World Music Performance | with Labri Giotto and George Tsimbouksis

Date: Thursday 12 January 2012
Time: 21.30
Duration: 60’
Ticket: 10€
Labrini Gioti (Labri Giotto): piano, voice
George Tsimbouksis: three- chord bouzouki, voice

World music from Ireland, Scotland, medieval Catalonia (Spain), Iceland, USA, Afghanistan, medieval Italy and Greece. Countries with a great musical heritage, where the harmonies are linked through scales/modes as well as the themes of the songs.

Labri Giotto -aka Labrini Gioti- met George Tsimbouksis through the musical tradition of Rebetika; two musicians with deep perception in the anthropology of music.
Labri Giotto, an ethnomusicologist with specialty in the Irish music and the Celtic tradition in general, but also in music from Afghanistan, was trained under the guidance of world wide known artists like, Iarla O Lionaird (Afro Celt Sound System), Micheal O Suilleabhain, Noirin Ni Riain, Ross Daly, Bobby Mc Ferrin, Mamak Khadem, John Bailey and Veronica Doubleday.

George Tsimbouksis studies the Greek bouzouki since the age of 20, having been raised with traditional, popular and rebetika music. Under the guidance of his teacher Spyros Goumas, a great virtuoso player, he studied the modes and the musical traditions of the Eastern Mediterranean region.
Just a year ago, they both decided to connect the sound of the bouzouki and the piano, as well as their music backgrounds; Ireland and Scotland on the one hand with the Celtic tradition and Afghanistan with Greece from the other.
Through their musical journeys and studies discovered that other countries are also connected anthropologically and music wise, like the medieval music from Catalonia (Spain) and that from the medieval Italy which is similar to Greek traditional music; the music from the land of Saami which is similar to Epirus music, but also resembling the Irish one because of the use of the pentatonic scales.
Labri Giotto thinks that the piano, which is purely a European instrument, can have a more traditional sound, something like the “sound of a dulcimer”, by using specific technique and arrangements to perform this kind of music. Besides, it is not the first time that piano meets the bouzouki either in the Greek or in the Irish tradition.
Vassilis Tsitsanis had used piano long before at his musical performances and recordings, along with the bouzouki; but also in the Irish music the bouzouki with a different shape from the Greek one, is used along with the piano since the beginnings of the 20th century.
The performance is an innovation of the two musicians; just by using the specific repertoire and the combination of the two instruments. An innovation definitely not seen or heard at the Greek musical scene.
Most of the songs performed, are orchestrations by them, some inspired by artists like Jordi Savall and Mari Boine Persen among others; the voices play also an important role by travelling us to all these countries through the accent, the style, the technique and the themes of each song.


www.soundcloud.com/labri-giotto
www.youtube.com/labrigiotto
www.myspace.com/giorgostsimpouksis