Event Category: Music

For this summer, Nefeli Fasouli invites friends and people who are all her own for a party in her garden. The magical place that she cared for all winter, has now blossomed, grown, thickened and is waiting for everyone to find themselves under the stars. With songs by Phoebus, new ones by Antonis, some classics, some not so much, lanterns and iced drinks we will bring the coolness for the summer that doesn’t say it will come.
She wore flowers, colored eyeliner and mosquito repellent.
We are waiting for you!

2 days – 3 stages – 25+ artists

Athens, Greece – KRAMA Festival, a 2-day multisensory voyage through the experimental & the contemporary, returns for its highly anticipated 5th year, taking place on the 22nd and 23rd of June 2024 at PLYFA Athens. The festival continues its tradition of showcasing an ensemble of visionary artists through a series of live performances, visual installations and DIY workshops across indoor and outdoor stages. 

From free improvisation and experimental electronics to avant-garde and future pop sounds, KRAMA 2024 takes shape as a confluence of music lovers, creatives, artists, innovators and audiences of diverse backgrounds, drawing participants into a collective exploration of contemporary creativity’s multilayered manifestations.

Every year, KRAMA invites artists that are at the forefront of their respective fields and curates a handpicked, eclectic lineup: NYC-based Cretan artist Evangelia VS aka Abyss X will present a multimedia performance piece aiming to encapsulate the resilience of the female body as a platform for collective liberation while Krista Papista will showcase her unique show that engages in developing and queering politically charged Mediterranean and Middle Eastern sounds along with Balkan Pop and Euro Trash EDM. Anna Vs June & Marietta Manaroli will also present a new piece titled ‘lone’, a work in progress on the theme of loneliness where they will meet and test on stage how they converse, disagree and distance themselves (intentionally or not) from one another while Jay Glass Dubs will showcase a special project, paying homage to Vangelis Papathanassiou with a unique audiovisual exploration. The owner of  Giallo Disco Records and 1/2 of ACID VATICAN, Vercetti Technicolor, will present his ominous electro work with a DJ set and MIZI will bring media rummaging to the stage; a molten liquid collage of sonic artefacts, motor noises, decaying pop music, hip-hop cuts, home-made tape recordings and mangled soundscapes.

Don’t miss out on Giannis Arapis Trio offering an unusual, fresh jazz perspective with lyrical yet bold expressions together with renowned composer Michalis Siganidis. Blending psychedelic and global dance music elements, Anatolian Weapons will present his sound via a DJ set that transcends cultural boundaries. Greek-American composer Christina Vantzou will take us on a psychoacoustic exploration of slow orchestral shifts, field recordings, archeo-fantasy, and mystical states, while Eleni Poulou will unfold her sonic collage of experimental beats and Greek Pontic music. Λυρικό φώσφορο (ENG: lyrical phosphorus) will take us on a sensory journey where sounds and images intertwine, seeking to create evocative audiovisual experiences while Bonebrokk, raised somewhere in-between 00’s internet music blogs and the Athenian underground, will showcase his distinctive take on today’s experimental club scene.

And there is more. Canadian musician RAMZi will be here with a fusion of soundscapes, electronic, and acoustic instruments, bridging nostalgia and futurism. Ukrainian-born Masha Kashyna will present her distinctive fusion of jazz, noise, and trip-hop, combining vibraphone melodies, saxophone solos, and electronic beats while MIRA新伝統 will introduce us to their unique audio-visual performance around the problematics of the Anthropocene, otherness, and posthumanity. Pulsating rhythms will intertwine with the ethereal hum of Xenon Plasma tubes, Tesla coils, electromagnetic field microphones and analogue synthesisers during George Moraitis’special performance while the AXONTORR duo will bring the noise, blending structured moments with noisy sound design, projections and self-made musical instruments. Finally, Blip will push the boundaries of sonic experimentation through improvisation and texture-rich compositions and Skraut will showcase their blend of acoustic and electronic soundscapes, redefining natural sounds through their own compositions. 

Last but not least, you will be able to experience works that complement the music acts by talented visual artists that are a vital part of KRAMA, namely Alexandra Niaka, an interactive media artist that seeks creative answers to questions concerning the relation between human and technology; Erato Tzavara, a video artist who merges the digital realm with the physical body in order to create mesmerising narratives and Natalia Manta, a visual artist who crafts a symbolic universe where memory, time, and myth converge. The festival will also host KEIV, a project founded by artist Konstantinos Lianos, who will exhibit works in collaboration with Chris Ioannou that experiment with the post-digital congestion and digital/material dualisms as well as a DIY workshop titled Optollator Oscillator, where you will learn how to create from scratch a synthesizer’s basic circuit and control it with light – plus you get to keep it at the end!

22/6/24 | Day 1

Abyss X

Bonebrokk

Giannis A. Trio ft. Michalis Siganidis

Krista Papista

Masha Kashyna

MIRA新伝統

MIZI

Optollator Oscillator DIY Workshop

Vercetti Technicolor

λυρικό φώσφορο

23/6/24 | Day 2

Anatolian Weapons

Anna Vs June & Marietta Manaroli

AXONTORR

Blip

Christina Vantzou

Eleni Poulou

George Moraitis

Jay Glass Dubs

RAMZi

Skraut

Day 1 & Day 2

Visual Artists: Alexandra Niaka, Erato Tzavara, Natalia Manta

Installations: KEIV, Studio Precarity

Times: 17.00 – 01.00

About KRAMA Festival

KRAMA is a collective, an independent initiative showcasing artists from a wide spectrum of creative practices. Through a multidisciplinary approach, we bring together different forms of artistic expression in an effort to create a dialogue that transcends creative fields and geographical boundaries. 

At the core of KRAMA lies a desire to create a space (tangible or intangible) for artists to converse, experiment, merge or deviate and ultimately form a community with shared commonalities and unique differences on the fringes of mainstream culture.

KRAMA was created in 2019 and took shape as an annual festival in 2019, 2022 and 2023, hosting 45+ musical acts and 30+ visual artists at venues such as Communitism, Romantso and Empros Theatre. The collective has also curated an audiovisual exhibition at KEIV in 2021 and the opening of Viron Erol Vert’s exhibition “The Hermit” at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens in 2023. KRAMA is also a resident at Stegi Radio, hosting a monthly radio show titled “KRAMA Entries”.

You can visit the festival’s social media for more information:

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Event organiser: [email protected] 

Contact and Press Office: Katerina P. Trichia – +306938300975 – [email protected] 

Doors open 20:00

The singer, pianist and ambient composer Maroulita de Kol is coming on Friday June 14th to Plyfa to present to the Greek public for the first time the full-length album Anásana and the EP Anatélo together with the percussionist Giorgos Stavridis.

Ambient mystical spells dressed with piano melodies meet favorite traditional pieces in a music that is primal and at the same time surprisingly modern.

The orchestration and themes of the music are borrowed both from the traditional rituals of Greece, as well as from the meditative electronic ambient music and are directly connected to the love and admiration for nature. Music as an act of freedom and beauty.

Doors open at 20:30

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Maroulita de Kol, based in Berlin and originally from Athens, creates inspired by the music and rituals of the Greek tradition, which she re-presents through a modern lens. Having studied classical piano and traditional singing and having an unbreakable bond with Greece she finds herself in an extensive and continuous immersion in the mythologies, arts and narratives of her ancestors. All this led her to the solo projects Anatélo (EP) and Anásana (LP) which were released in 2023 by the British label Phantom Limb.

A founding member of Reverse Mode (album Mora 2018), Arcangel Trio (album Golden Sheep 2022) Twin Flames Ensemble and Farmagia Ensemble, de Kol has performed throughout Europe and composed music for plays, performances, films and documentaries. Her music is primal and at the same time surprisingly modern.

He believes in the healing power of art.

* * *

Giorgos Stavridis explores the inherent sonic possibilities of percussion instruments, electronic media and objects, through construction, on-site action and improvisation. His musical practice is defined by the convergence of the activities of listening, improvisation and composition as mutual and inextricably linked relationships with bodily action, instruments-objects and each specific space and time.

He is a member of Trigger Happy and the Music Radio Research and Rescue Center with their latest venture the founding of the online experimental radio station Loskop.radio. He has presented his work in numerous concerts and festivals in Greece and abroad. He is a graduate of the Department of Music Studies of the Ionian University and the postgraduate program Contemporary Performance and Composition.

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PIANO CITY ATHENS 2024 presents a concert where Jazz, Funk, Ragtime, Blues, Classic, Fusion, Latin intersect in an unprecedented sonic feast.

An exuberant musical journey without limits with two pianos, drums and double bass, under the spring Attic moon.

Two distinct pianists, Christos Papageorgiou and Anastasios Pappas meet on the occasion of their love for music of many different styles. The line-up is completed by two accomplished musicians, Takis Capogiannis on double bass and Seraphim Bellos on drums.
A crossover program, which combines the classical style with improvisation and with other popular music genres, such as Jazz, Funk, Fusion etc.

Biographies
Christos Papageorgiou – piano
Christos Papageorgiou is a composer, pianist, teacher and producer of the radio and television shows “Looking for the Lady with Strychnine”, “OMMA in the Arts”, “Station Megaro” of ERA3 and ET1.
He has been honored with many first international prizes for piano and composition, among which in 1999 the 1st prize of the International Composition Competition “2 Agosto” in Bologna, Italy (& Award of the President of the Italian Republic), in 1998 with the prize of the “Union of Greek Critics, of Theater and Music” and the 2013 ASCAP Award received by the Buffalo NY Philharmonic for the American premiere of the work of Pyrrhios.
He has performed to date in many music centers of the world, such as Lincoln Center, Carnegie (Weil) Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Barbican Hall, St James Palace, Kioi Hall Tokyo and Rudolfinum Dvorak Hall. He has collaborated with orchestras such as the Philharmonia, the Orchester Symphonique du Capitole de Toulouse, the Odessa Philharmonic Symphony of Munich, the Malaga Symphony Orchestra, the State Orchestra of Athens, the State Orchestra of Thessaloniki, the National Symphony Orchestra of the E.R.T., the N.H.K. of the Japanese Radio and Television, the Orchestra Sinfonica del Emiglia Romagna “Arturo Toscanini” and the State Orchestra of Istanbul. He has recorded for international TV and radio channels such as the BBC, Berlin Radio 3, Swiss Radio, RAI and ARD. His works have been performed by internationally renowned artists, such as the New York Philharmonic Chamber Soloists, Theodoros Kerkezos, Oscar Giglia and Maria Faradouri.
He was Director of the Third Program and Special Advisor of ERT.

Anastasios Pappas – piano
Anastasios Pappas began his musical studies at the age of 5 with his mother. She continued and graduated from the class of Maria Hairiorgou-Sigara, receiving her piano diploma with honors and first prize.
He completed his postgraduate studies as a scholarship holder of the “Gina Bachauer” Foundation and the British Council, at the Royal Academy of Music in London, with the diploma of postgraduate studies in piano with distinction.
He participated and was awarded in international competitions in Italy, England and America.
Appearances in countries such as America, England, Spain, Romania, Italy, Portugal, Holland, Kazakhstan and Armenia followed. Having played in major concert halls such as Carnegie Hall, Southbank Center, Phillips Zaal, he received excellent reviews.
He has collaborated with all Greek orchestras, as well as with the London Sinfonietta, London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, Moldavia Philharmonic Cluj, George Enescu Philharmonic and Budapest Festival Orchestra. Among the conductors he has collaborated with are Ivan Fischer, John Georgiades, Diego Masson, Alexandru Lascae, Emil Simon, Alexandros Myrat, Miltos Logiadis, Theodoros Antoniou, Giorgos Petrou. Theodoros Antoniou and Kyriakos Sfetsas have composed and dedicated piano concertos to him.
He has recorded for the Third Program of the Hellenic Radio, as well as for the radio stations WQXR (New York), Classical FM (London) and Radio Romania Musical (Bucharest).

Takis Kapogiannis – Double Bass
He studied double bass at the Orpheus Conservatory with Panagiotis Kontos and at the Academy of Music and Fine Arts in Graz with Johannes Auersperg.
After the end of his studies he became a member of the Orchestra of the National Opera and the Orchestra of Colors under Manos Hadjidakis. From the founding of Camerata – Orchestra of the Friends of Music until 2000, he held the position of Principal in the double basses.
As part of his involvement in chamber music, he has collaborated with important Greek and foreign musicians. As a soloist, he has repeatedly appeared with Camerata – Friends of Music Orchestra and with K.O.A.
From 1989 to 2009 he was a professor at the Philippos Nakas Conservatory and since then he has been teaching at the Athens Conservatory and the Orpheus Conservatory.

Seraphim Bellos – drums
He started playing drums at 16 with amateur rock bands.
Since 1991 he has been involved in Jazz. He initially studied at the Athens percussion workshop of Nikos Touliatos

An indie / folk / neo-psychedelic pop night in the heart of Athens, on the last Thursday of June.

Model Spy return to PLYFA after their sweeping pure indie pop passage from the same stage last September, as part of the Agoraphobic Festival. It will be only their second appearance with this line-up, which includes members of My Wet Calvin, Spiral Trio and Metaman.

Bhukhurah, aka Christos Bekiris, a key member of CHICKN and Callas, has also participated in albums and bands as a guitarist (e.g. Prins Obi & the Dream Warriors), producer (The Model Spy), mixing engineer (in Vassilina) and DJ (Complex Shadow, ATH Kids). Very recently, he filed the wonderful “Hello My Name Is”, which is a fitting introduction to the multifaceted neo-psychedelic indie pop universe that treads with one foot, leaving the other foot in the air, ready to lean on anywhere from folk and blues to Motown and disco.

Jef Maarawi, the Greek-Brazilian troubadour next door, looks like the only solo project in town that can reunion with itself. His sound, familiar flawless indie/folk, which gets better with each release, matters little compared to the exuberant, disarming immediacy of a figure as enlightened as he is self-destructive, who could sing heavy folk or poke minimal techno and be just as riveting.

Timetable:
21.00 Jef Maarawi
21.50 Bhukhurah
22.50 Model Spy
*Door open at 20.30

The Model Spy photo: Philippos Margalias

On April 28, shortly before the official release of her first full-length album “Life in Straight Lines” with music by Heroas from Pineline Music Lab, the 0-100 siren appears live at PLYFA’s Polychoros in a pre-release Live!
The already beloved artist from her first singles and EPs (Clause, Optiki Gonia, Taka-Touka, etc.), in a live performance for a limited number of spectators, gives us a taste of her new record shortly before its release.

Doors open: 20:00

“He grabbed the brushes and started painting.
He went for a spin,
but circles are complete, harmonious shapes.
What he feels, he knows neither what it is nor where it ends
and it is certainly not harmonious.
So press the circle with lines,
An endless straight line
a boring monotony
an inexplicable boredom..
Write the title , in small letters.
the page awoke to the cry of the words,
-stupid…!
he said,…
– and now?”

“Life in Straight Lines”
Athens, 2024
0-100 sirene/Hero
Pineline Music Lab

On Sunday 31/03, at the very beautiful and special place of PLYFA (Koritsas 39, Votanikos), 3 new bands of the independent scene will meet on stage. With a common denominator of their powerful riffs and penetrating lyrics, Floudes Erpides, Drifting Clouds and Stavros Allos, invite us on a unique musical journey, using poetry and good music as a vehicle.

Drifting Clouds
Drifting Clouds was formed in 2019 and has been acrobating between Athens and Berlin ever since. Their sound combines elements of alternative rock with post-punk and garage influences. Sometimes with a dreamy atmosphere and sometimes full of storms, but always overflowing with sensitivity, their songs try to approach everything human. On Sunday March 31, taking a break from recording their first album, they return for a spring live at PLYFA.

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Stavros Allos
Stavros Allos is a musician and songwriter, who makes a living as a sound engineer and music producer in Athens. A year after the presentation of his first album “For Nora”, he returns to the pop scene with the support of “super producer” Sergios Voudris and the multi-instrumentalist Kostas Stergiou. For Nora, for new songs and a cover.

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Less Thought
Three Corinthians, two Athenians and an exotic Agrinesian who, based in Athens, are trying to decide if they play pop, soft or indie rock. They don’t know if they’ve made it so far. What they have managed to do, however, is to record their upcoming EP, all this time away from live performances. They feel ready for live and are excited to present you their very powerful tracks, some time before the release of their first complete musical work”