Global Ear: Thessaloniki
Article published with the Wire's issue, April 2010
In the socio-cultural studies of urban history, the urban space is represented in a variety of perceptions. By the mental perceptions, through the visualization of the city’s environment and how it is depicted in the individuals’ minds through their daily images. The material perceptions, which describe how the material and built environment is a representation of the cultural, social and political relations among the inhabitants. And finally, through the social relations and their representational practices, such as markets, celebrations, daily politics that form the attitudes and values of citizens.
These days Greece is very popular for the international news headlines. But unfortunately not for its summer resorts, as it used to be. The accumulated public deficit of the Greek economy has made the European Union and other international organizations, such as the IMF, to impose strict regulations on the socialist Greek government to improve its financial situation.
Recession doesn’t make exceptions, and Thessaloniki seems to prove the rule. Situated in northern Greece, it’s a city with low levels of development and increasing unemployment rates, especially among the young. With no industrial base to speak of, its economy is founded on small shops and self-employed businesses; socio-politically speaking, it’s a mixture of conservatism and the increasing inequalities that have transformed many areas into ghettos, mainly inhabited by migrants. Mark Mazower’s book on Thessaloniki – Salonika: The City Of Ghosts – refers to the different ethnicities and nationalities (mainly Jewish and Muslims) that used to make up Thessaloniki, but today little remains of the city’s cosmopolitanism. In addition, there isn’t much immediate evidence of contemporary culture. In music, especially, there is a glaring lack of venues.
However, down a small road close to the end of the market on Tsimiski Street, on the first floor of a multi-storey building, a venue called Protos Orofos (transl. First Floor) stages music events, many of them experimental. In February it played host to Mohammad, a trio consisting of improvising cellist Nikos Veliotis, composer and sound engineer Coti K, and Ilios, an artist operating at the extremes of sound and image. Mohammad explore the philosophical trend of ‘Kullu Wahad’, which in Arabic means ‘all one’, though in Greek jargon it is commonly used to describe a messy situation. However, in performance the Arabic definition comes closer to describing their work. The trio started with a haunting, echoing noise and a long sustained tone that created multiple reverbs in the room. The continuous low humming sound provided a vivid sound texture penetrating not only the whole space in Protos Orofos but also the organs of everyone in it, in effect creating an ‘all one’ – a Kullu Wahad.
This is not the first time Coti K and Nikos Veliotis have collaborated. As Texturizer, the duo have released two albums – their first album Texturizer, and 7 (reviewed in The Wire 274), both released on the Athens based Antifrost label. But Coti K and Ilios have also worked together in the past in another project, Harmonium Sisso Orchestra, alongside third member Xabier Erkizia – a project that involves three harmoniums connected to laptops, providing a rich spectrum of drones through their instruments.
Protos Orofos is not a music scene. During the day it functions as a graphic design studio. In the evening live events, you can find yourself surrounded by flyers, leaflets and pamphlets, with books about graphics and visual effects lining the shelves. Asking Sotiris Gekas, one of the people who run Protos Orofos, why he and his colleagues are providing their working space to host such events, he simply says that “there is an absence of formal venues in Thessaloniki for artists involved in experimental music to perform and promote their work. So this is what Protos Orofos tries to do.”
Since September 2007, many artists from the local underground scene have held live performances at Protos Orofos. One of them is Anastasios Kokkinidis, aka Emdy, a composer, producer and musician, residing in Thessaloniki. Emdy is a member of ESSIM (Hellenic Electroacoustic Music Composers Association), and after completing an MA in Composing for Film and Television at Kingston University in London, visual art has a major influence in his compositions. Apart from Protos Orofos, he has performed under the auspices of the State Museum of Contemporary Art, with Spyros Polychronopoulos (aka Spyweirdos), in a performance that took place in the Port of Thessaloniki and featured interactions between video and sound performance. Emdy’s music mainly consists of electronic and electroacoustic compositions. On a 7” split release for local record label Gracetone Recordings, Emdy included field recordings from cats’ voices recordded in a specific area of Thessaloniki called Ano Poli (Upper Town).
Eventless Plot is another local music group that have released a 7” split record on Gracetone, with Mecalinaeden, an Italian multi-instrumentalist based in London (see The Wire 264). Eventless Plot is a three-member unit, and their music is a mixture of processed guitars, synths and computer software. Their first album is called Ikon, and was recorded for another local label, Granny Records, a very active operation initiated in 2005, and consisting of members of Eventless Plot and members of another local outfit, Good Luck Mr Gorsky. These two groups performed live together an improvised soundtrack at the 49th Thessaloniki International Film Festival in 2008, during the live screening of the Swedish movie The Phantom Carriage (1921), directed by Victor Sjöström. Good Luck Mr Gorsky’s last stage appearance was at Protos Orofos in December 2009. (Their name alludes to the urban legend – utterly untrue – that Neil Armstrong uttered that phrase after taking his first steps on the Moon, in response to a neighbour whose wife promised him oral sex only “when the kid next door walks on the Moon”.) GLMG’s sole release is a split record with Eventless Plot on Granny, including three tracks from each group. Their music is an experimental blend of power electronics, laptop processing and extremely delicate guitars, with slow development creating a shimmering Ambient backdrop. Savvas Metaxas (guitar, electronics), a core member of the group, also releases his own music under the name Inverz. Acknowledging the strong influence of Viennese electronic musician Fennesz, Metaxas says, “The difference with Gorsky is that I use more guitar drones and field recordings, and in general it is more abstract; there is a great absence of rhythm.”
In recession the underground scene of Thessaloniki must be one of the very few things that prosper. Announcements of live events at Protos Orofos are accompanied with Gekas’s phrase “Entrance is free, but please bring your own drink”. In addition,
most of these artists are not getting paid for their performances. So when the economic crisis is over the aftermath of recession will be an other cultural trend. And probably this is an optimistic exception to the current economic situation.
