What Stops My Mind (Giannis Aggelakas & Nikos Veliotis, 2005)

Giannis Aggelakas (left) and Nikos Veliotis (right)

he Breaths of The Wolves (Οι ανάσες των λύκων / I anases ton lykon). That is the album's title that Giannis Aggelakas and Nikos Veliotis made up in 2005 to cover that quite "difficult" album. We have already introduced that man at a previous post about the rock band "Trypes" of which he was a front man. After the band fell apart, Giannis continued with solo recordings and this is one the most important ones. The album is unique in sound and performance since electronic elements are combined with instruments like cello and there is something deeply melodic behind it (not too obvious).

The Breaths of The Wolves: album cover

The song is named "Too bad you're not here" (Κρίμα να μην είσαι εδώ / Krima na min ise edo) and is simply depressing. I like it.

Too Bad You're Not Here

music: Nikos Veliotis

lyrics: Giannis Aggelakas

Days go by quickly

but some of them are slowing down;
they take me to their back seat
and nicely they drive me around.
They laugh with my finery,
they caress my wounds
and being drunk, they yield to me,
becoming mine.
They leave ashamed
saying goodbye to me
and there I am alone again
bringing memories of yours.

Too bad you aren’t here
when days like these pass by,
too bad you aren’t here
and they can’t hear you laughing...
But what knocks me out
and what just stops my mind
is that you are not,
you are not even somewhere else.

[chords]

Everything Reminds Me Of You (Manolis Rasoulis and Manos Loizos, 1979)

anolis Rasoulis wrote the lyrics. Manos Loizos composed the music. Haris Alexiou was the first tο sing this song in 1979. Later on many artists covered it in many ways but the charm and innocence of the first recording can be met in extremely few of these efforts.

Haris Alexiou and Manos Loizos in 1979

Bit of info about Manos Loizos dragged from the wikipedia:

"Manos Loïzos (Μάνος Λοΐζος, also transliterated as Loizos and Loisos) was considered to be one of the most important Greek music composers of the 20th century.

Biography

He was born on 22 October 1937 to Cypriot immigrants in Alexandria, Egypt. His parents came from the small village of Ayious Vavatsinias, in the district of Larnaca, Cyprus. Loizos moved to Athens at the age of 17 intending to study pharmacology but soon gave up his studies in order to concentrate on his musical career. He was a self-taught musician, with no formal musical arts training. His first recordings were made in 1963 but he started gaining a larger audience after 1967. By 1975 Loizos had become one of the most popular artists in Greek music.

He died on 17 September 1982 in a hospital in Moscow, Soviet Union after suffering several strokes. He was well known for his leftist political ideology and was an outspoken critic of the Greek military junta. He was also an active member of the Greek Communist Party.

In 1985, a big concert dedicated to his memory took place in the Athens Olympic Stadium, attended by more than 50,000 people. Manos Loizos' songs and music remain popular until today among all ages of the Greek society."

Manolis Rasoulis. I am not sure whether I can describe that guys life. I will just give you the link to the most "cult" site you might have experienced and... it's your responsibility to go through it! One thing for sure, is that I am not gonna say a single word about Haris Alexiou. Google is your friend (or "kato vitu googlesta" - as you might say... more politely). I am not even uploading here the first recording.

Manolis Rasoulis with his daughter Natalia Rasoulis sing "Everything Reminds Me of You" together. Genial. The translation given below is dragged from stixoi.info.

Everything Reminds Me of You (Όλα σε θυμίζουν / Ola se thymizoun)

lyrics: Manolis Rasoulis (Μανώλης Ρασούλης)

music: Manos Loizos (Μάνος Λοΐζος)

vocals (here): Natalia Rasoulis, Manolis Rasoulis

Everything reminds me of you
Simple, beloved,
everyday things of yours
seem to be waiting along with me
for you to come; even if there was no other sunrise to follow

All our love fills the room
just like a song we used to sing together
Faces and words, and this dream that now is creaking…
What will be true, when the dawn comes?

Everything reminds me of you
Simple, beloved,
everyday things of yours…

Everything reminds me of you
All our closest friends
are now in the tavern, or at the cinema
On my own here, I’m reading the letter you had sent me
Before we kissed for the very first time

All our love fills the room
just like a song we used to sing together
Faces and words, and this dream that now is creaking…
What will be true, when the dawn comes?

Everything reminds me of you
Simple, beloved,
everyday things of yours…

[chords]

Tribute to the Times of the Lovers (Stamatis Kraounakis, "Dying in Athens", 2006)

ow can a very bad movie be accompanied by an astonishing soundtrack? Honestly, I do not know. Still, these guys made it.

It was one of these unexpectedly rainy evenings that there is nothing better than jumping in a cinema that was on the way. Things like that happen in Athens. I remember coming out angry about the pictures I suffered for 103 minutes. However, I was singing all the way back home the song you 'll listen if you scroll down to this post.

Nikos Panayotopoulos - the director of the movie- did only one thing right. He asked Stamatis Kraounakis to make the soudtrack. Also, the theme of the movie was quite good. Although it was approached with a shockingly amateur way, so badly that you want to spit on the computer screen. It is supposed to deal with the last generation of "Lovers" (=Εραστές). People that met unexpectedly and fell in love - illegally.

Links:

1) Movie review

2) Watch the movie - no subtitles.

The artist

Stamatis Kraounakis. Born in Athens - check the brief wiki article.

The album

The song this post is about, is the first of the Soundtrack album. The movie failed so badly, that this soundtrack is one of the less known woks of St.Kraounakis. I may be proven wrong but in 10-20 years from now, I bet that this will be mentioned as one of his greatest achievements.

The song

The Lovers

Lyrics by Giorgos Makris

Vocals: Erofili, Rita Antonopoulou & Natassa Bofiliou

Music: Stamatis Kraounakis

Their time was soon up
and sadly they walked away
making steps formal and slow
having their gabardines all buttoned.

And we felt sorry about these lovers
and their small spinning around
their little world;
Dreaming to fold in warmer arms,
scratching the ground
with the peak of their umbrella.

Contact Uς

skipthegreekmail@googlemail.com

You Came to See Me & Yet You Didn't (Ksembarkoi at Kavvadias' "Fog", 1986)

Nikos Kavvadias in 1934 (s/s Ionion 1934)

Nikos Kavadias wrote the poem. Born exactly 100 years ago on the 11th of January 1910, he died in 1975. During these 65 years, he travelled a lot -being a sailor, and he wrote beautiful poems that later on became beautiful songs. Some info about his life and works can be found here.

The first and most popular set of his poems to music was done by Thanos Mikroutsikos in 1979 with the album "The Southern Cross" (Ο Σταυρός του Νότου/ O Stavros tou Notou). Less known, the band Ksembarkoi (meaning... "left overs") made an other approach quite different than the first one with the album "S/S Ionion 1934" that was released in 1986. Simple intsrumentation, minimal and tense expression in vocals, nice melodies. Worth to listen to one of Kavvadia's most famous poems, as they set it to music. We are lucky to host a professional translation by Tefkros Simeonides (what a difference!).

Fog

poem: Nikos Kavvadias

music: Ksembarkoi

The fog fell with the evening
-- the lightship lost --
and you arrived unexpected
in the pilot-house to see me.

You are wearing all white and you're wet,
I'm plaiting your hair into ropes.
Down in the waters of Port Pegassu
It always rains this season.

The stoker is watching us
with both feet in the chains.
Never look at the antennas
in a storm; you'll get dizzy.

The boatswain curses the weather
and Tocopilla is so far away.
Rather than fearing and waiting
better at the periscope and the torpedo.

Go! You deserve firm land.

You came to see me and yet see me you didn't
I have since midnight drowned
a thousand miles beyond the Hebrides.

Relevant music links:

1) The sailor's prayers by Ksembarkoi, at the same album

2) Giannis Koutras sings amazingly Thanos Mikroutsiko's music and the poem "Woman" of the Album "Souther Cross".

3) Giannis Koutras sings the poem "Kuro Siwo", music: Thanos Mikroutsikos.

Comet Halley (Thanasis Papakonstantinou, 1993)

he most popular periodic comet - visible from Earth every 75-76 years - became a song seven years after its latest apparition in 1986. Thanasis Papakonstantinou composed it and performed it, just like its name states: like a comet.

Comet Halley

music, lyrics: Thanasis Papakonstantinou

Now that Halley's comet is gonna pass by earth for a while, why don't you open your window; we might make some time for a kiss, or even something more...

*The next predicted perihelion of Halley's Comet is July 28, 2061

The Right for Love (Dimitra Galani & Alkistis Protopsalti, 1988)

Alkistis Protopsalti

imitra Galani's first compositions were songs that the Egypt-born Greek Alkistis Protopsalti sang in 1988 at the album "Dikeoma" (= the Right). They are both still active releasing new records every little while, though to my perception their worth-to-mention works stopped around 10 to 15 years ago. Since that time they have either been repeating themselves or just fail to be more "trendy"- although they try a lot.

So we are going back to 1988 to listen to the song the album was named out of. This is a live performance much much later (hard to say when). The translated lyrics of this love song are given below and they are based on the ones found at stixoi.info -with minor changes.

The Right

music: Dimitra Galani

lyrics: Lina Nikolakopoulou

vocals: Alkistis Protopsalti

And the right
to love you I no more have
the basis of my loneliness

will be this

To caress you once
it's not enough nor it concerns me
we both wanted sometime
But now
I just want you for myself

And the right to love you I no more have

And the right
to hold me you no more have

to take me
to the middle ages of your logic

To caress you once
it's not enough nor it concerns me
we both wanted sometime
But now
I just want you for myself

And the right to love you I no more have