Takoushis - Karapatakis feat. Udo Demandt

The Fall season of the Pharos Arts Foundation opens with the highly acclaimed jazz duo Takoushis-Karapatakis Project, who will return to The Shoe Factory, on Saturday 9 September 2017, to join forces with the renowned German percussion virtuoso Udo Demandt for a unique music experience not to be missed!

The Takoushis-Karapatakis Project is a contemporary jazz ensemble from Cyprus, formed in 2008 around the core duo of pianist/composer Marios Takoushis and bassist/composer Gabriel Karapatakis. Their resourceful yet unassuming music disposition, exuding a modern and distinctive European jazz sound based on strong melodies and virtuosic improvisations, defies any self-classification. Their music, based on and developed from the fundamentals of jazz improvisation and individual self-expression, displays original ideas which are inspired by the music traditions of the Mediterranean. And while it does not engage in loud and ostentatious conversations with these traditions, it brings about “memories”, which are stemming from the two artists’ motherland but also from the evolution of the jazz genre, and are deeply embedded, inseparably intertwined even, in the Project’s musical corpus. The Takoushis-Karapatakis Project’s discography has received critical and audience acclaim all over the world, and their music has been included in the EBU’s jazz album, The Music of Europe. Their first album, Sympnoia, was released in 2010, while two years later, they released their second album, Seven Miles East. In 2015, they released their third album, Colours Of Another Sky, which was recorded at The Shoe Factory and has received rave reviews – "Terrific album, replete with world jazz exoticism and modern jazz improvisation” (All About Jazz), "A beautiful recording that would put many of the world jazz albums released on ECM to shame” (eEmusic.com), and "A European band with a gorgeous approach, not just to harmony but rhythm" (BBC Ulster)

THE ARTISTS:

Marios Takoushis – piano
Marios Takoushis studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and at the Conservatoire National Superiur de Lyon. He currently resides in London and works as a film and television composer. He has collaborated with film composers such as Charlie Mole on feature films such as Dorian Grey, and Srdjan Kurpjel. Scores for film include Balik directed by Dervis Zaim (Best Music Award at the 5th Malatya Film Festival), the feature documentary This is Exile: Diaries of Child Refugees by the EMMY-award-winning director Mani Yassir Benchelah, BBC's Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk To Finchley directed by Niall MacCormick, and A Boy Called Dad directed by BAFTA and EMMY winner Brian Percival. In 2010, Takoushis composed the adrenaline fuelled score for Electronic Arts’ Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit (PS3, XBOX 360, PC, iPhone) which was one of the year's most successful releases having won numerous awards including best multiplayer game at the BAFTAs. He has recently finished writing the music for Channel 4's factual series Inside The National Crime Agency and has been assisting EMMY nominated composer Charlie Mole with additional arrangements for Universal Pictures’ Dad’s Army as well as ITV's Mr. Selfridge. Marios Takoushis is also featured on recordings as orchestrator and arranger and has performed as a pianist with a wide range of ensembles in Berlin, Cologne, London, Paris, Sydney and Athens.

Gabriel Karapatakis – Fretless Bass
One of the most prolific musicians of the contemporary jazz scene in Cyprus, Gabriel Karapatakis studied music at the Mannes College of Music in New York and at the Rotterdam Conservatory in the Netherlands. As a bass player he been featured in a great number of CDs. He has extensively performed in the Netherlands, having collaborated with renowned jazz soloists and ensembles, and has given concerts in London, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Cologne, Belgrade, Sidney and Beirut. Karapatakis is a founding member of the jazz band Ambodis Quintet, a founding member of the jazz-funk band Uptown Beat, and he has been a member of the Cyprus Big Band for many years. He has composed music for numerous documentaries, TV programmes and dance performances, and he has been a professor of bass guitar in various colleges and universities in Cyprus.

Udo Demandt – percussions
Udo Demandt was born in 1969 in Germany. He grew up in a family of music lovers and started playing the drums at the age of eight. He studied drums and percussion at the Conservatorium in Rotterdam (Rotterdam World Music Academy) and has been on study trips to Santiago de Cuba, Istanbul and Andalucía (Spain). Since 1997 he has performed throughout Europe and collaborated on tours in Africa and Asia with various groups (flamenco, samba, afro, Latin-jazz). His versatility and extraordinary musical talents have made him a very well-known percussionist in the Netherlands and beyond.

Tickets:
€15 / €10 Concessions & members of the Pharos Arts Foundation,
Box Office: Directly from the Foundation’s website www.pharosartsfoundation.org/Tickets_online.htm or Tel. 9666-9003 (Monday - Friday 10:00am-3:00pm)