Lefkosia Loop Festival 2014

For the third consecutive year, on the first days of January, a unique festival will take place in Lefkosia. This year’s two day affair is getting richer with the addition of dance performances and video collaborations of visual artists and looping musicians.

WhereHaus 612 in Palouriotissa, is the venue that is hosting this year’s Loop Festival on the 3rd and 4th of January 2014. This year the festival is a co-production of Louvana Records with the Cyprus Music Information Center, under the umbrella of the European programme, Minstrel Project.

The artists that are performing in detail:

MC Xander (UK)
London's MC Xander is a pioneer of human beatbox, making uplifting dub infused post-hip-hop music using only his voice and a loop pedal. Xander’s music however transcends the bounds of the beatbox art form, out of techniques and tricks into a sound with emotional and musical depth. With lyrics that explore themes such as spirituality, society and existentialism in the 21st century, like something of a beatbox street-preacher, Xander takes us from big vocal vibrations to poetic reflections on life. With viral hits attracting almost four million views, and his new album Songs of Agnosis out in the new year, it looks like 2014 will see Xander winning even more people over.

NT Wave (Cro)
Croatian guitar player and producer Valent Samardžija a.k.a. for his project NT Wave uses his instrument in unconventional ways to produce sound. With unusually connected pedals and devices set in his shoes, the performer makes music that overflows from open wide stereo ambientals to the narrow defined dance grooves with mantric elements. The sound results are not predictable, so with a help of good audience, as NT says, the concert sometimes turns into techno party.

Biruta Ozoliņa & DJ Monsta
The collaboration between Biruta Ozoliņa (voice, kokle) and DJ Monsta (Uldis Cīrulis) (scratch, sampler, etc.) began in 2010. Their atmospheric music is rooted in the Latvian folklore, and their experience allows the folk-songs to be interpreted in a new way and to gain new colours. 2013 saw the release of their debut album “I Sowed the Sun” (Sauli sēju). It includes meditative and peaceful melodies form Kurzeme and Latgale regions. “Folk songs are like a free and beautiful bird which some people wish to put in a cage,” Biruta explains. “We are not trying to trim its wings. Instead, we look for a language which we all have in common and understand.” They are joined by Toms Poišs (double-bass), and Mikus Čavarts (drums), live and on the record.

“On lacrimae” (GR)
Kostas Makrygiannakis – electric guitar, loops
Theofilos Soteriades - alto & baritone sax

The two musicians started working on this music in 2011. The project on lacrimae is based on the famous melody by John Dowland, that was written in 1596, entitled “lacrimae pavane”, as well as the piece “a circle of tears” by the Canadian composer and guitarist Ray Sealey, composed in 1979. The first piece was so successful that its composer used it in many different variations, in order to please the listeners and the needs of the musicians playing it: so we find in the forms of instrumental ensemble, solo instrument, and love song. On the second piece, Sealy takes the listener to a journey through seven short songs about the tears of joy, anger, love, war, creation, death and life. On lacrimae “grovels” between introversion and noise and flirts suggestively with kitsch, pop and improvisation. It will be released as a record in December 2013 on Dissonance records.

Awakened
Awakened is Dimitris Chatzizisis, a third year music student at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He has been active in the city’s music scene in the last couple of years and recently he has started the project Awakened. At the festival he will be presenting original compositions for violin, guitar and voice using a loop station and various effects. His music is a melting pot of different musical styles and a simultaneous approach of the acoustic sound in an electronic context.

Vasiliki Anastasiou (CY)
Born in Cyprus, Vasiliki Anastasiou studied contemporary singing and worked in London for more than seven years. She visited many countries including Italy, France, Turkey, Greece, Brasil, Hong Kong, Qatar, gathering short singing stories... her struggle, to finally glue together the different styles she loves, created The Amalgamation Project, a platform that mixes short singing stories in different languages with traditional and jazz sounds. Expect a vocal version of the project especially tailored for this Loop Festival.

Maria-Christina and the 7 pedals (UK)
Maria-Christina is an artist based in London. She won first prize in the National Harp Competition in Wales, and has recorded in the legendary BBC Maida Vale Sessions.The music of Maria-Christina & the 7 Pedals generally moves away from structure and form and the conventional way of playing the harp, pushing it to the fields of bass and guitar technique. The harp plugs in, connects to a looper, a wah-wah and a few other pedals, and plays Maria-Christina’s compositions. Everything is achieved using bows and inventive techniques, which strive to alter the romantic image the harp carries and give it a more modern feel. Presenting the modern potential of this other-wise classical instrument is also the subject of her undergoing thesis at London’s Trinity Laban University.

Kalakatsounas (CY)
Kalakatsounas has been involved with all kinds of different bands playing guitar, from an early age. He was always into alternate tunings and improvisation and during his time in the army and later on as a student at The Athens School of Fine Arts (where he still studies) his experimentations began to evolve into songs. His influences range from traditional to electronic music, and everything in between including small sounds , cracks e.t.c. The lyrics are mainly in Cypriot and some in English. The pieces are built by looping guitars, using various effects and using the guitar as percussion.

Jannis Plsamatik (CY) [DJ set]
Jannis used to be simply a listener. With the aid of the internet and his travels he discovered music that he strongly felt like sharing with other people. He started DJing in various bars in Lefkosia, until he got his break to play at the town’s one and only club, Klubd. Today, he is a resident deejay of the club, as well as the artistic director. He tries not to limit himself in his sets. Deep organic house and fussy house are some of the things you could expect to hear from him, or not.

Microseq (CY) [DJ set]
Pandelis Diamantides has been active at the intersection of electronic “art” music (academic/non-academic), “new” music and “pop” electronic music; reinvented media of electronic music production and redefined aesthetics as to approach a broader audience to communicate an artistic message talking the language of “pop” culture while using cutting-edge techniques for music composition and performance. This tendency is a manifestation of a post-digital (music) culture. His debut album "Green" was released by Bigo & Twigetti label in September 2011 and re-released, some months later, by Linn Records. The success of this album is now following a series of interesting collaborations with the visual artist Emmanuel Flores Elias, animator Arturo Castro and choreographer Lia Haraki.

Tune In (CY)
A solo performance by Lia Haraki with music and sound design by Pandelis Diamantides. The solo ‘Tune In’ is a study on how motion can bring emotion and how by witnessing this process one can reach a new state of being. The tool used in this 30’ movement journey is repetition that aims at stimulating a kinesthetic response. The solo was presented in 12 European festivals and was one of the works which represented Cyprus at the Venice Biennale for visual Arts 2013.

Foot Music (CY, UK)
Foot Music if the collaboration between dancer Zoe Georgallis and clarinettist William Scott. They started working together in 2009 as members of the London Soundpaintng Orchestra. Through the Soundpainting Orchestra, they began exploring the collaboration between improvised sound and movement. After their graduation from Trinity Laban, Zoe and William began working as a duet in order to further explore the principles of collaboration. These experiments led to the foundation of the team “On The Roof” with other musicians and dancers. With “On the Roof” they created new work which was presented in London and in Lapsody Festival in Finland.

Info:
LefkosiaLoopFestival.com | Info: 7000 7610

Tickets: €15 Both Days/€10 Single Day | Presale (Starting December 12th)

Lefkosia: Crepaland 22261000 | Gatapou 22667741 | Guitar Repair Collective 22101832
Limassol: Kafenio Xouzouri 99451996
Larnaka: Tria Poulakia Kathontan 24255880
Paphos: Vintage Art House 26101394
Paralimni: Taverna "San Stou.. Psirri" 23828777

Programme:

Friday:
19:30 Doors
20:00 Kalakatsounas (CY)
21:00 On Lacrimae (GR)
21:45 Tune In (CY)
22:15 Biruta Ozoliņa & DJ Monsta (LV)
23:15 NT Wave (HR)
00:00 Janis Plasmatic feat. AA Lumens (CY)

Saturday:
19:30 Doors
20:00 Vasiliki Anastasiou (CY)
21:00 Maria-Christina and the 7 pedals (UK)
21:45 Foot Music (CY/UK)
22:15 Awakened (GR)
23:15 MC Xander (UK)
00:00 Microseq (CY)