Erkan Oğur (b. 1954, Ankara) is a Turkish musician.
He invented the first classical fretless guitar. He plays his own compositions and Turkish traditional music. Erkan Ogur also plays kopuz and baglama.
Biography:
Born in 1954 in Ankara. He spent his childhood in Elazıg, east of Turkey. During his days in Elazıg, he got an interest in violin & baglama, and he started to frequently practise. Graduated from High School in Ankara. As a result of encouragement to be a scientist by his father, started to study Engineering of Chemistry & continued his education in Germany. He was introduced to guitar education in 1973. Instead of being a "bad" scientist, he chose to be an "average" musician. Since he needed detailed sounds from guitar in order to obtain turkish melodies, he modified the guitar and invented fretless guitar.
He returned to Turkey in 1980, and started to study in Conservatoire of Istanbul Technical University. After his military service, he worked as a "ud" (a middle-eastern music instrument) teacher. He had live perfomances with Fikret Kızılok & Bülent Ortaçgil where he contributed to scene with fretless guitar. He released first album in Germany called Arayışlar (Search). In 1989 he went to USA to work with numerous local blues artists. He introduced fretless guitar into blues. A year later, he released his first album in Turkey, Bir Omurluk Misafir (Guest For A Lifetime), which was ranked 4th in European lists. He still performs concerts through the world and in Turkey. He works with Kemal Eroglu on technical improvements on baglama (turkish instrument); and continues his perfomances with Fahir Atakoglu & Bulent Ortacgil.
Discography
- Arayışlar (The Search) (1983)
- Sis (The Fog)(1989)
- Fretless (1994)
- Bir Ömürlük Misafir (Guest For A Lifetime) (1996)
- Eşkıya OST (1997)
- Gülün Kokusu Vardı (Rose Had The Smell) (1998)
- Hiç (Nothing) (Instrumental)(1999)
- Anadolu Beşik (Anatolia: The Cradle) (2000)
- Fuad (with Djivan Gasparyan) (2001)
- Yazı Tura OST (2005)