«The Extreme Cretan Music World»
Contemporary Cretan Music Festival 2021
Thursday 4 of November 2021
21:00
Experimental Stage
Circle | Festival
The virtuoso of Cretan mandolin, Michalis Kontaxakis, presents a music program based on mandolin, inspired by the sounds of Crete and of the world. He presents mandolin’s sound through its participation in two special duets he has in the island of Crete. In the duet Thines he creates an honest improvised music dialogue with the percussionist Charis Bakas and in the duet Mandoloop Antonis Voumvoulakis, the guitarist, creates soundscapes, using loops, into which the sound of mandolin travels. The concert program includes repertory from the music tradition of Crete, adapted or not, and Michalis Kontaxakis’ compositions.
Mandolin, an instrument that is rarely the protagonist in the Greek music scene and discography, travels us through original sounds and simple instrumental combinations. Michalis Kontaxakis studies and searches the mandolin, as an instrument joined in the experiential Cretan music and as a medium to express his own music. His role in the evolution and widening of the Cretan playing of mandolin is very important, always with respect to the traditional style that is already developed in Crete. He opens new horizons and perspectives for this instrument, inserting new techniques and expressional elements.
Art Direction: Chrisanna Karelli
Michalis Kontaxakis | mandolin
Charis Bakas | percussion
Antonis Voumvoulakis | guitar
Bio:
Michalis Kontaxakis | mandolin
Michalis Kontaxakis was born in 1984 in Heraklion, Crete, where he still lives. He is supposed as one of the most important virtuosos of the mandolin in the island. He has introduced new styles and expressive elements and has a very important role on widening the ways of playing the mandolin. One interesting idea that he introduced to his discography is the use of microtonal mandolin, to approach the music intervals of Cretan folk music and not only. He has released three personal albums, in which the sound is inspired by the Cretan landscapes and those of the world. He has experienced the Cretan music traditionthrough cooperations with important folk musicians in Crete, like Vasilis Skoulas, Michalis Alefantinos, Dimitris Sgouros, Michalis Stavrakakis and Stelios Petrakis. He respects the Cretan music the already existing styles, although nowadays he presents his own sound through original music ensembles that he has with his co-operators in Crete and in Athens. He has presented his work in important places like the Alternative Scene of the National Opera and he has taken part in the concerts of the Iranian oud player Naseer Shamma in Oman and Tunisia.
Charis Bakas | percussion
He was born in Heraklion, Crete in 1984. In 2007 he graduated from the Sociology Department of the University of Crete. At the same time, he started studying drum set with Vaggelis Tsagarakis. He specialised his technique in the Iranian and the Greek music tradition through a great number of seminars at the Music Laboratory Labyrinth, with teachers like Pedram Khavarzamini, Zohar Fresco, Vaggelis Karipis and Yannis Papatzanis.
He has cooperated with a great number of artists, like Giorgis Xylouris (Psarogiorgis), Ross Daly, Yannis Aggelakas, Dimitris Sideris and Stelios Petrakis. He is a member and co-creator of the music duet Thines with Michalis Kontaxakis and they have released their first album under the same name. Through his cooperation with Giorgis Psarakis, Charis Panagiotakis in the group Aginares, as well as with Antonis and Nikos Xylouris, he enriches the Cretan folk music with percussion from different music traditions. He has participated in album recordings of Antonis and Nikos Xylouris and of the composer and oud player Kyriakos Eleftheriadis. Since 2018, he works as a lecturer in teaching the art of percussion and the use of rhythm as a tool in educational procedure, under the project The Art of Rhythm in Education, that is implemented by the Literature and Philosophy Department in the laboratory of Theatre-Music-Cinema, in cooperation with the Psychology and Special Education laboratory in the Pedagogical Department of the University of Crete.
Antonis Voumvoulakis | guitar
He was born and grew up in Heraklion. In the age of 8 he started piano lessons in the conservatory of the Municipality of Heraklion with Leonidas Peponakis and in the age of 10 he was already a member of the youth philharmonic band of the Municipality of Heraklion, playing trumpet. In the Music School of Heraklion, he met the guitar. He also took piano lessons by Lily Daka and trumpet leesons by Deni Skandalaki. He participated in several music ensembles of the school and travelled with them in Greece and abroad, gaining good reviews and prizes. He studied in the Music Studies Department of the Ionian University, specialized in composing music for the cinema with Dimitra Tripani, while he was cooperating with the director Stelios Alexandrakis, composing music for short films and advertisement spots, for which he gained prizes in several contests abroad. In the age of 20 he met jazz music, taking jazz guitar lessons with Vasilis Rakopoulos and Gregoris Danis, jazz piano lessons with Dimitris Kalatzis, jazz harmony and rhythm lessons with George Kontrafouris and Alexandros Drakos Ktistakis. He has attended seminars with Jonathan Kreisberg, Ergan Ogur, Sami Amiri, Panagiotis Andreou, Kostas Anastasiadis, Petros Kourtis and others.
He cooperates with Michalis Kontaxakis in the duet Mandoloop and with Iris-Vasiliki Tsigara in the group Loopia, using looping. Until today he has cooperated with famous musicians like Panagiotis Andreou, Alexandros Drakos Ktistakis, Marina Dkanali, Kyriakos Tapakis and others.
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