Ηρακλής Οικονόμου

Acclaimed Cypriot pianist and composer, Stavros Lantsias, introduces the audience to the music universe of his beloved composer, Ennio Morricone, presenting some of the most unforgettable soundtracks of emblematic films such as Lolita, Cinema Paradiso, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Good, the Bad...

Sfetsas is one of Greece’s best avant-garde composers – a true pioneer who has excelled in merging jazz and rock with tradition. His works for films are indicative of his endless talent and capacity for improvisation and experimentation. Today, we are focusing on three soundtracks of his for the fil...

From the 1970s to the mid-1980s, Hatzinasios had gathered a wealth of experience in composing music for films, but those films had nothing to do with the atmosphere of Knock Out (Urge for Life), the 1986 Pavlos Tasios film whose soundtrack he was called upon to curate. Here everything is dark and direct...

We start our week-long tribute to Greek film for films with Stavros Xarhakos, a leading composer who has had a very fruitful connection with cinema, having written music for more than 30 films, documentaries and TV series. Our focus is on his melodies and songs for three films – The R...

Villagers of Ioannina City, one of the leading Greek heavy rock bands, comes from the mountains of Epirus. They are deeply influenced by Greek nature and cosmic phenomena and infuse their unique brand of heavy psychedelic rock with folk instruments such as bagpipes, flutes and, didgeridoo....

Composer and ethnomusicologist Eleni Karaindrou writes the following about Giota Vei: “She was born in Platystomo, Lamia and has lived in Athens since she was seventeen years old. She was introduced to folk singing by her grandmother. In the years between then and her first public appearance, s...

Liesbeth List was a Dutch singer who became very popular during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1966 Mikis Theodorakis met her in the Netherlands, and he was impressed by her voice. In 1967 they released an album titled: ‘Liebeth List sings Theodorakis’. The first part of the album contains the Mauthausen cyc...

“The seas that separate us are the seas that unite us. Even the lands that were conquered and colonized exchanged cultures. And if scholars have not yet clarified and separated the eras and influences, the artists brought together and united any differences. I was led to this work (so different f...

From Sophia Loren to Harry Belafonte and from Edith Piaf to The Beatles, a myriad of global stars recorded Greek songs, inspired primarily by the melodies of Manos Hadjidakis and Mikis Theodorakis. These internationally renowned performers became ambassadors of Greek music around the world, singing...

When the Greek military seized power in 1967, the composer Mikis Theodorakis called for resistance against the dictatorship. The junta prohibited the performance of his music and placed him under arrest. In his cell, suspended between life and death, he wrote 36 lyrical texts in an almost euphoric...

Ezgi Ceylan, Alihan Erdogan and Seven Plane Trees and Shadows Singer Ezgi Ceylan and classical guitarist Alihan Erdogan offer a unique musical bridging of the two sides of the Aegean – how truly inspiring it is to have two talented music artists from Turkey performing traditional and modern G...

Today’s track list includes songs with references to Constantinople and its fall, which signified the collapse of the Byzantine Empire. The lamentations, drawn primarily from the album “The Fall of the Great City”, are representative samples of the Greek music tradition of various regions, from ...

‘Marble King’ is a collection of instrumental pieces by Stamatis Spanoudakis inspired by Constantine Palaiologos, the last Byzantine emperor reigning from 1449 until his death in battle at the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. Spanoudakis invites us to a journey through time, fuelled by his impeccable abi...

Byzantine Vesper (Vyzantinos Esperinos) is widely regarded as one of the most sophisticated albums of Greek folk music. Released in 1973, this is a collection of songs written by Lefteris Papadopoulos, composed by Apostolos Kaldaras and performed by George Dalaras and Haris Alexiou. Here Kaldaras...

Music critic Giorgos V. Monemvasitis notes: “Charming and distant, the field of Byzantine Music keeps its secrets well and tightly sealed in secluded cells, in sparse libraries, in hermetically sealed chests. It constitutes a timeless challenge for daring connoisseurs. Strong hands and brave h...

The week that starts today is dedicated to the presence of the Byzantine empire in Greek music and song. We start our week-long journey to Byzantium with modern songs that have lyrics containing references to it – to the days, the galleys and the faces of Byzantium. Nikos Androulakis, Costas Mantzios, M...

A big part of the Greek song can be categorised as ‘protest song’, i.e. as a type of song informed by political critique and vision. From Giannis Markopoulos to Nikolas Asimos and from Thanos Mikroutsikos to the Katsimiha brothers, countless composers and creators connected their work with the dem...

Mikis Theodorakis was not only a superb composer but also a deeply political leader and intellectual. His assessment of the situation after the coup d'état of April 21, 1967, was broadly as follows: “The dictatorship of the colonels was in the long run a great mistake on the part of the Americans. It...