SOLO/
A solo performance with a prototype musical instrument - the electric lute - which combines Greek roots music with the electric sound. Melodies from folk tradition coexist with elements of improvisation and sound processing through pedal effects. A dark, noisy, ambient environment, with eastern scales and vocal, serves as a meeting point of old and new musical references.

CV/
Born in Athens, studies classical guitar at the Attiko conservatory. After moving to Crete in 1997, he graduates University of Crete, Department of Sociology and gets involved with the Cretan lute. Over the last 15 years he has been performing in traditional concerts and festivities, collaborating with prominent Cretan musicians 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. Besides a well-known musician and teacher of the Cretan lute, is related to the birth of a new musical instrument worldwide. In 2015 he designed and co-produced a prototype musical instrument, the electric Cretan lute. With a peculiar ‘sui generis’ sound and unexplored repertoire, it broadens the possibilities in the art of music and introduces a new chapter in modern organology.
He composes original music, participates as a key member in several bands and gives solo appearances with the electric lute, combining the traditional with the electric sound.
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ELECTRIC CRETAN LUTE/ It follows the philosophy and sound origin of the Cretan lute, maintaining the details related to the production of sound such as the tuning, the thickness and length of the strings, the mobile frets and dimensions of the traditional instrument in general. What changes here is the source of the sound since there is no bowl, but a concrete wooden body with magnets that give a great sound range, as in other electric instruments. In addition, we adapted a carbon-fiber pseudosoma, which is perforated, in order not to produce vibration, and which provides the volume of the instrument, so the body posture and the position of the hands don’t change during playing. There are also several micro-innovations such as a cutaway, a body formation to better handle the higher octave, and bridge made of horn (with different nuts for each string) which enables a better tuning in the double, octave-tuned strings.
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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.
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Cretan/Greek roots music on electric experimental sound
- This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx