Erol Alkan

Erol Alkan is not susceptible to clichés, but amid a life devoted to alternative and electronic music culture, one just might be true; he is an artist who needs no introduction. Alkan's creative life as a DJ, producer, label owner, radio host, and collaborator has spanned decades. His exhaustive history reads almost like mythology; the shy boy who snuck out of his bedroom window to play indie records to ruthlessly unforgiving crowds, and ended up transforming the London club scene, bridging disparate scenes with experimentation and abandon.

Decades later, everything and nothing has changed. Whether in the DJ booth, in the studio, or on the radio, Alkan continues to rely on a unique alchemy driven by instinct and the pure, infectious love and knowledge of music he has carried since his childhood. Phantasy, the label he founded in 2007, stands as a forward-thinking beacon, representing the values of his legendary club Trash, which ran every Monday in London for a decade, which Alkan shuttered at the peak of its popularity and cultural cache.

Despite ubiquity as a remixer and collaborator, solo Alkan singles have appeared infrequently but to great acclaim.

The past few years have seen Alkan focus on 'To The Rhythm', a series of dates across Europe and North America, each of which create the ideal environment to explore the far-reaches of his record collection as well as controlling the lighting from the DJ booth as he soundtracks the room. Each facet of Alkan's taste and history is accounted for, spanning acid-drenched rave, frenetic house and the spirit of alternative pop and guitar music, as imaginatively curated on his much-loved “Bugged In” mixes.

Elsewhere, alongside his focus on all-night sets, Alkan continues to take a similarly wide-ranging musical approach on a number of festival lineups. Recent appearances have included Field Day, Lost Village, Glastonbury, Homobloc and Boomtown, headline sets at Sonar in both Barcelona and Istanbul, and appearances at clubs such as fabric, Sub Club, Nitsa, The White Hotel and Le Sucre, and played back-to-back with DJs including Solomon, at his Ibiza ‘+1’ residency.

Alkan's interest in studio productions and collaboration has always sat comfortably alongside his reputation as one of the most diverse DJs in club music. Recent years have seen Alkan affirm his production nous, working alongside shoegaze legends Ride and international pop icons Duran Duran. Released in 2021, “Future Past”’ was the band’s landmark fifteenth album and was largely produced by Alkan alongside Mark Ronson and Giorgio Moroder.

Given his lifelong endeavor to channel music and creativity from past and present eras, it's little surprise that Alkan has also enjoyed a fruitful and ongoing spell as a radio DJ, having broadcast on BBC 6Music for over a decade.