«The Extreme Cretan Music World»
Contemporary Cretan Music Festival 2021
Wednesday 3 of November 2021
21:00
Experimental Stage
Circle | Festival
In this concert Dimitris Sgouros and his collaborators will present Cretan traditional songs from Pavlos Vlastos’ recordings, which took place during the period 1860-1910 in all Crete. These songs are a part of his work, edited in 2011 under the tittle «Melodies and songs of Crete 1860-1910 from Pavlos Vlastos’ archive» and includes 51 songs in one DVD. They are all remarkable in terms of age, authenticity and representativeness, they extend our knowledge on Cretan music, at least until the middle of 19th century, they highlight the richness and plurality of the repertory and at the same time they show Cretan culture’s openness to the music dialogue with East and West.
So, this is a specimen of these songs, that will be presented, through the interpretative view of Dimirtis Sgouros and the orchestrating touch of Andreas Paragioudakis.
Art Direction: Chrisanna Karelli
Dimitris Sgouros | lyras, singing
Dimitris Sideris | lute, singing
Manolis Pagalos | lute
Yannis Papatzanis | percussion, singing
Andreas Paragioudakis | piano, wind instruments, singing
Research-interpretation-music adaptation of the songs: Dimitris Sgouros
Orchestration: Andreas Paragioudakis
Bio:
Dimitris Sgouros | lyras, singing
He was born in Kritsa of Lasithi in 1968. In 1990 he graduated from the Pedagogical Department of the University of Rethymno. When he was 13 years old, he already played almost professionally. While being a student, he started studying Byzantine music and in 1995 he took his diploma from the conservatory Nikos Skalkotas in Athens, under the teacher Vasilis Nonis. Until today four personal albums have been released, under the names: Ta Sa ek ton Son (1999), Ara kai pou (2003), Melodies and songs of Crete 1860-1910 from Pavlos Vlastos’ archive (2011) and Chorostasi (2019). He has participated playing lyra in the productions: Lakis Chalkias, 2500 years of Greek music, O Glikasmos ton aggelon, Crete from the series Greek Akrites of the Greek Music Archive, Agrimi ke koraso, P. Stefanis Nikas, When I listen to Crete, research and recording of the music and dancing tradition of Crete by the Dancing Association of Yannis and Giorgos Megalakakis, The great secret, P. Stefanis Nikas, Love has no boarders of Antonis and Michalis Fragiadakis, Xefoto of Michalis Kontaxakis and Psimithies of Dimitris Manousakis.
He teaches lyra more than ten years now at the seminars of the Music Didaskalio in Meronas of Amari and in other places. He has worked as a teacher since 1995 in several schools of Lasithi prefecture and since 2004 he is a teacher at the 1st elementary school of Agios Nikolaos.
Dimitris Sideris | lute, singing
Born in Athens, he studied classical guitar at the Attiko conservatory. After moving to Crete in 1997, he graduated from the University of Crete, Department of Sociology and got involved with the Cretan lute. Over the last 15 years he has been performing in traditional concerts, fiestas and festivals, collaborating with prominent Cretan musicians such as Dimitris Sgouros, Zacharias Spyridakis, Antonis Fragakis, Giorgos Xylouris and others. He is active in the educational field giving workshops in Greece and abroad, and currently conducting his PhD thesis on Cretan music identity at the Faculty of Philosophy & Social Studies in University of Crete. As a member of the bands Daulute and Babel trio and as a solo performer, he is developing a personal style on the Cretan lute integrating various eastern and western elements. In 2015, Dimitris designed and created a prototype musical instrument: the Electric Lute. His most recent music production, Lute Electric: Soundscape recordings of solo performance is captured on film by Before Sound Filming Reality in Lute Electric the documentary.
Mnolis Pagalos | lute
Manolis Pagalos was born in Kritsa of Lasithi in 1969. His family offered him a lot of stimuli from Cretan traditional music and poetry. His father was a famous devotee of the village (he used to accompany with his guitar and sing in fiestas and cantatas of the village) and his great-grandfather was Pagalomanolis, the biggest mantinada-creator of Kritsa. He plays the lute since he was 12 years old.
He started his music career cooperating with Dimitris Sgouros and they still work together. He has also cooperated with other Cretan artists, like Alekos Polichronakis, Yannis Vardas and many others. His playing is full, traditional and he has a perfect sense of rhythm. He is one of the few lute players who keep the elements and the timbre of eastern Crete’s music in their playing.
Yannis Papatzanis | percussion, singing
Yannis Papatzanis is supposed as one of the most important players of traditional music in all Greece, with the characteristic of skilful ability in playing traditional Cretan and eastern Aegean percussion. He has many years of cooperation with musicians from Rajasthan, Iran, Bulgaria, Turkey, Armenia, Andalusia and Azerbaijan, like with Ross Daly, Giorgos Xylouris, Vasilis Stavrakakis, Psarandonis, Zacharias Spyridakis, Dimitris Sgouros, Achilleas Persidis and Haig Yazdjian, playing percussion and singing for the last 25 years. The base of his singing repertory is Cretan music, but he also approaches music idioms from the rest of Greece. At the same time, he evolutes the technique of the Aegean traditional percussion toubaki or daoulaki and he uses percussion from other traditions, like the Persian tombak, the African udu with the technique of the Indian ghatam, frame drums from Middle East and the Spanish cajon. He has composed music for theatre, cinema, dance-theatre, documentaries and tv productions. He also has a long experience on giving seminars on rhythm and percussion in several Greek cities, like Chania, Rethymno, Heraklion, Athens and Choudetsi and abroad, like in Cyprus, Barcelona, Vien, Geneva, Milano.
Andreas Paragioudakis | piano, percussion, singing
Andreas Paragioudakis was born 1980 in Rethymno Crete/Greece. After his piano and music studies at the university Mozarteum in Salzburg he began his collaborations with various musicians in various formations, composing contemporary modal music, music for theatre and film. He is founder of the Unter der Laterne project, co-founder of STALA Quartett, the SALINGARI Ensemble, the TAMBOURLA Duett and the WOTSALA Duett. His early interest for sound gave him the chance to explore the world of classical harmony and traditional music. With the guidance of his tutors, he got access to improvising music collectives where he experimented with the sound colors of his origin as well as the application of electronic music within the frame of improvisation. His multiinstrumental skills playing the piano, the Cretan lyra, the Cretan lute, traditional flutes and accordion, have contributed in forming a musician that moves beyond borders and genres, collaborating with jazz and improvising musicians as well as traditional musicians.
He is a guest-tutor for elemental singing and spontaneous orchestral building in the Conservatory of Feldkirch, the annual music festival GLATT & VERKEHRT and the KLANGWELT TOGGENBURG. From 2018 to 2020 he launched a collective of 16 musicians from Europe and the East-Mediterranean and organized a series of 12 concerts in Austria with different formations and themes. He collaborates with writers in Switzerland and Austria, writing music for interdisciplinary and participative projects such as Voix de Resistance, Unfolding Voices and World of Tales. He has recently released two LPs with SALINGARI & WOTSALA and in January 2022 comes the debut release of the STALA Quartett.
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