A Platform for Ethnically and Culturally Inspired Music
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ABOUT
Like Odysseus' journey returning to Ithaca from Troy, it's taken Ahetas and Dubulah 10 years to make this album.
If Aphex Twin made an album with Post Traditional Greek musicians and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds... it might sound like this. XAOS is based around Ahetas, a Greek microtonal electronic music composer, who has worked with and using the names S40, Apeiron, and Project Dark, and Dubulah (who has a Greek mother) & is known for his work with Dub Colossus, Syriana, TGU, and Natacha Atlas, among others. The music is a hybrid of Greek folk, traditional and classical music instruments, and music from the last 4 thousand years with modern computer keyboards (using a 43 note to the octave microtonal scales developed by Ahetas and utilized as monophony and huge tone clusters... ancient ideas via the technology of the present day). Familiar yet subtly different, tuneful yet puzzling, ancient to modern, from northern Greece to the south of Crete... from the Black Sea (Pontos) to Thrakis; Epirus to the Peloponnese. Delicate and mystical Nays and Flutes, fretless Guitars and Kanonaki, Double Bass played in a unique style, (unlike anything I have ever heard, playing high harmonics in the style of Byzantine singing, quarter tones and all...) Clarino (Greek Clarinet), Gaida (bagpipes) to haunt you, Vocals and Lyra from medieval Pontos, Zournas, microtonal keyboards and detuned dobro and monochord guitars, traditional and modern percussion. It's an album that shows a very different side of Greece to that normally heard. A musical culture and history so often represented as bouzoukis, plate smashing, and Benny Hill playing Nana Mouskouri under an orange tree... no laika, recycled rebetiko or Grecopop... There is so much more to offer, and so much talent without outlet or appreciation from this crisis-struck country where a fight for survival against insane and counterproductive austerity measures now takes precedence over any cultural expression or art... There was little enough support of homegrown talent pre-crisis, now there is almost none. MUSICIANS AND INSTRUMENTS Ahetas - Arp 2600, Microtonal and other Keyboards, programming Nick Page aka Dubulah - Acoustic & Electric Guitars, keyboards, programming Giorgios Kalaitzoglou - Double Bass Matthios Tsahourides - Pontic Lyra Konstantinos Tsahourides - Pontic vocal Kalia Baklitzanaki - Ney Flutes and vocal Vasilis Sarikis - Drumkit + Daouli + Frame drums + Greek Perc Giorgios Makris - Gaida (Greek pipes) + Flogera Adonis Apergis - Kanonaki, Greek Fretless Guitar, Bul Bul double flute. Manos Achalinotopoulos - Clarino and Zournas
If Aphex Twin made an album with Post Traditional Greek musicians and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds... it might sound like this. XAOS is based around Ahetas, a Greek microtonal electronic music composer, who has worked with and using the names S40, Apeiron, and Project Dark, and Dubulah (who has a Greek mother) & is known for his work with Dub Colossus, Syriana, TGU, and Natacha Atlas, among others. The music is a hybrid of Greek folk, traditional and classical music instruments, and music from the last 4 thousand years with modern computer keyboards (using a 43 note to the octave microtonal scales developed by Ahetas and utilized as monophony and huge tone clusters... ancient ideas via the technology of the present day). Familiar yet subtly different, tuneful yet puzzling, ancient to modern, from northern Greece to the south of Crete... from the Black Sea (Pontos) to Thrakis; Epirus to the Peloponnese. Delicate and mystical Nays and Flutes, fretless Guitars and Kanonaki, Double Bass played in a unique style, (unlike anything I have ever heard, playing high harmonics in the style of Byzantine singing, quarter tones and all...) Clarino (Greek Clarinet), Gaida (bagpipes) to haunt you, Vocals and Lyra from medieval Pontos, Zournas, microtonal keyboards and detuned dobro and monochord guitars, traditional and modern percussion. It's an album that shows a very different side of Greece to that normally heard. A musical culture and history so often represented as bouzoukis, plate smashing, and Benny Hill playing Nana Mouskouri under an orange tree... no laika, recycled rebetiko or Grecopop... There is so much more to offer, and so much talent without outlet or appreciation from this crisis-struck country where a fight for survival against insane and counterproductive austerity measures now takes precedence over any cultural expression or art... There was little enough support of homegrown talent pre-crisis, now there is almost none. MUSICIANS AND INSTRUMENTS Ahetas - Arp 2600, Microtonal and other Keyboards, programming Nick Page aka Dubulah - Acoustic & Electric Guitars, keyboards, programming Giorgios Kalaitzoglou - Double Bass Matthios Tsahourides - Pontic Lyra Konstantinos Tsahourides - Pontic vocal Kalia Baklitzanaki - Ney Flutes and vocal Vasilis Sarikis - Drumkit + Daouli + Frame drums + Greek Perc Giorgios Makris - Gaida (Greek pipes) + Flogera Adonis Apergis - Kanonaki, Greek Fretless Guitar, Bul Bul double flute. Manos Achalinotopoulos - Clarino and Zournas
