If you’ve ever seen him live, at the likes of Roskilde, Saalfelden, Istanbul Jazz Festival, or most recently at Gărâna Jazz Festival, you’ll know the draw isn’t just the notes but the environment he builds around them. That atmosphere lands in Bucharest on Monday, November 17, when Korhan Futacı drops by Control Club.
Born in 1977, Futacı grew up surrounded by traditional Turkish music, Ottoman classical melodies, and Western jazz. He started playing the saxophone as a teenager after hearing a Coltrane track on the radio. From early on, he was drawn to improvisation and experimentation, first through painting in university, but music remained his primary language. His live performances are loosely plotted, with sections stretched or cut depending on the room.
Futacı's first real public breakthrough came with Tamburada. This free-spirited Istanbul-based jazz-fusion group blurred lines between folk, rock, and ambient. Their 2004 album Fantastik had a hazy quality and was released while Futacı was still completing his mandatory military service. Tamburada would later morph into DANdadaDAN, a short-lived but influential group that incorporated spoken word, noise, and punk energy. That project’s 2006 album, Sen Bana Birini Android, became a cult favorite.
It wasn’t until 2008, with the formation of Konstrukt, that Futacı fully stepped into improvisation's deep end. Co-founded with guitarist Umut Çağlar, Konstrukt was a free-jazz collective in constant flux. Over the next decade, the group evolved into a key node in the international avant-garde scene. Konstrukt's expansive list of collaborators includes Peter Brötzmann, Marshall Allen, Joe McPhee, William Parker, Thurston Moore, Ken Vandermark, Evan Parker, Keiji Haino, and more. Their records on labels like Holidays Records and Karlrecords capture ecstatic sessions that teeter between collapse and release. One of the most acclaimed of these collaborations, Dolunay, was recorded in Istanbul in 2008 with Brötzmann and reissued in 2022 on Karlrecords.
Even as he immersed himself in improvisation, Futacı was developing a more composed, songwriter-driven body of work. With Korhan Futacı ve Kara Orkestra, he brought together musicians from across Istanbul's alternative scene. Their 2010 self-titled debut and 2012’s Pavurya were moody and muscular, full of layered guitars, swirling keyboards, and his unmistakable baritone voice.
In 2022, Futacı released Karmaşaya Aşina ("Familiar with Chaos"), his most personal solo album to date. Built from deep grooves and abstract textures, the album evokes both the turbulence and tenderness of life in Istanbul. Just as it seemed his solo work was heading toward greater polish, Futacı released Heavyweight Rehearsal Tapes in early 2025. Recorded in the Netherlands with a tight all-Turkish quartet, the record is raw, unfiltered, and unrelenting. It swings between psychedelic trance, Turkish melodic modes, and extended improvisation.
Alongside his musical output, Futacı is also a visual artist, with a degree in painting and a self-confessed love for film and poetry. These influences show in the way he constructs albums as visual stories, sequences, or meditations. Many of his music videos and live shows involve tightly controlled lighting, costumes, and stage arrangements.
What makes Korhan Futacı an enduring figure is his ability to take listeners out of their habitual frames and into something darker and more fluid. He may call it a ritual. But it’s also resistance and reinvention.
