diVERSIONS music festival 2012

24, 25 & 26 MAY

Mythopolis Music Scene
277 City Road, Angel, Islington EC1V 1LA, London


A 3-day music spectacle featuring
the brilliant, the naughty and the explosive of the Greek international music scene

 

Ekon Arts and Anasa Productions have collaborated to produce diVERSIONS, a brand new festival of contemporary music that adds a bit of spike and chaos to London's music scene. It aims to bring together some of the most innovative and prominent art practitioners emerging from the Greek and international world today, presenting a wide spectrum of musical styles and 21st century audio-visual productions that often blend experimental sounds with current technologies and performance. We want to present a new generation of music-makers, to showcase the vitality and diversity of the music they create. We want diVERSIONS to attract anyone with an interest in the musical zeitgeist.

diVERSIONS 2012 is a 3-day music spectacle featuring the brilliant, the naughty, and the wild of the Greek international music scene. An explosion of sound and image from an extraordinary array of established as well as new musicians, performers and multi-media artists, featuring an eclectic mix of electro/acoustic performances, audio experiences and visual elements.

Join us on an incredible journey through the experimental ambient and drone sounds of exceptional Spyweirdos to the electrifying, upbeat punk-funk of Berlin Brides and the orchestrated punk chaos of YIANNEIS’ indie rock and trip hop; from the so-feminine harp of Maria Yerosimou to the distinctive melodies of Vassilikos; and from the boot stompin’ juzz and blues of Ta Mère to the swinging grooves of Blue Soup and the dazzling eruptions of drum mastery by Asaf Sirkis Trio.

Oh yes, fun it is!

Ticket prices:
£8 advance booking / £10 on the door
£20 three-day Festival Pass

Ticket Bookings

Ioanna +44 (0)7742078767
Stephanos +44 (0)7909890634

Visit our blog: http://diversionsmusicfestival.wordpress.com

YOU CAN HELP!

EKON Festival is a non-profit cultural organisation and we rely on the generous support of our friends, patrons and donors, helping us to support emerging creativity and provide a platform for artistic engagement.

EKON Festival friends and patrons are a highly valued group of individuals who share the same enthusiasm and passion for contemporary art.

If you wish to make a donation or would like to know how you can benefit by supporting EKON Festival, please contact Maria Thanassa, Artistic Director:

maria.thanassa(_AT_)ekon.org.u?subject=Donate%20and%20Support
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EKON Festival is also looking for associates and volunteers.

Festival Associates

Do you want to…
…join a one of its kind and fast-growing festival?
…make a difference to Ekon?
…share your knowledge and experience?
…have an enjoyable time working with us?
We are looking for people with skills and experience in PR, arts management and fundraising to raise our profile and support our activities.

Festival Volunteers

Would you like to help during the Festival heat?
You could…
…be a steward
…liaise with artists
…help with local publicity
…support the organising team on the busiest days of the Festival!

An excellent opportunity for students or anyone interested to be part of an exciting team, learn through enjoyment, meet people from various cultural fields and make friends.

If you are interested in working with us in any of these areas or would like to get involved, please send a covering letter, together with an updated CV and a reference, to Maria Thanassa at:

Ekon is committed to equality and diversity in its work and ensures that quality permeates all its activities and programming.

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About EKON

 

EKON is dedicated to exploring new artistic possibilities in the fields of contemporary sound and performing arts in ways that combine live art with current technologies. Its aim is to propose different contexts for interpreting and engaging with art through the lens of contemporary Greek culture, while at the same time maintaining an international character, attracting creators and performers from diverse backgrounds.

EKON was set up in 2008 and seeks to present to London audiences works by artists and art groups that share a passion for new, experimental and alternative art practices. It offers both emerging and established artists an opportunity to innovate, experiment and exchange ideas.

The EKON promotes collaborative artistic and educational projects, joint productions or interactive works that bring together Greek and foreign artists, community art groups and cultural institutes.

Our website is under construction and we are getting a new look.

In the meantime, you can reach us at +44 (0)7920 128 643 (weekdays 12-4pm).

You can also contact us by email at:

info(_AT_)ekon.org.uk?subject=EKON%20Info.


You can write to us to: Ekon Festival, 86 Bramfield Road, Battersea, London SW11 6PY

For enquiries about volunteering posts or ways to support our work, please contact
Maria Thanassa, Artistic Director:

We are looking forward to hearing from you.

 


 

Sponsoring & Partnership

EKON is looking for sponsoring and partnership for its future projects. If you are interested and would like to get involved or want to support EKON, please contact:
 
Maria Thanassa, Artistic Director:
 
Some of our partners and supporters: 
 
Supporters: Westminster Arts; Press Office of the Greek Embassy, London; Cyprus High Commission, London; Greek National Tourist Office, London; Hellenic Centre; National Bank of Greece SA, London Branch
 
Sponsors: Cyprus Airways
 
Media Partners: ANT1 Europe; LGR London Greek Radio; INTRONtv
 
Artistic Partners: T-Mobile Big Dance, Art Syndicate; Out of the Box Intermedia; POLYGLOTTA; Akouson Classical

Please note on the form below: Fields marked with an asterix (*) are mandatory

 

Name:*

E-mail:*

Tel. Number:

Enquiries:

Write to
Ekon Festival
86 Bramfield Road
Battersea
London SW11 6PY
 
Telephone: +44 (0)7920 128 643
Weekdays 12 - 4pm
For other hours please text

Email
General enquiries:

info(_AT_)ekon.org.uk

Submissions:

Whom to contact

maria.thanassa(_AT_)ekon.org.uk
– Artistic Director
– Development Coordinator

 


Thursday 24 May

Venue: Mythopolis, London
Doors 7:30pm


Spyweirdos
Blue Soup
Ta Mèr

 

 

Spyweirdos

Spyweirdos (aka Spyros Polychronopoulos) is an exceptional Athens-based musician/composer in experimental, electroacoustic, glitch, ambient, and drone music. He has been involved in various projects for sound design, mastering and engineering, exploring new ways of artistic expression and new technologies of music composition and digital sound. He participated in the Greek delegation at the Venice Biennale in 2008. He has given live performances both all over Greece and abroad and has collaborated with an impressive list of artists that includes Alva Noto, Funckarma and Murcof. Having released 6 personal albums, his work has reached new heights bringing a refreshing newness to the sounds and creating sequences you never heard before.

For his latest album, ‘Feeling of Movement’, all the instruments heard (piano, guitar, drums, double bass, cello, clarinet, bass clarinet and electric bass) were recorded in different rooms or studios. The main idea was to achieve a strange ‘feeling of movement’ in space and time by listening to this outright transition from one room to another.

‘Spyweirdos alternates minimalistic sketches with grand, orthodox compositions. The end result is a lush, rich tapestry of excellent tracks’ – Pennyblackmusic

‘No question humanity meets electronic computer devices and strings meet transistors’ – Cuemix Magazine

www.spyweirdos.com
www.myspace.com/spyweirdos

 

 


 

Ta Mère

The Ta Mère experience – a boot stompin', hard-driving descent into the dark depths of sophistication and visceral class; a heavy swung gleeful celebration exploding onstage in raiment of yore and fore. This malevolent circus draws from a plethora of musical strains – jazz, blues, rock, funk, 'grass – but the presence of a powerful 2 guitar line-up, a dangerously handsome drummer, devilish 6-string bassist supporting the mad bagpiper, fiddler, harp and raw, rasp vocalist renders it unique unto itself.

Christos Chatzispyrou – guitars
Nixon Rosembert – six-string bass
Sean MacGloin – vocals, violin, harmonica, bagpipes
John McCarthy – drums, vocals
Paul Sirett – guitars

www.tamere.co.uk
www.myspace.com/tamerelondon

 

 


 

Blue Soup

One of London's finest and most unique quartets, nominated for Grammy 2012 for their second album 'Attention', Blue Soup have a fresh and friendly new sound – upbeat odd-time swinging grooves, soulful jazzy songwriting, cheerfully downbeat lyrics, Latin, Balkan and Eastern influences.

Blue Soup started life when songwriters Graham and Mike recruited Greek Jazz drummer Kostas with a view to creating a band with a uniquely new jazzy sound. The band has established an excellent live reputation with their musicianship and their energetic and entertaining performances.

Toby Nowell – trumpet, bass sax, clarinet
Kostas Bechlos – drums
Graham Silcock – guitar, vocals
Mike Seal – double bass, compositions

‘Blue Soup combines elements of jazz, Latin, Balkan, pop and rock, creating a fresh and friendly new sound’

‘Kostas Bechlos, a Greek jazz drummer with a truly sensitive feel and a deftness and intricacy of touch’

www.bluesoup.net
www.myspace.com/bluesoupband

 

 

 


Friday 25 May

Venue: Mythopolis, London
Doors 7:30pm


Berlin Brides
Vassilikos
Maria Yerosimou

 

 

Berlin Brides

Berlin Brides are no strangers to London. This amazingly hot Athens-based duo, comprising singer/lyricist Natasha Giannaraki and synth player/composer Marilena Orfanou, play an explosive mix of electro, punk and power pop. Conceived in Berlin and formed in Greece, the band are reinventing the music scene with their caustic lyrics and electrifying live performances. They performed in the UK for the first time in 2009 in Buffalo Bar, London, as winners of the Velvet Magazine Prize 2009. It was awarded to them by Artrocker Magazine, which labelled their EP 'Failure to Wank' one of the two best releases of 2008.

The band have toured extensively not only in Greece but also in Germany, North America and Canada, playing alongside CocoRosie, Kap Bambino, Subways, Klaxons and at some of the best-known festivals, winning both fans and critical acclaim.

If you haven’t checked them out, you really should!

‘One part Yeah Yeah Yeahs, two parts Long Blondes and a truckfull of mid-90s europop, their glossy veneer is shattered by songs about failed celibacy and unsuccessful wanking’ – Audioscribbler, UK

‘Upbeat electronic punk-funk that has everyone dancing along in no time. Tremendous, smutty fun’ – Call of the Wyld, UK

www.berlinbrides.com
www.myspace.com/berlinbrides
www.youtube.com/user/berlinbrides

 


 

 

Vassilikos

Vassilikos is one of the most talented Greek artists of his generation, with influences from the European music scene. Having released 6 albums with his band Raining Pleasure, of which he was the composer, singer, bassist/guitarist and lyricist, Vassilikos is credited with some of the biggest hits over the last 20 years in Greece. With his band they have toured not only Greece but also Germany, Turkey and Romania with great success. They have also played several European Festivals such as Rock n’ Coke and Hurricane and have shared the stage with bands and artists such as Pixies, The Cure, Pearl Jam, Arcade Fire and many more. Apart from his successful course with Raining Pleasure, Vassilikos has collaborated with several important musicians to include Lena Platonos, Eleftheria Arvanitaki and Dimitra Galani.
 
Apart from his unique voice, Vassilikos adds his own distinctive and fresh look to pieces that have become classics over time, and makes them sound as if they were written today.
 
 

 


 

Maria Yerosimou

Cypriot harpist Maria Yerosimou is an active performer, music educator and music researcher currently living and working in London, with a special interest in contemporary and experimental music. Her musical projects are experimentations in notions of interdisciplinarity in harp performance, which combine her passion for music, theatre, poetry and dance. She has performed with the Royal Orchestral Society, the Ealing Symphony Orchestra and the Goldsmith’s Sinfonia. She is also Art Director of the Studio Avant Garde, where she is in charge of artistic projects related to music, theatre and education.

At present, she is preparing premieres at which she will present the works of new composers and personal interdisciplinary projects. At the same time she records for Greek and International productions (Thessaloniki’s International Festival, Studio Avant Garde, Benoit Cassar/Buddha bar and others).

www.mariayerosimou.com

 

 

 


Saturday 26 May

Venue: Mythopolis, London
Doors 7:30pm

YIANNEIS
Asaf Sirkis Trio
 

 

 

YIANNEIS

YIANNEIS were born into the music world in 2009 in riotous Athens, GR. Since then they keep making a fuss, a habit they grew from the very first concert and will never give up. They are not only six professionally trained musicians; they are also performers who move incessantly on stage upon rhythms and styles that capture the audience’s attention and challenge them to become a part of their performance. YIANNEIS come with their own unique sound. Their music ranges from indie rock and art pop to freak folk and trip hop.

Their avant-garde live show is part concert, part theatrical performance. They combine the precision of a classical orchestra with the creative chaos of any original punk band. What happens on stage appears to be utterly spontaneous, yet it has been built after long hours of rehearsals, conducted in theatrical terms. The audience also plays an important role as the band constantly questions the limits between the stage and the people. Whenever they play, YIANNEIS make a party that is enthusiastically discussed afterwards.

Labros Filippou – vocals, conception
Nikos Zades – vocals, piano, accordion, kaossilator pro
Nikitas Kissonas – guitars, ukulele
Dimitris Petrakis – flute, backing vocals, tarabuka, AKAI wind controller
Ilya Algaer – double bass, vocals
Aris Kallergis – drums, backing vocals
Kostas Daskalakis – sound engineer

‘Extreme, subversive and intensely theatrical, YIANNEIS have a unique way of fusing rock, alternative, ethnic, electronic and Greek sounds in a show full of energy and surprises’ – elculture

www.yianneis.com
www.myspace.com/yianneis

 


 

 

Asaf Sirkis Trio

In his long and playful partnership with saxophonist Gilad Atzmon, a recent and more delicate one with piano virtuoso John Law, and in many other settings from improv to fusion, Israeli expatriate Asaf Sirkis keeps confirming that he's one of the British jazz scene's most creative drummers. Law says that the way Sirkis just touches a cymbal is an inspiration, long before he's played a beat.

North African as well as Middle Eastern music played a big part in his early listening, and he was a bass guitarist as well as a drummer in his teens, so rock and fusion music from the Police to Weather Report and the Mahavishnu Orchestra went deep with him. This trio generates a compelling intensity, and the leader's percussion responses to their ideas are dazzling eruptions of drum mastery.

Asaf Sirkis – drums, compositions
Tassos Spiliotopoulos – guitar
Bass – tba

‘Sirkis is not only an inventive drummer but also a composer of rigour, wit and surprising delicacy’ – Chris Ingham, Mojo Magazine

‘Israeli-born drummer and London resident Asaf Sirkis unleashes with thunderous abandon on this hard-hitting fusion offering that harkens back to a time before the genre became codified, diluted and reduced to a critical joke” – Jazz Times (USA)

www.asafsirkis.co.uk
www.myspace.com/asafsirkis

 

 

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