george xylouris (gr) + geoffrey burton (b) + caroline profanter (it)
george xylouris (gr) + geoffrey burton (b) + caroline profanter (it) -
Sun 26 Sep - 15:00
this event is taking place at Roskot Aalst - Ninovesteenweg 28, 9320 Aalst.
doors: 15h
Caroline Profanter: 16h
Geoffrey Burton: 17h
George Xylouris: 18h
Caroline Profanter works in the fields of Electroacoustic Music and Sound Art as a Composer and Musician. Her works oscillate between Acousmatic Composition, Live Performance and Sound installation. She collects field recordings, combines them with electronics, and explores the grey zones in between concrete material and abstraction. The human voice and the interplay with words and text appear as current elements. Her works have been presented in several Festivals: XI Bimesp - Sao Paolo/Brasilien 2016, Visiones Sonoras in Morelia/Mexiko 2016, The Acousmatic Project in Wien 2016, Espace du Son in Brüssel 2015, Wortsampler in Düsseldorf 2015, Festival für Zeitgenössische Musik in Bozen 2014, Sync in Jekaterinburg/Russia 2013, Wien Modern 2012, Tempo Reale Festival in Florenz 2012, among others. Studied Computer Music and Electronic Media at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and holds a Master's degree in Acousmatic Composition at the Conservatoire Royal de Mons in Belgium.
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2020 saw the release of 'Me Ta Podia', Geoffrey Burton's first solo album. It turned out to be an instrumental record, recorded in its entirety on guitar, but deeply rooted in electronic music. He recorded 'Me Ta Podia' as a live performance, using his guitar as a sound generator, as well as an instrument for composing.
Geoffrey Burton is inspired by: Charles Cohen, Delia Derbyshire, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Lucrecia dalt. 'Me Ta Podia' brings ''deceptively naive phrases with more complex underlying sounds and structures, not necessarily associated with the guitar.''
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If the talents of singer and lute player George Xylouris seem otherworldly, even god-given, it is hardly surprising. One of the best-loved artists on Crete, the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, Xylouris is a member of a clan long-regarded throughout Greece as musical royalty. A clan that hails from Anogeia, a mountain shepherding village down the hill from the Cave of Zeus, that hotspot of ancient mythology.
To hear Xylouris play his long-necked lauto and sing songs of love and liberty in his impassioned, distinctive voice, is to experience tradition at its finest; tradition that this bearded father-of-three grants respect, and crafts into something unique. It’s a sound that has taken him around the world, to festivals and concert venues throughout Europe, North America and Australia – where he lived for eight years in Melbourne, absorbing influences from the city’s thriving live rock scene – and back again to Crete. Teaching and playing at home, in village communities, is his lifeblood – just as it is his family’s.
Xylouris could not have been anything else but a musician: his father is the Cretan singer and lyra player Psarantonis, a man beloved of everyone from ethnomusicologists to Nick Cave. His late uncle was the iconic Nikos Xylouris, a singer and lyra player who became a symbol of the protest movement that brought down the Greek military junta in 1973. George was just a kid when he started playing the lute at the knee of his uncle Giannis Xylouris; after accompanying his famous father at village functions, there were several group recordings. Then George Xylouris struck out on his own.
Until then the Cretan lute was usually played as a backing instrument. But with albums such as 'Antipodes', by Xylouris Ensemble , 'Embolo' with his uncle Psarogiannis and 'Oso ki an Dernei o Anemos’ out with All Together Now , Xylouris showcased the lauto’s solo potential with a repertoire of traditional and self-penned material.
His numerous projects are testament to his restless musical curiousity: there’s a duo, Xylouris White, with Jim White, Brooklyn-based drummer of Australian instrumental trio, Dirty Three, with who Xylouris has toured. The Xylouris Ensemble features his three Greek-Australian children.
There are other Xylourises, all of them musical. A documentary – A Family Affair – is currently in the works.
His concerts at home have become legendary for their musicality and power; his onstage record is currently 18 hours straight.