The only i think i regret missing while i was living la dolce vita in Paris, is the event that Orila phonographic label organized in the beginning of October. Vassilis and Yannis made one of their dream come true, to gather some musicians all together for a trip, to play their music in the woods for a small audience that cares to listen. Fortunately my friend was there:
“Saturday, 10.00 sharp, bus is waiting across the columns of Olympian Zeus along with a Hippie looking group of people that generates curiosity and probably fear to the eyes of an other group of old people parking their bus next to us. their curiosity climaxes when they see all these funny looking luggage been loaded on our bus- why music instruments and speakers scare them, i don’t know.
the bus starts and after a rainy course, it lands on βουνΟριλα , somewhere in the woods of north Evia. The project is revealed in front of my eyes, inside my ear drums and my nostrils, between my fingers. Take urban concrete city generated music and blend it with mountain green, humidity, soil brown, tree sounds and clear borderless view. Caution, the project is being recorded.
Our stage is the old ruins of a Summer Camp being digested by the surroundings. Rain, no rooftop, we make one of our own with plastic covers while the others make a web of cables on top of carpets put on the floor. Egsun make their first sounds with a guitar,a looper, a glockenspiel,a zither and a pling plon. I am hypnotized. The soundtrack one would use to dress a movie talking about dreams is being unrolled, raki finds the way to my hands.
a thousand beautiful women take the stage and lift me over the treetops, i’m tripping on nature. A psychedelic improvisation of a guitar, a sinthy, a girl’s voice and a looper, create vivid colors in front of me . I find my self standing on a top of a nearby hill listening to Lunar Miasma. They say he is the new ‘must’ in urban underground experimental music in Athens, the only must for me is ‘i must be lost’. without knowing how i am lost in the woods and my only chance to get back to the music is to try and follow it. The trees and eco filter and regenerate Lunar’s sounds making a marriage made to last. It’s night, its cold, we make fire, thank god we are in the woods.
The Hippies are now gathered around the fire listening to No Clear Mind , i needed that lyric break, they are the food we haven’t eaten yet, now i can hold on for a couple more hours. Strumming, looping , programing, singing, they are good chefs. Alexandros Miaris proposes a new way Cretan rizitika can be played. The use of his voice reminds me of a priest crying because he has fallen in love with a woman that left him. Interesting but not my cup of tea.
Matteus is anxius to play so he sets up his gear quickly . A theremin, a mic and a laptop are his weapons. The battle of an under the water female voice and a soul struggling to get out of Matteus body starts. His “Ugly doll’s stories” album is like the prequel of what i hear and see, its like someone is gutting Bjork for being sweet and fragile.. I like it.
The gas from the generator watering us with electricity all day runs out absolutely synchronized with Matteus’ ending. We are hungry for food but all our other needs are covered for now, today we created , felt a vast variety of emotions , every cell on our skin is soaking with nature. We reload our dirty sheets in the bus , have a quick cigy and head back home…or head back away from it.”
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