Kargo

Kargo is a successful rock band from Istanbul, Turkey. Its current line-up includes Selim Ozturk on electric guitar, Koray Candemir on lead vocals, Burak KarataS on drums and Serkan Celiköz on keyboards.

History

Kargo Efes Dark Cover

The band was formed in the early years of the 1990s by Selim Öztürk and Mehmet Şenol Şişli (bass guitar). The first line-up soon broke up and the two founders had to find new members. First it was Serkan Çeliköz (guitar, violin, keyboards, contrabass) who joined the band and then Burak Karataş became their drummer. In a local bar they discovered Koray Candemir, whose voice made a great impression on the band. With Koray joining them, they began working on their second album, Yarına Ne Kaldı (What Is Left For Tomorrow), released in 1996. The album was able to break into the pop-dominated Turkish Music market and Kargo started to climb up the charts and become the first successful rock band in the history of Turkish rock music.

After four successful albums Kargo decided to have a break and released a "Best of" album in 2001. That year Koray Candemir released his debut solo album Sade, while Selim and Serkan worked with other Turkish artists. Due to personal reasons Mehmet Şenol Şişli, the writer of most of the songs, left the band in 2001 and after the break, in 2004, Kargo returned with an album recorded without Şişli, entitled Ateş ve Su (Fire and Water).

In 2005 the they released Yıldızların Altında (Under the Stars) containing cover songs of other artists, as well as remixes of older Kargo songs. The first single, which the album was named after, became a smash hit both on radio and television.