Kaan Altan

Kaan Altan — Biography

Kaan Altan is a Turkish musician and guitarist born in Germany. After completing secondary school at Tarsus American College, he was admitted to the Architecture Department at Mimar Sinan University; a year later he transferred, via a special aptitude exam, into the same university's Industrial Design program, finishing second in the entrance ranking, and later passed another exam to enter and complete the Design Department of the Berlin University of the Arts.

His music career began in high school with a band he formed with friends, initially known as ECHO'83 before being renamed Mavi Sakal in 1984. The songs "Çektir Git" and "Şaşkın," from the band's 1992 and 1993 albums of the same names, climbed the Turkish charts, and the group's growing profile was boosted by opening for Status Quo at Wembley Arena in London in 1997. Mavi Sakal broke up and reformed several times over the years before returning in 2015, after an eight-year hiatus, with the album "Naklen."

Altan played electric guitar in the band and was also known for his songwriting and lyrics. He went on to found the group Karapaks and has also performed as a guitarist with the band Kesmeşeker.