şevket akıncı is a guitarist, composer and an improviser. throughout his musical career he participated in diverse projects varying from jazz to avantgarde, from punk to turkish classical music.
after graduating from berklee college of music, he published his first album in 1996. this album is a collection of folk compositions. and to this day it still has a cult status. then he went on a totally different direction and led his jazz-rock group “lifeline” which performed his own compositions for five years. this group published two albums. and then in 2005 he co-founded the audio-visual project “mugwump” with korhan erel.
the same year, he became a member of what would be the longest-standing free improvisation group in turkey: “islak köpek”.
last year, he released a free jazz album called “century”. he’s also a founding member of “mutant”, a 7-guitar group which plays compositions of its members. his album which he recorded with the famous guitarist eugene chadbourne and other leading turkish musicians from the free scene in istanbul, “dead country” is released from konnex records in june 2010.
among artists that he’s played or recorded with we can name le-quan ninh, luc ex, mark o’leary, eugene chadbourne, richard nunns, kirstie simson, christian asplund, sussan deyhim, richard horowitz, ilia belorukov. he has been a radio host since 2006 in a radio program on free jazz and free improvisation. he also composes for films, dance and theater and is a published poet.