PRESS RELEASES
Press Release | Nibiru
Artist: Okan Ersan
Album: Nibiru
Label: Self-Produced
Release Date: August 15, 2019
Visionary fusion guitarist Okan Ersan takes listeners on a musical journey through outer space on Nibiru.
When I first heard that the album was centered around celebrating extraterrestrial life-forms and the first track inspired by the first alien contact with Earth, I was wondering whether Nibiru would be very abstract and inaccessible. I was pleasantly surprised to find it adventurous yet accessible at the same time.
The opening track, “Wow Signal”, uses the Morse-code translation of the famous extraterrestrial message as the rhythmic motive. Despite the conceptual inspiration, the tune is highly approachable, set in 4/4 with logical, coherent melodies. Guitar and keyboard solos (by Okan Ersan and Serkan Özyılmaz) stand out, and the track offers a powerful start to the album.
“As Far Away As Possible” follows with a simple but striking melody. Percussionist Volkan Öktem adds unique rhythmic character, giving the piece a rock-meets-jazz fusion that feels both fresh and grounded.
“Deep Field” brings alien-like textures on keyboards, layered with spacious guitar voicings before the melody emerges. Chromatic solos add depth without overwhelming the piece, making it adventurous yet friendly to the ear.
With “Gravitational Waves”, syncopated funk rhythms drive the track, blending jazz, fusion, new age, rock, and even metal. Ersan’s guitar tone is effect-heavy and powerful, while the keyboard solos are daring and inventive throughout.
“Transcending” shows a more tender side of the quartet, with bassist Eylem Pelit’s warm, rounded tone providing an anchor for Ersan’s melodic exploration.
The title track “Nibiru” captures the album’s essence: layered harmonies, syncopated hits, and a balance of lyricism and adventurous textures. The interplay between bass, guitar, and keys keeps the music fresh, while “Space Jungle – Annunaki” closes the album with a dramatic, cosmic energy.
Critical Note
Nibiru strikes a careful balance between adventurous abstraction and accessibility. It reflects the best of jazz fusion — improvisation, rich harmonies, and layered textures — while remaining emotionally resonant and musically clear.
The Graham | Album Review #2019
Okan Ersan: Nibiru
by George Graham
(Independent release as broadcast on WVIA-FM 8/14/2019)
For many decades, jazz has been one of the most successful American exports. There have been times when the art-form was appreciated more overseas than it was in the country where it was born. In more recent decades, jazz-rock fusion has also been taken up by artists from all over, and indeed some of the more influential artist have come from elsewhere, such as John McLaughlin from the UK, Jean-Luc Ponty from France, and Joe Zawinul of Weather Report who was born in Austria. This week we have a first-rate fusion release by a Cypriot guitarist, with his mostly Turkish band. It’s Okan Ersan, and his new third release is called Nibiru.
Okan Ersan was born is Cyprus in 1972 and graduated with a music degree from Marmara University in Istanbul in 1994. He lists some of his guitar influences as Al DiMeola, Scott Henderson, Robben Ford, and Mike Stern. His touring has brought him to the US, where he performed at the Kansas City Jazz Festival, and over the years served as an opening act for Chick Corea, DiMeola, McLaughlin and others. He also previously recorded with drummer Dave Weckl, of the Chick Corea Elektric Band.
His new album Nibiru was recorded in Istanbul, with three Turkish-born players, Serkan Ozyilmaz on keyboards, Elem Pelit on bass and Volkan Oktem on drums. But the music is very much international, with an electric fusion sound that is both classic in its approach, recalling such artists as Jaco Pastorius, and especially Allan Holdsworth, with some more contemporary touches. Missing is any significant sonic indication that this music came from the Near East.
The title Nibiru is a reference to a fictitious planet of the same name, and the album’s seven tracks are titled as “chapters” in a kind of time and space journey, with titles like Gravitational Waves, and Deep Field a reference to one of the instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope. Some of the music can hint at space and sci-fi, but for the most part, the music is rather straight-ahead fusion, with tracks that range from very electric and angular, to one that is more of a ballad. Ersan is a first-rate guitarist, keeping the music interesting without getting into rock guitar cliches. The rest of the band are similarly tasteful, gathering the best influences of the fusion scene. Keyboard man Serkan Ozyilmaz can slip easily between some very electric keyboards, including what sounds like old analog synthesizers to more acoustic piano sounds. Drummer Volkan Oktem puts in some impressive solos on the album.
Each of the tracks has a numbered chapter name with a subtitle. The opening piece, Chapter One is called 6EQUJS (Wow Signal), named after what is thought to have been an extra-terrestial radio signal received in 1977, with the Morse code representation of the characters forming a rhythmic motif. The sound is classic fusion, showing the influence of Allan Holdsworth in the harmonic structure, with hints of the Chick Corea Electrik Band. <<>>
The following piece As Far Away As Possible is said to be inspired by the vastness of space and how light years are used for calculating distances. Keyboard man Ozyilmaz is featured prominently. I can hear some influence by Joe Zawinul of Weather Report in the arrangement. <<>>
On the more rock-oriented side of the fusion spectrum is Deep Field which is also nicely done, with interesting harmonic and sonic bits to keep things out of the realm of fusion cliches. <<>>
Things are even edgier on the track called Gravitational Waves with Ersan getting out his rock chops. <<>>
The “chapter” called Transcending is well-named for its more contemplative sound, with almost acoustic instrumentation <<>> though Ersan gets out a guitar synthesizer for his solo. <<>>
The album’s title track Niburu gives Ersan more room for a guitar solo, and he puts it to best advantage, with some impressive playing. <<>>
The recording closes with its shortest but most electric and rather quirky piece Space Jungle – Anunnaki. It has a kind of science-fiction sound to it, with the guitar and keyboard approach, along with what sounds like alien voices. <<>>
Okan Ersan’s new album Nibiru shows that the jazz rock fusion scene is flourishing internationally. The Cyprus-born guitarist and his Turkish band create music with the best of them.
Our grade for sound quality is an “A.” Though the instrumentation is very electric and cranked up at times, there is good clarity, and the sound is clean and punchy.
While the jazz rock-fusion scene emerged over 40 years ago, it remains active in places both near and far.
(c) Copyright 2019 George D. Graham. All rights reserved.
This review may not be copied to another Web site without written permission.
By Roger Farbey August 13, 2019 All About Jazz
Guitarist Okan Ersan hails from Cyprus. On the outer space-inspired concept album Nibiru (named after the mythical planet) his jazz fusion quartet cooks a quite a solar storm. Each of the seven chapters charts a musical narrative related to its respective celestial theme. The album also incorporates some NASA space samples as heard at the start of the opener “Chapter I: 6EQUJ5 (Wow Signal)” in which Ersan cannily used Morse code to translate the reference for the unknown signal “6EQUJ5.”
The overall feel of the dramatic fast-paced piece is reminiscent of Allan Holdsworth at his most lyrical, and Holdsworth springs to mind even more with Ersan’s incendiary solo break on “Chapter III: Deep Field,” an interpretation of visual phenomena within the small region of the constellation Ursa Major, taken from the Hubble Deep Field (HDF) observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. But it’s not all sound and fury as “Chapter V: Transcending” will attest. The focus here is the portrayal of the travel of energy from the body and its return back to the universe. There’s a sense of pastoral floating with Ersan evincing some delicately understated glissando adornments. The title track relates to a mythical outer planet within our solar system and additionally is inspired by a signal received in 1977 that is believed to be the first ever transmission from outer space. Whilst Ersan introduces this harmony-rich number with elegant harmonics, each member of the quartet executes a solo to represent salutations from Nibiru to Earth. Once again there’s more fluid and tasteful Holdsworthian shredding from Ersan.
The second part of the title of the final track (Anunnaki) relates to The Anunnaki, a group of deities who appeared in the mythological traditions of the ancient Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians, and Babylonians. The music here reflects the chaotic Space Jungle through which the Anunnaki supposedly travelled in their quest for an element to save their planet Nibiru. But here, as with the staccato-laden “Chapter IV: Gravitational Waves,” the group sounds more like jazz fusion pioneers Brand X, an electrifyingly dynamic beat propelling the piece along. In this taut and compositionally imaginative forty minute outing, Ersan has produced a remarkably intelligent and perfectly executed suite of exciting jazz fusion. He is undoubtedly a musician who needs to be heard more widely.
By Roger Farbey August 13, 2019 All About Jazz
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JOHN STEVENSON
AUGUST 8, 2019
Okan Ersan’s Nibiru: An elegant fusion of space and jazz themes
Pop, classical and jazz musicians have long mined a rich seam of inspiration from the constellations.
Springing readily to mind are albums like Dave Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’, Pink Floyd’s ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’, Franz Joseph Haydn’s ‘Il Mondo della Luna’, Karlheinz Stockhausen’s ‘Sirius’ and Philip Glass’ ‘Einstein on the Beach’.
Sun Ra’s ‘Space is the Place’, Curtis Counce’s ‘Exploring the Future’ and Duke Ellington’s ‘The Cosmic Scene’, also open up improvisational vistas which are pleasing to the ear.
In a year commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon mission, Cypriot jazz fusion guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, Okan Ersan, hits all the right notes and affords us the opportunity to ponder a little more deeply on mankind’s place in the universe.
With ‘Nibiru’, Okan carries us on a musical exploration of the mythical planet discovered by the ancient Sumerians, predicted to be hurtling toward a catastrophic collision with planet earth.
Over the course of Nibiru’s seven tracks, Okan and his excellent sidemen (drummer Volkan Oktem, bassist Eylem Pelit and pianist Serkan Ozyilmaz) attempt to distil the wisdom of the prescient Annunaki people, with each composition telling a different story about outer space.
Ümit İnatçı’s cover design depicts a visual arrangement of musical sounds from the depth of universe and remote past.
Lyric pictograms represent the cosmogonic reflection between the micro and macro cosmos.
The album projects a filmic feel, fuelled by jazz fusion, echoing greats like Scott Henderson, Alan Holdsworth, Jeff Beck and Frank Gambale.
‘Wow Signal’ suggests the use of morse code and the translation of a reference for the unknown signal “6EQUJ5”; Okan has produced a unique motif for the whole piece. He has also incorporated NASA recordings of space, blended with open harmonies and solid tonality.
The album’s other cuts feature Okan’s interpretation of the physical phenomena of space and our links to them. ‘As far away as possible’ tells the story of light in space and how scientists use this to calculate light years. ‘Deep Field’ is an interpretation of visuals of a small region of the constellation Ursa Major, taken from the Hubble Deep Field. ‘Gravitational Waves’ sounds like gravity recordings – and artfully plaits together jazz harmony and rock sounds.
Indeed, compared to the funk-jazz grooves on his previous albums, ‘A Reborn Journey’ and ‘To Whom It May Concern’, Nibiru carries strong jazz-rock sensibilities.
Okan gives insights into his eclectic approach:
“I believe my approach is determined by my location in the world. I am influenced by my country’s rich history from the Ottomans to the British and the Venetians – these are my roots, and as a person, I reflect all of these ancestral antecedents. Cyprus is the intersection of a number of cultures and musical genres – it demonstrates a perfect ‘fade in and fade out’ from West to East. My biggest challenge was finding the optimum meeting point for the mathematical rules of Eastern and Western music, while ensuring that neither lost their human essence, for example, in “Istanbul Without Midnight”, “Mediterranean Breeze” and “Quantimizing Myself” from my ‘A Reborn Journey album’.”
Okan has headlined at prestigious International Jazz festivals, including Leverkusener Jazztage, Penang Island Jazz Festival, Nanjing Jazz, Kansas City Jazz Festival, Carthage Jazztage, Aalener Jazz Festival, Ingolstadt Jazztage, to name a few.
He has collaborated with a range of acclaimed artists such as Dave Weckl, Ernie Watts, Billy Paul, Rex Richardson, Fazıl Say, and Joe Lynn Turner.
Okan Ersan’s Mediterranean roots and mindset have provided the impetus for a successful international career as a guitarist and composer.
With a solid thematic album like Nibiru, you could say he is now quite the jazz star.
To learn more about Okan and his oeuvre, please visit https://okanersan.com/
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POSTED IN JAZZ, REVIEWS OF NEW RELEASES
Scottish Jazz Space
31/7/19 Album review: Okan Ersan – “NIBIRU”. Self-produced.
As appeared in DooBeeDooBeeDoo – New York today, 31/7/19.
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Review: Nigel J.
JAZZ IN EUROPE
This upcoming Jazz Fusion album from Cypriot guitarist and composer Okan Ersan is 42 minutes of an uncharted perspective of the Universe. Asking the question “why are we here?”. Ersan’s artistic approach links his view that we need answers for the reason of our existence and we may gain greater insight from many of the stories written down on stone tablets in the cuneiform language of the ancient Sumerians. Amongst them, they recount as fact the existence of a futuristic race of beings called the Anunnaki who’s home planet is named Nibiru. The release date is exactly 42 years after planet Earth received the Wow Signal, read on…
On first glance, this album may seem way out for many. I’m not so sure, and to add some scientific context – NASA’s Kepler space telescope observatory on its nine-year mission, pointing towards our Milky Way discovered 2,662 exoplanets.
Okan Ersan has a reputation for being a powerful guitarist, and an imaginative composer. Using music as his chosen medium of expression, Ersan interprets their wisdom and presents it in an accessible format. Ersan aim is to challenge our comfort zones by challenging everything we believe to be true of our lives. The first track is based around the Wow Signal official called “6EQUJ5” was a narrow-band short-wave signal received by the Ohio state university’s big ear telescope on August 15, 1977. The entire sequence of received sound lasted incredibly 72 seconds and is believed to have originated from the constellation Sagittarius. Many in the science community believe it to be the first true alien transmission from space. Ersan cleverly uses Morse code in translating a reference to the unknown signal “6EQUJ5″, blending with open harmonies and strong tonality.
The second track – “As Far Away As possible” offers a musical rendition of light and how science now calculates the speed giving us the term Light Years as a measurement of distance. The third track titled – “Deep Field” is particularly interesting, named after The Hubble Deep Field (HDF) image of a small region of the Ursa Major (The Big Dipper) constellation. The visual image alone is awe-inspiring, and Okans musical interpretation is eclectic yet with a central core reminiscent of sci-fi TV shows past and present!
“Gravitational Waves” has a much more Jazz-Rock quality right from the start. Up-tempo, very insistent, with lots of synth tricks all wrapped up to express the sound that gravity as a natural force might make, perhaps as it falls to Earth! The fourth track – “Transcending” immediately after the previous track was a massive pendulum swing, and I do question its placement in the overall order of the album. Having said that, it is an enjoyable, pleasant-sounding portrayal of the notion that we energetically continue in some way within the vastness of the universe after physical death!
The title track of this album – “Nibiru”, is a beautiful collective of expression and I commend all the artist for their input and is my favourite pick. (NB: Nibiru is a term in the extinct Akkadian East Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia from the 30th century BC., translating to “crossing” or “point of transition”.)
The final track “Space Jungle” has fascinating elements including the hint of haywire embedded communications, I guess it depends on whether you speak the Anunnaki dialectic or not! The Anunnaki must find a precious metal which we call gold. It is necessary to save their planet from extinction. Discovering gold on the Earth the Anunnaki need help. Hence our primitive ancestors are genetically altered to create a labour force of gold miners! Much of this story comes via Zecharia Sitchin. He authored books proposing an explanation for human origins involving ancient astronauts. Sitchin attributed the creation of the ancient Sumerian culture to the Anunnaki.
As I said earlier, the album name and some of its subjects may at first glance seem fanciful to some? I for one appreciate that Okan Ersan asked the challenging question – “why are we here?” On his journey of a 42 minute uncharted perspective of the universe, and with the full musical expression, Okan Ersan has attempted answering that question, and much more through this self-released album…now that’s a WOW Signal!
Artiste website and purchase links: Okan Ersan
All tracks composed by Okan Ersan
Okan Ersan – Guitar, Rhodes & Synths
Serkan Ozyilmaz – Piano, Rhodes & Synths
Eylem Pelit – Bass
Volkan Oktem – Drums
Total Duration: 41:05
Photo credits: Okan Ersan, Robert Williams (NASA, ESA, STScI) – and (c) info: all rights go to original recording artist/owner/photographer(s).
YT Video: Okan Ersan
CD Review: Nigel J.