worlds that I create.
But then, yeah.
Classical music turned into me doing a lot of contemporary classical, which is very closeto...
It feels like written experimental music is contemporary classical music.
(33:39):
So sometimes people put...
See, when my arms on the keys, they feel like, oh, that's big or the newest thing.
I mean, I did that while I was playing contemporary music or inside the piano things andall of those or different things with my voice.
And then when I started...
bringing back with I think with time and age a little bit not that I'm that old but I wasbringing back that just combining that really playful me with the all the exposure that I
(34:09):
had the Turkish music the and the contemporary classical music my classical take techniquethat I my playing
And all the things that I missed out in life and music that are just kind of combined in away that it feels like in the background, someone was just like, let's put this here.
(34:29):
Let's put this thing right here.
And then it just became this.
don't want to describe it as something concrete, but it almost felt like, well, hello.
Someday it just opened the door and it was just all fully ready.
We're just built with the experiences of.
my whole life and then just like and she said like let's do it then we just teamed up andi started doing so everything that i have done and i have exposed i have been exposed it
(34:59):
just got into person and then now and that
And when you came to Atlanta, did you right away start moving in that direction or was itlater?
um I actually was involved in contemporary classical music for several years.
was in groups like, uh I think they're still around, Terminus Ensemble, ContemporaryEnsemble, and Chamber Cartel.
(35:23):
And I started my doctorate in Athens and piano performance.
So I was still very involved, but I was still keeping things back.
The playful improviser was a little bit back at home.
Those are the times that I was exposed to Morton Feldman, example, a musician that I love,which showed me silence or let one note ring and just listen to that.
(35:52):
all those things were just, it was so hard because I could play fast and I needed to showthat.
And so I learned a lot when I first moved to Atlanta, completely a new place.
2010.
And that's...
I was in New York for five, six years for a master's degree in bunch of teaching and alsoplaying for a percussion department with contemporary music gigs.
(36:20):
But yeah, was here for four or five years.
It was just my doctorate in Athens and playing contemporary music in Atlanta and doingthings by myself.
Just creating a lot by myself, but not having it out in public.
From EPEX's most recent album, Clouds Carry Me to the Sky Every Morning, let's take alisten to Thunder Don't Hurt as Much as You'd Think.
(36:48):
you
(39:22):
you
It's just so nice to talk to you and talk to another musician.
And I love how generous you are with your process and the concepts of music.
I think that's rare that typically musicians, not to generalize, but especiallyinstrumental musicians, they want it to be about the experience.
(39:47):
Again, like you said, the audience, how they experience it is their experience.
But yet I love that you are able to verbalize and almost express a philosophy of music.
That's rare, I believe, to be able to explain the experience of music and performing.
And I don't know, that's not really a question, but it's interesting.
Love, thank you.
(40:08):
I just, uh when you give these and you share your feedback, it's so sincere to me.
It's also, you are very generous with your feedback for me.
And I love, it's incredibly, incredibly meaningful for me.
Not that I am doing, like sharing my expressions or my performances to get confirmationfrom people, but I don't always hear.
(40:36):
the best comments either.
As far as, because when you're out there sharing things that people are not going to beable to understand, you know, that doesn't mean that sometimes they have a hard time to
put me in a place.
They can't understand.
Like, what are you exactly?
What do you do?
Yeah, I hear that.
I recently heard someone said that it's really hard to understand your aesthetics.
(41:00):
And I just went, that's great.
Thank you.
And it's because then I...
mean, don't get me wrong, that kind of affects me.
And then I say...
I try to ask like why...
I try not to ask why did I hear that.
I try to ask why did that affect me.
(41:21):
So I think those two questions are so so so important.
Because if people see things in boxes and like this is how music should be, and I'm notgonna fit in there.
You mean non-non-musicians?
no, everyone.
I mean, because we can have bias everywhere.
(41:41):
And especially musicians actually, or music critics, or people who think they know music,they might see things like this is how it needs to be.
And I've done it so long, I know it needs to be that.
And I really can't see you in that box.
So why is that?
And then, I'm not going to fit in any boxes.
I don't fit in my own box.
(42:01):
I surprise myself all the time.
My experience of the Atlanta experimental music scene is relatively new, but I think it'sgrowing.
I think it's uh important to spotlight, obviously.
think that's important.
But ah how long has that been going on?
This, Kebby and you and iDrum and all this kind of stuff.
(42:25):
I mean, iDrum has always been in my...
since I moved to Atlanta, iDrum has always been an incredible influence for me.
I've seen so many concerts there, start since 2010, even earlier when I visited Atlanta.
I started playing more recently, I started during COVID, but I did have a severe...
(42:46):
I'm one of the long COVID people.
So I had to take completely nine months out of my life.
I was in bed for nine months and I had with the family and all of that.
So I had to take a complete break to everything that I didn't know if I would ever be ableto do it.
But then when I was able to find the right doctors who could understand what would behappening to uh a female in certain situations, then it was easier for me to find their
(43:15):
regimen.
But that also just kind of pushed me out and just say, Ipek, this is the time.
You gotta do it.
I wake up every day.
don't know if I'm going to be ever sick again, that it's today's the day.
So sometimes when people see my drive in a way that I do this, it's just to me, I know theloss of it.
(43:35):
I know not being able to do that.
I know not being able to move a finger for a while.
And then I'm grateful that I could talk to you.
Every moment is great.
Yes, every moment is so special.
That concludes part two of my interview with Ipek Eginley.
Get on Google right now and find out where Ipek is playing next.
(43:56):
Her performances are transformative and captivating.
Her new album is available through Purplish Records.
Thanks for listening to Art Sluts Radio.
Hey, if you identify with the art sluts, explore our herstory at artsluts.net.
That's A-R-T-S-L-U-T-S dot.
(44:19):
And purchase downloads of our music wherever you stream music.
All contributions and purchases will go to support Planned Parenthood.
Currently, 21 states have limited access to women's healthcare, including abortion, and 15of those have a total ban.
(44:39):
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baby
(45:01):
It's just my music day
So we f**ked it
Because it was there...We're Art Sluts
Welcome back.
If you missed episode one, you are now just discovering the dynamic musical experience ofEPEC Eginley.
(00:24):
Here's part two of my interview with EPEC Eginley.
One of the other interesting aspects of your performances, tell me what the role ofrecording your performances is that for you, is it to kind of turn your brain on or is it
to
look at later, like what's the role in recording your performances?
(00:49):
um At the very beginning, it's uh something uh redeeming for me.
As someone who started playing the piano when I was six and started full-time musicconservatory when I was nine and I was there, middle school and high school and college
(01:13):
all in one place.
We didn't have these regular classes, but we had music history, music theory, and harmony,and all of these, hours and hours of music.
And we didn't get to perform.
They didn't have us perform even for each other.
And we were preparing for auditions.
That would happen once a year in June, and we would get our repertoire at the beginning ofthe school year, and would just practice and practice, and we would only play for our
(01:41):
teachers.
And it was just for that audition.
So we would just get to the next year.
Now I'm think about it.
just feels like and it was just, I never recorded myself.
It was, I never was able to record.
I didn't have that idea.
mean, we had Bulkman's and things like that, but
sounds almost athletic, you know?
(02:03):
was very much you can consider that or military.
Wonderful.
But I was so scared of listening to any recording that I like, let's say we would havelike a little concert for our friends and not never the other teachers.
Then if anyone recorded God forbid, I just could not hear it.
(02:24):
It would be my nightmare.
The first I would say over 20 years of my
Like music live was just avoiding having any recording.
And just would not listen to it.
Would not.
I couldn't handle it.
Like it just felt, ugh.
I would hear something and it was like, my God, that was just like give me pain.
(02:48):
So I just really wanted to go against that.
I just said, you're going to watch yourself.
Now you're going to listen to yourself.
Not only that, you're going to watch yourself.
And then I started really
And then before doing that, I said, I'm gonna have an archive.
I'm gonna have an archive of my, and even there are people who knew, who know that goal.
(03:11):
Like before I started playing a lot of concerts, I said, I wanna have an archive.
And that's why I even started creating all these performance opportunities because Iwanted to have a performance archive.
And I started recording every single one of them.
would always make...
Every concert prepared my patches in a way that I could record it on Ableton and then Iwould also have a video recording and then I would watch it to create little clips but
(03:38):
then I would see all of it and I learned so much about myself.
I can't tell you exactly that I made decisions like, okay, don't do this next time.
I don't do that but I just simply watch it and I just learn and it just goes in the backof my head.
without judging.
Yes, it's really important.
I don't just like, this wasn't a good one or this wasn't...
(04:01):
I just kind of remember uh how I was feeling and then I just watch.
then I came to moments and I go like, mmm, this is nice.
I remember feeling I really like that.
That's why you see moments that I smile suddenly.
I just like something I hear.
I really started enjoying.
(04:22):
I really started enjoying the music that I was making.
I did become one of the musicians that I really like listening to and it's a great feelingto think that
It's so fantastic to say that and admit that because I don't know if other people are thatway, but I play for myself, you know, ultimately.
I love that there's nothing wrong with that.
(04:44):
Because it's actually, you're accepting a reality.
If you didn't like what you were doing, you wouldn't do it.
And you wouldn't go out and play for people.
And that's just ultimately, and just accepting a fact in reality.
And that's beautiful.
we can talk about a lot of different details of, I personally don't think of music good orbad.
(05:10):
but I know there are a lot of people do.
So when you can get out of that idea, then it's easier to like your own music becauseyou're not judging it in this, you know, in a way of rating it.
Even when I compare, let's say I'm comparing two of my performances, I compared as like Iwas more connected here than this one.
(05:31):
That is my, let's say judgment on it.
But it's very helpful to remember that.
uh
They're not like this was bad or this was good.
Even as a teacher, I always say, try not to use that.
They are not descriptive.
It doesn't...
When you say good, it doesn't give you any information.
Bad, no information.
(05:52):
Connected, there's more information.
Why were you more connected?
It creates almost like more of...
Like it puts more meaning that you can be curious about.
So and then I used...
I try not to use hard and easy because then...
and the very technically easy piece could be very difficult to interpret, for example, inclassical music.
(06:13):
So I'm a person who very...
I try to be very mindful with the words that I use towards my daughter or with my musicwhile talking to myself.
Because then I can just block myself for anything that I'm gonna do next.
Let's take a listen to an excerpt from her album Explorers with Daniel Levin.
(11:11):
you
you
(11:45):
you
you
(12:56):
you
(17:47):
you
(19:12):
Another interesting thing is you do a lot of duos.
You work with lot of different artists.
Is that something that you have always enjoyed or is that something new in yourexploration of music?
Going back, I was trained in a way that uh I would just be by myself in a piano practiceroom.
(19:38):
I would just practice and practice and practice and I would just go out and talk topeople.
That was my collaboration.
But we weren't put in a place to even play chamber music for a really long time.
Fascinating.
It's hard to imagine.
Yeah, and they also had their own reasons.
uh You know, it's hard to judge it.
(19:59):
Every year I'm thinking of my music background in a different way and I'm always verygrateful and appreciative.
uh Turkey is predominantly a Muslim country.
We have our own culture, we have our own...
And in this little building of 500 people at the most...
trying to do Western classical music.
(20:19):
Like how are you going to make sure that these kids succeed with this really foreign thingto them that they're never gonna hear when they go out?
So how can we create this environment for them that they can really be the best at whatthey do?
And then they make choices, not necessarily helpful or healthy, and they go with a lot oftraditions and things like that.
(20:42):
But I was in a choir and I loved...
being in a choir and even before I started that music school, my first started singing ina professional choir and we weren't singing, know, since we weren't Christian, there was
no religious music in that way.
We were just singing classical music.
They were Christian religious music, but it wasn't uh from our culture.
(21:06):
I...
My first experience being on the stage was Mahler's 8th symphony and it's called Symphonyfor a Thousand which means that there's like a children's choir, uh a women's choir, a
men's choir and a gigantic orchestra.
the way that Mahler wrote it was a thousand people on the stage.
(21:28):
It's crazy and you take an eight-year-old and put her in that?
I felt music with my...
whole body.
I mean, just the melodies, the massiveness and I'm looking at people, everybody'sperforming and I'm looking at hundreds of people watching us and nothing else could have
(21:51):
happened.
just so powerful.
was like, I always think of it like Spider-Man being, you know, bit by spider, like rightthat moment.
I don't think any, I could have been anything else.
It was just like written.
oh
But from that moment, yes, my choir experience continued, but as a pianist, wasn't playingwith anyone.
First of all, was, you you're scared, but I wasn't given that opportunity.
(22:16):
Later, I started playing when I was pursuing a lot of contemporary classical music in NewYork.
I played with a lot of percussionists because that's what I was hired for.
So I got used to playing really difficult rhythm.
and very difficult harmonies and melodies uh playing in a duo setting and I love that, Ilove that.
(22:39):
So when I started doing more improvisation I really wanted to feel that but most of mylife again I wasn't able to collaborate so right now it feels like hunger.
uh
more people um and people might disagree with that sometimes i think of the idea of likewhat if i build something with one person more and i i do that too there are people that i
(23:02):
play and the chris childs daniel levin so these people i play more frequently and i lovecreating that sound world but i also love just
playing with people I don't know and I get to learn myself more.
It's not always as connec...
(23:23):
again, it's not always as connected as other times and that's always a good learningexperience.
It's a learning experience for me, however I want to look at it.
And you pointed out in a great way that I wasn't even noticing as much.
Yes, I specifically love duos.
ah I liked trios and as it gets big...
(23:44):
bigger your position in that group kind of changes, which could be lovely.
But that conversation, I always do really well with one-on-one.
It's like right now and it is, I love one-on-one in music in real life.
EPEC is known for performing duets with little known to famous musicians.
(24:04):
Here is a live improvisation from Zeitgeist, New Orleans, January 2024 with KebbyWilliams.
(25:07):
you
(28:00):
you
(28:43):
As a musician, I left Turkey when I was 20 years old and again, that was mostly my schooltime and I would say in classical music, being a female wasn't that...
This could be arguable.
I think different people have different ideas but that wasn't as uh strikingly differentas in like as a touring musician or improviser doing experimental music or...
(29:11):
There's an overlap with jazz musicians, even though I am not at all a jazz musician, inthat those areas that you definitely see a lot of male.
It's a very male dominant place.
Sometimes I point it out jokingly and they don't even notice it.
I mean, I went to a performance and...
They don't know what they don't know.
(29:31):
Yeah.
Which is very frustrating.
Yeah.
Sometimes there would be a bill of, I don't know, 10 people, I would be the only female.
But there would be really nice people and, you know, there's nothing about...
And they wouldn't even...
People don't choose to do it that way, by the way.
And those are who are making music too.
(29:54):
So it's not like, oh, you're a woman, we're not going to add you.
If anything, they would be more welcoming in a lot of places.
But it's just how it is right now.
I'm more curious in middle school, it's pretty much boys, girls all across the board.
What happens?
Where are these women around?
they, and again, it's just something that I think about and wonder and sort of researchthrough life, talking to different women and observing, but there's no reason why there
(30:22):
shouldn't be more women in music or are there just as many women in music that areuncovered like Rashida Ali when we did
the women of no words, that was her first solo performance.
Whether, right, whether she, I don't know, you know, but I think there are women maybe whoare just not seen.
(30:44):
Yeah, both, I think.
That's definitely this like uh one of the things that I think also sometimes we have thesebiases for ourselves as well.
We believe a certain way.
I was telling someone today because they were telling like, okay, tell us about who youare.
What do you do?
And then people usually start I am this or I am that.
(31:05):
I try to use verbs.
I am doing this because that allows me to not be that thing.
I'm being this and I'm creating these moments and it can change.
most of my music life, I said, I'm a performer, I'm a pianist.
And then I didn't realize it's a whole outfit you put on and you look a certain way andthen you are expected to be a certain way to be a pianist.
(31:35):
Like this is how you need to be to a performer.
I said it so many times to myself that I...
unconsciously and unconsciously that I didn't even think that I could create.
That doesn't even, like I was like, I don't know if, there wasn't even a, I don't know ifI can do it.
It's just, that wasn't a thing.
Choir was when you were absorbed by music and it became part of your life path.
(31:59):
I think everything coming together a little bit, it's...
I always made my own improvisations and my music at home.
I was a kid, I played by myself all the time.
Just random games.
I would act out uh whole stories.
I would turn around a guitar and take a stick and for hours I would act like I'm playingthe cello.
(32:25):
There was this play and improvisation in my whole life.
And really, I have a sister, she's eight years older than I am, but both of my parentswere working there, and I was by myself all the time, all the time.
And I just played and played and played and just made up stuff all the time.
But I almost felt had this two personalities that it was just very strict to do theclassical music, do this and love that.
(32:51):
And then you only do what they're telling you and every two to the little smallest detail.
and then just go home and be whatever you want to be, create whatever you want to createand talk and laugh in any way that you want.
those two things were always going on in my life.
(33:14):
OK, but I didn't live that around other people.
It was it was my still to this day.
Like I like being by myself just to be in that in those worlds that I create.
But then, yeah.
Classical music turned into me doing a lot of contemporary classical, which is very closeto...
It feels like written experimental music is contemporary classical music.
(33:39):
So sometimes people put...
See, when my arms on the keys, they feel like, oh, that's big or the newest thing.
I mean, I did that while I was playing contemporary music or inside the piano things andall of those or different things with my voice.
And then when I started...
bringing back with I think with time and age a little bit not that I'm that old but I wasbringing back that just combining that really playful me with the all the exposure that I
(34:09):
had the Turkish music the and the contemporary classical music my classical take techniquethat I my playing
And all the things that I missed out in life and music that are just kind of combined in away that it feels like in the background, someone was just like, let's put this here.
(34:29):
Let's put this thing right here.
And then it just became this.
don't want to describe it as something concrete, but it almost felt like, well, hello.
Someday it just opened the door and it was just all fully ready.
We're just built with the experiences of.
my whole life and then just like and she said like let's do it then we just teamed up andi started doing so everything that i have done and i have exposed i have been exposed it
(34:59):
just got into person and then now and that
And when you came to Atlanta, did you right away start moving in that direction or was itlater?
um I actually was involved in contemporary classical music for several years.
was in groups like, uh I think they're still around, Terminus Ensemble, ContemporaryEnsemble, and Chamber Cartel.
(35:23):
And I started my doctorate in Athens and piano performance.
So I was still very involved, but I was still keeping things back.
The playful improviser was a little bit back at home.
Those are the times that I was exposed to Morton Feldman, example, a musician that I love,which showed me silence or let one note ring and just listen to that.
(35:52):
all those things were just, it was so hard because I could play fast and I needed to showthat.
And so I learned a lot when I first moved to Atlanta, completely a new place.
2010.
And that's...
I was in New York for five, six years for a master's degree in bunch of teaching and alsoplaying for a percussion department with contemporary music gigs.
(36:20):
But yeah, was here for four or five years.
It was just my doctorate in Athens and playing contemporary music in Atlanta and doingthings by myself.
Just creating a lot by myself, but not having it out in public.
From EPEX's most recent album, Clouds Carry Me to the Sky Every Morning, let's take alisten to Thunder Don't Hurt as Much as You'd Think.
(36:48):
you
(39:22):
you
It's just so nice to talk to you and talk to another musician.
And I love how generous you are with your process and the concepts of music.
I think that's rare that typically musicians, not to generalize, but especiallyinstrumental musicians, they want it to be about the experience.
(39:47):
Again, like you said, the audience, how they experience it is their experience.
But yet I love that you are able to verbalize and almost express a philosophy of music.
That's rare, I believe, to be able to explain the experience of music and performing.
And I don't know, that's not really a question, but it's interesting.
Love, thank you.
(40:08):
I just, uh when you give these and you share your feedback, it's so sincere to me.
It's also, you are very generous with your feedback for me.
And I love, it's incredibly, incredibly meaningful for me.
Not that I am doing, like sharing my expressions or my performances to get confirmationfrom people, but I don't always hear.
(40:36):
the best comments either.
As far as, because when you're out there sharing things that people are not going to beable to understand, you know, that doesn't mean that sometimes they have a hard time to
put me in a place.
They can't understand.
Like, what are you exactly?
What do you do?
Yeah, I hear that.
I recently heard someone said that it's really hard to understand your aesthetics.
(41:00):
And I just went, that's great.
Thank you.
And it's because then I...
mean, don't get me wrong, that kind of affects me.
And then I say...
I try to ask like why...
I try not to ask why did I hear that.
I try to ask why did that affect me.
(41:21):
So I think those two questions are so so so important.
Because if people see things in boxes and like this is how music should be, and I'm notgonna fit in there.
You mean non-non-musicians?
no, everyone.
I mean, because we can have bias everywhere.
(41:41):
And especially musicians actually, or music critics, or people who think they know music,they might see things like this is how it needs to be.
And I've done it so long, I know it needs to be that.
And I really can't see you in that box.
So why is that?
And then, I'm not going to fit in any boxes.
I don't fit in my own box.
(42:01):
I surprise myself all the time.
My experience of the Atlanta experimental music scene is relatively new, but I think it'sgrowing.
I think it's uh important to spotlight, obviously.
think that's important.
But ah how long has that been going on?
This, Kebby and you and iDrum and all this kind of stuff.
(42:25):
I mean, iDrum has always been in my...
since I moved to Atlanta, iDrum has always been an incredible influence for me.
I've seen so many concerts there, start since 2010, even earlier when I visited Atlanta.
I started playing more recently, I started during COVID, but I did have a severe...
(42:46):
I'm one of the long COVID people.
So I had to take completely nine months out of my life.
I was in bed for nine months and I had with the family and all of that.
So I had to take a complete break to everything that I didn't know if I would ever be ableto do it.
But then when I was able to find the right doctors who could understand what would behappening to uh a female in certain situations, then it was easier for me to find their
(43:15):
regimen.
But that also just kind of pushed me out and just say, Ipek, this is the time.
You gotta do it.
I wake up every day.
don't know if I'm going to be ever sick again, that it's today's the day.
So sometimes when people see my drive in a way that I do this, it's just to me, I know theloss of it.
(43:35):
I know not being able to do that.
I know not being able to move a finger for a while.
And then I'm grateful that I could talk to you.
Every moment is great.
Yes, every moment is so special.
That concludes part two of my interview with Ipek Eginley.
Get on Google right now and find out where Ipek is playing next.
(43:56):
Her performances are transformative and captivating.
Her new album is available through Purplish Records.
Thanks for listening to Art Sluts Radio.
Hey, if you identify with the art sluts, explore our herstory at artsluts.net.
That's A-R-T-S-L-U-T-S dot.
(44:19):
And purchase downloads of our music wherever you stream music.
All contributions and purchases will go to support Planned Parenthood.
Currently, 21 states have limited access to women's healthcare, including abortion, and 15of those have a total ban.
(44:39):
Talking about your abortion experience, voting and voting to support abortion rights willmake a difference.
baby
(45:01):
It's just my music day
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