With over two decades of experience in the music industry, Inal Bilsel has gained quite a notable reputation for his solo career and collaborations. A multifaceted and award-winning composer, Inal Bilsel’s work sits in the crossroads of music and visual arts, fact and fiction, nostalgia and future dystopia, and narrativity and conceptual. Taking inspiration from science-fiction, retro-futurism and particularly musical hauntology, from which his music and fictional worlds take cues. His broad spectrum of interests and output include electronic, classical, contemporary, film and experimental music.

 

With his second album, Paradise Lost (2018, Epic Istanbul), Inal established his take on electronic music, culminating his entire musical and artistic experience into a narrative concept album with a self-contained world. Moreover, the album is the basis of his PhD thesis: Creating Small Worlds. In his hometown Nicosia, Cyprus, perhaps he is best known for his exuberant audio-visual performances named under Tales From The Future, of which he performed in a wide range of festivals and venues home and abroad, including Sonar Istanbul, Salon IKSV, Fengaros Reacts, Farma Projekt, Buffer Fringe, Urban Gorillas, Electric Cicadas, Maki Fest, and many others. 

​

Trained in music composition at Royal Holloway, University of London and Eastern Mediterranean University, Inal’s portfolio of formative works include orchestral, chamber and numerous solo pieces. In 2007, he won the grand prize of Notion International Composition Competition and his piece Nilay’s Dream was performed and recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra. From that point on, his interest leaned toward electronic music, synthesizers, and computer-aided music production. His debut album A New Beginning (2009), is the first product of this venture. 

​

Inal is also known for scoring music for short films including A Mother’s Sonata and Free Fun by Fehmi Öztürk; The Hunt and Letters From Cyprus by Sholeh Jahrei and Kamil Saldun; and, The Delivery and Random attempts by Doğuş Özokutan and Vasvi Çiftçioğlu. Inal is an active participant of various jam sessions in Nicosia, named on various occasions as DeFacto Dreams, Meet The Family, Electric Journey and Strange Sounds (and sights). He frequently shares stage with Ulaş Öğüç, Naz Atun, Mete Hatay, Öktem Emre and Onur Kasapoğlu.

​

Inal has previously taught at Eastern Mediterranean University and PERA school of contemporary dance, where he gave lectures on diverse topics such as sound design, multimedia, musical form, analysis, theory, and harmony. After completing his Ph.D. degree in music composition at Royal Holloway, he was appointed to be the head of the Sound Arts and Design department at ARUCAD. Inal Bilsel is an Epic Istanbul (Sony Music Turkey) artist.