Erdem works in the medium known as electro-acoustic music, where an unadulterated acoustic instrument, in his case an Ovation Custom Legend 1869 acoustic guitar with installed pickup, is played utilizing a variety of electronic equipment. Normally processors, foot pedals, and other guitar effects are used to generate sounds to augment a guitarist's performance and left at that. For Erdem they become part of a process that modifies not only the sound of a piece, but how the piece will be played as well.

I'm not the brightest light when it comes to electronics or sound engineering, but what I understood him to be saying, and what looked like was occurring during his demonstrations of the equipment and when others were invited to plug into his set up and try for themselves, was something far more exciting then simple sound modification. (For those interested the set up used on his disc Altered Realities, which if not what he used for the workshop would have been similar in form and function, was a TC Electronic Fireworx multi effects processor, Behringer FCB1010 midi foot controller, and Audiomulch software)

As near as I could tell a series of sound palates that he had created were controlled by the software in a laptop computer. As he played, the software would react to the timbre or sound of what he was playing and begin to playback a response that would appear on his laptops monitor as well as a live audio signal. Erdem would then respond to what the computer did to his original sound, and his response would in turn generate another from the computer. This variation on the old-fashioned call and response type of performing continued until the piece reached its conclusion.

I apologize for being less specific and I feel like I've left something out of the process, but I hope you understand the general principle of what Erdem is doing. The computer doesn't create or independently generate anything – it has been programmed to respond to patterns of sounds in certain ways – and even those were composed by Erdem in accordance with the needs of individual pieces.

The result, and this is where the importance of the room's acoustic qualities came into play, was that layers and textures of sound were being produced in a continuous wave. As a listener, you were gradually immersed in a sea of sound that was as emotionally satisfying as anything you'd hear played acoustically.

Encircling the seating area with speakers enhanced the impression of being immersed in sound. At times, I would find myself turning away from watching Erdem perform to turn into the music. Although it didn't change what I heard, it heightened the sensation that I was being drawn into the world created by the music. Given the momentary disassociation that everybody else seemed to experience at a piece's conclusion, I wasn't unique in that reaction.