“Plastikes Karekles represent a culture of reinvention as defiant and hopeful as the music itself.” Songlines magazine

An eclectic fusion of international and Greek musicians with roots from traditional Greek folk to classical and jazz. The group is known for their own arrangements of music by Theodorakis, Hadjidakis and Xarhakos featuring a fusion of classical string instruments with Greek traditional ones. They are also very involved in the Rebetiko scene and have for the last five years set up a the very popular “Rebet Asker, Greek Roots Series” at the Green Note, London, dedicated to the music of Rebetiko.

The group have appeared at performances and festivals in Greece and elsewhere abroad. In the UK they have performed at Purcell Room, Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall, St David’s Hall as part of the Proms, as well as more intimate venues such as the Green Note, Vortex and the Forge, London.

The musicians of Plastikes Karekles are also the founding members of the Rebetiko Carnival, a one month festival in June with Rebetiko music at its heart. They are dedicated to exposing this treasured music to as many people as possible.

A very important part of Plastikes Karekles work is also education and outreach work. This has taken them to not only mainstream schools, but also special needs homes, hospitals and prisons throughout the UK.

Tonight the group appears as a trio.

Plastikes Karekles
Marina Deligianni, voice
Maria Tsirodimitri, guitar, voice
Pavlos Carvalho, Bouzouki, cello, voice

ENTECHNA, NEO KYMA

Having spent so much time dedicating afternoons and evenings to the music of rebetika, tonight we go to the other side. Entechna songs were seen almost as the opposite of rebetika, the name deliberately refering to “artistic songs” as opposed to “popular” songs. However, although the instrumentation and the melodic authentic elements of rebetika are juxtaposed in ways never heard before, the music is still rooted in popular tradition. The most distinctive examples of these composers, who were also greatly respectful of rebetika, were Theodorakis, Hadjidakis, Xarhakos, Markopoulos. Their songs will be performed tonight along side other more contemporary composers. We will also be delving even further into Neo Kyma (New Wave), a genre that came about from the combination of Entechna and the music of the French “chansons” of the French bistrots. This gave way to many more great composers such as Savvopoulos, Karaounakis, Mikroutsikos among others who reconciled elements of Entechna, Neo Kyma and Laika (popular) songs.

These songs have been written for some of the greatest singers in Greece…Haris Alexiou, Giorgos Dalaras, maria Farantouri, Alkestits Protopsalti, Eleftheria Arvanitaki, Giannis Koutras and many others.

This is a rare opportunity to hear the other side of beautiful Greek music…songs that in this country are not performed or heard in live performance very often.