Biography

Since his birth Atman has been exposed to music as there were many Gypsy musicians in his neighbourhood. He always enjoyed sound of drums, especially sound of “Davul”. Once he started to have music lessons in the school, he was confused by music theory and challenged by conceptual barriers of traditional music education. At the age of 16 he realised he has a thirsty desire for playing drums and decided to learn drum-kit in near future. In that time he needed to postpone this dream due to some financial circumstances, but he was virtually playing drums while listening to music by making beats with his limbs. At the age of 20, he finally started his musical journey by grabbing a guitar. After a year, he realised his burning desire for drums. As it was inconvenient to buy a drum-kit and learn it from the scratch, he bought a percussion instrument called “Darbuka”, which was very well-known in Turkey and played mainly by Gypsy musicians. Before he started to learn Darbuka, he was biased by the instrument. He thought of Darbuka as an instrument for Bellydance played by Gypsies. However, when he came across Master Misirli Ahmet, his whole idea about Darbuka has changed. Since then it has become a love affair and a spiritual journey for him.

He started learning Darbuka like many other beginners by Youtube videos. After a few years of struggle, he got his first teacher in Istanbul. He learned main basic techniques of Darbuka from his first teacher. Till he met Master Misirli Ahmet in person, Atman has mainly focused on main basic techniques of Darbuka for 8 years. At the end he realised the stagnation in his music journey. Once he met the master, he understood that he is still a beginner in terms of rhythm and music. That meeting was a turning point in his music life. Since that meeting he has started to focus on rhythmical elements of percussion such as timing. He realised how important is musicality of rhythm and it is far more important than mastering the technique. Therefore, he contemplated upon unveiling secrets of rhythm and focused on digesting timing very well. After a few years of dedication and investigation, he came out with the “Rhythmical System” he refers to. He is sharing the system with whole world now.

Indian Music and especially Karnatic Music helped Atman a lot to dive deeper in rhythm. He has been inspired by Zakir Hussain beside his master Misirli Ahmet. Since he has been listening to Indian music and learning Karnatic Music, his music journey has deepened a lot. He also switched from classical metronome to Indian metronome that is called Lehra. It wouldn’t be wrong to say Atman is heavily inspired by Indian music and got significant benefits from this inspiration.

Beside Darbuka, Atman also plays Frame Drums (Bendir), Didgeridoo, Bass Guitar and Jaw Harp. He has a genuine interest in spiritual aspects of Didgeridoo and has a deep respect towards Aboriginal culture. He loves to connect diverse cultures and music genres in his music. He connects Middle Eastern Drums to Aboriginal Didgeridoo, Western Music (Blues and Funk) to Indian Rhythms. He calls himself “World Fusion Musician” and sees his music as a bridge between different cultures and genres.

Behind Atman’s music there is a heavily spiritual intention to use his music for healing, well-being and connection. His intention is sharing mysteries of the Universe in his music and articulate what can’t be delivered in language in his music. For him, music is a great way to unveil secrets of the Universe.

Having an engineering degree gave Atman the opportunity to realise how much high intelligence is needed to go deeper in rhythm. He claims that rhythm requires higher intelligence than engineering as it has multidimensional intelligence such as timing, syncopations, groupings, polyrhythms and synchronisation with other musicians at the same time.

Apart from being a wanderer in musical world, Atman has traveled over 30 countries in 4 countries and lived in 8 countries. He has a Gypsy soul that makes him to explore the whole world. According to him, life is an opportunity to explore, to discover and to create. At the same time, he doesn’t take life seriously and enjoys all aspects of it with the curiosity of a child.