Başak Günak

At EMS 8-11 October 2025

Photo by Arda Funda

Başak Günak is a sound artist and composer, internationally known as AH! KOSMOS in the field of electronic music. Her work includes sound art, performance, sound installation, composition for theater & contemporary dance. 

She released three solo LPs from Subtext, Compost Records & Denovali Records, two collaborative LPs with and numerous EPs. Her album ‘Beautiful Swamp’ listed as Best Albums of 2018 by Deutschlandfunk Kultur and ‘Bluets’ was selected by Byte.FM as Best Albums of 2022. Both timeless and otherworldly, Günak’s work unconsciously defies being tied to a genre, tapping into something beyond an immediate surrounding or experience to communicate something more transcendental. Günak uses test equipment, acoustic instruments and found sounds to build a sonic realm. 

In addition to her musical compositions with AH! KOSMOS, Günak pursues her sound experimentations as a sound artist, composing soundscapes for theatre, contemporary dance, film and visual art projects, and realising site-specific performances. Her works have been featured worldwide in several festivals and institutions, such as Barbican Theatre (UK), Martin-Gropius Bau(DE), Royal Theater Carré (NL), Sonar Festival (SP), Berlin CTM Festival (DE), Rotterdamse Schouwburg (NL) and Prague Quadrennial (CZ). In 2020, she presented her latest solo sound installation THE WELL, a piece for 11 speakers and performance in VKV Museum Istanbul. She has done composition for Martin-Gropius Bau, Berlin State Museums, Kunstmuseum Basel, Your Data Mirror which was awarded for 2 Webby Awards in Activism. 

She has been invited to artist residencies at Callie’s Berlin, INA GRM Paris, Elektronmusikstudion Stockholm, Bijloke Academy, and HELLERAU – European Center for the Arts. Most recently, she was invited by the Dutch National Opera and commissioned a sound installation by Sharjah Biennial 16.