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Pat Metheny once asked Aydin Esen: “How did you get so good?”
Legendary French critic André Hodeir (author of the path breaking book on new music, Since Debussy), points to a mastery in Esen’s musical cosmos which “completely upturns the formal logica,” describing “unexpected aural experiences which at times fade out mysteriously towards the limit of audibility."

Such observations address two powerful rivers of Aydin Esen’s musical life—a profound sensitivity to jazz forms and improvisation and a devotion to contemporary composition of the most extreme and sophisticated nature.

Aydin Esen was born in Istanbul, Turkey. He started playing piano at age 2, beginning an intensive study of music at the Istanbul Conservatory of Music during the 1960's.

Surrounded by diverse sounds from earliest childhood, Aydin took his first lessons from his father, an accomplished trumpet player. He also played in his father's band when he was very young. Esen quickly began incorporating classical, contemporary and mainstream music into an inclusive framework before his formal studies began. After finishing the conservatory in 1980 with the First Prize in piano and composition, he was invited to Oslo for further studies in piano, composition and conducting at the Norwegian State Academy of Music.

In 1983 he received an invitation from Berklee College of Music and traveled to the USA. Aydin finished Berklee in one year, instead of the standard four years, and was awarded a special Artist's Diploma for his achievements in modern music and jazz. He also attended the New England Conservatory of Music and completed his Master's Degree.

Since the mid 1980's Esen has performed, recorded and toured with musicians such as Miroslav Vitous, Woody Shaw, Can Kozlu, Randy K., Vinnie Colaiuta, Pat Metheny, Roy Haynes, Anthony Jackson, Steve Smith, Baron Browne, Kai Eckhardt, Peter Herbert, Dave Liebman, Peter Erskine, Tiger Okoshi, Gary Burton, Daniel Humair, George Garzone, Mino Cinelu, Michel Portal, Trilok Gurtu, Gary Husband, Jonas Hellborg, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Octurn and countless others from the world contemporary music scene.

Esen has received numerous awards in composition, piano and electronic music and in 1989 won the First Prize at the International Piano Competition in Paris, one of his most treasured and important honors. He has since served on the jury for the 1998 Paris competition.

While internationally recognized as an improvising artist of the highest rank and jazz keyboardist of unrivalled gifts, Esen has simultaneously pursued work on an astonishing array of written compositions. A new label—extinction—has just released two recordings featuring Aydin’s extravagantly diverse music for large and small ensemble, piano, voice and live electronics. Light Years and Extinction present a hidden side of one of the most incredible minds in contemporary music.