Is there more to Greek Music than Zorba?

[Music] the very origin of ancient Greek mythology did not start with light as we know in Christian mythology but it started with chaos and I think the ancient Greeks embraced that chaos they thought that that chaos inspired creativity and in a way it's still reflected to this day because even though Athens exploded in population they did it rather chaotically because even me as I'm looking out at the city right now I feel like there is no plan there is a plan though because the very first urban planner that we know of started here in Athens but in a way they're also embracing that chaos and I think that's why Athens today still stimulates the mind and stimulates anyone who visits here or lives [Music] here after spending some time in Athens I've noticed creativity everywhere from the interior design of cafes that stir the Mind during long conversations to the street murals splattering the often forgotten corners of the city with color to the buskers filling the air with music and to the people I've met along this journey who live with a creative spirits that I don't easily see in every city why is this city of all places bursting with creativity who are the people freeing Athens from the shackles of its recent tumultuous past and fast tracking it into the modern digital era [Music] [Music] [Music] so um we are hanging out with a musician that's actually very well known here in Athens and in Greece overall pan pan I'm so super excited because his music is like very weird and avanguard Electronica mixed with uh with Indie music and a little bit of noise and also he's a great artist however he lives all the way in the very very Other Side of the Mountain so I think this is a great opportunity to take the metro and see how it is in Athens let's go [Music] okay we landed right in the middle of a highway let's see where we can find [Music] fotes meot pazis he goes by P pan this man has become the newest sensation in Athens he's a comic artist illustrator and musician transmuting the chaos of Athens into art that speaks to many of the young people in this city yeah I've mostly lived in Athens and it's been an inspiration and also a reason to be depressed but you know it's it's a balance and do you find a to be inspiring sure how so I love uh how you can uh find places to feel at ease and feel at peace and feel like you're at uh your own Refuge but also it can make you want to fight about stuff and also the structure it's so chaotic that it's so inviting to create your own patterns in it and exist in your own [Music] Rhythm I guess that's the reason that especially artistic people come here and uh try to find something are you inspired more by the people or is it the buildings or is it mostly the people and the way they try to inhabit those places because the buildings on their own they're nothing right and uh all the context is given by the people and the way they choose or are obliged to live under certain circumstances so people write the history and create the memories and everything so I'm fascinated by that the buildings on their own they're nothing I think my it's ugly but it's also very beautiful it's ugly but it's so vibrant that you can't help yourself but discover Beauty in certain places but I'm not saying that to romanticize the the ugliness and the even the violence that comes with that ugliness you know living under living like that can be nice at all times but uh and the city should have been planned better in a better way and to be more you know human Centric and everything and it's not but uh at the same time this is our chance you know we're living there so it's our chance to make something good out of it right so that's a way to survive but also Thrive can you show us a little bit of your synthetizer [Music] sure let's just listen to what I have right now this this I really love how music can be destroyed whatever you can listen to goes through a cassette tape so because I love how music gets destroyed by that so I start making sounds I don't uh care about making songs when I play music oh I start making sounds just sounds and these sounds uh will uh become something eventually uh but uh when I start playing it's all play and this is all I care about like so I'm not writing music when I play music I'm playing I'm a kid and I'm playing just listen to it I'm not I don't care about melody or anything I just want to make just try to listen to the sound and see what can be done with that and see what can what can come out out of [Music] that [Music] so I mean at first what you heard mostly was noises right wasn't something even close to what I tend to release but um to go there I have to start from the noise and sculpt it sculpt around it and first of all I have to take all the noise out of me so I can go to something that sounds like a proper composition from the noise ban is able to sculpt music this is what intrigues me about Athenians I've been lucky to visit a few cities that have similar elements to Athens an ancient Legacy overshadowing the merits of the present civil unrest that has led to Urban Decay and an economy that has boom and busted in spectacular fashion for those other cities these factors have dragged its people into despair but for Athens it hasn't the people here are figuring it out one way or [Music] another we were here during a record-breaking Heatwave the city laid quiet midday but even in extreme temperatures like this you can always find a Greek to come over to a cafe and enjoy a drink a bite and the chat with you meet Antony palaris a talented pianist who has worked with many no musicians within Greece he has a knack for improvising with the keys letting the emotions flow out of him and expressed into music at the blue par Cafe kikos we indulged in Detroit style pizza with freshly shaved Truffles and cheeseburgers accompanied with cocktails of course not only is Greek food some of the best in the world but I've been stunned on how Greeks have mastered American Classics you know I was going to say that to me Athens is like improvisational music because there's no plan no plan whatsoever so it feels like a improvisational piece of a city but somehow it still makes sense you can find sense in chaos but um yeah there is no plan there is no plan which can be very frustrating sometimes oh you think so especially when you're driving okay okay okay you're say okay I'm going to go around the corner now and I'm going to be back you know I'm going to do our left and a left and no that's what how it's done now actually I went as an extra film I was supposed to to be the leading actor's hands so he's a Pianist and I I wash his hands we decided that I would going to I I would be playing an improvised piece which I did and it's going to actually be on the film so I can't wait to just view that it's going to be the the first time that music of mine is going to be in a movie it's a Greek production it's a GRE production oh very cool okay I'm excited it has to do with a musician who has lost his interest in his art um he doesn't want to play music anymore so he's trying to find his way around life but the scene that I'm playing is actually he starting to play music after a long time he sits on the piano and uh he suddenly stops I mean he has becomes more beautiful more beautiful he just hits the ks and he doesn't want to play anymore he stops again he he's not he's not ready to come back to the game to return so it's something like that it's very dramatic oh I like it same here same here because I have been through that period I mean when I was in London I stopped being a musician I did other things for 5 years and it was the worst period of my life in terms of my music oh yeah yeah and what brought you back I Fell in Love Actually romantically yes okay okay so uh I had I had my connections here in here in gon music so I was a popular um professional so people wanted to work with me there was certain famous people who would get me back if I we if if I returned but I wasn't very interesting because live Greece you know because regardless of how beautiful a is and gree is as you might have understood there are many other social issues that might push people go away in my case I was fed up with the situation here professionally was good I was well but I didn't like how things were here it was inspiring so I left Greece permanently after 5 years in London where I didn't actually do any music that I wanted I was considering going somewhere else maybe Netherlands maybe Canada uh but what happened you fell in love in London I fell in love with a Greek girl here oh here yeah so so you came back I came back yes okay it didn't go well that specific love story but it did go well because I'm now doing music again which I I had start while I when I was in London and I really feel very fulfilled with being able to to to do my art and live from it so re ignited your passion it did oh nice my passion was always there but the the the the conditions now how Flor can actually be able to to do it again properly yamas to that yamas to that [Music] cheese one of the things that tourists look forward to the most when they're visiting Athens is the Greek music of course Zorba the Greek is one of the most famous films ever made and it's iconic for its sound but Greek music isn't quite what Zorba shows today we're going to go to a classic greeka to see some real traditional Greek music let's go that's amazing okay [Music] so this is a very crowded wonderful lively place I love the energy you ever seen auki no I have not no wow buzuki one of GRE National instruments okay right so the old structure is based you know on the on the west philosophy you know it's like a mandolin you have threats yeah but the way you play it is a bit Oriental it shows that gree is the crossroad you combine the west and the east in this beauty this is tasos yanis a buzuki player performing in Athens for nearly three decades he's part of the band Dono who performs several nights a week atna for both locals and tourists alike their specialty is the vertical a musical genre that was born out of the struggles of the downtrodden Outlaws who spend their time smoking hashish and Other Drugs singing about their wo to upbe music that hearkens back to Greek areas along the modern-day Turkish coasts medo is a more robust music is the Greek Blues okay so it's a bit sad it's a bit more sad it's a bit more sad a bit more rough you know but it's a bit more original you know marar was the founder one of the founders and from REO deres all this long line of Greek music and and buzuki players you know you know because Marcus vakari was the first one who put the buzuki on stage they well buzuki players for many years but no one been consider to make it a professional because back then if you had a buzuki you were Outlaw you were an outlaw the word Theo comes from the Turkish word Reet which means rebellious and reets means Outlaws the music certainly carries a rebellious feeling to this day in the first half of the 1900s the genre was associated with the underworld of a rapidly changing Greece the lyrics were fueled by a resistance against Authority and a Cavalier lifestyle of sex drug drugs and skirting the law hence the powers that be often clashed with the the bets as they raided their hash smashed their instruments and arrested The Outlaw musicians we were joined by Adonis the Contra based player of the trio just seeing him get into the zone of Performing I feel that the vertical [Music] Spirit they gave us a glimpse on the origin of thetic dating back to as early as the [Music] [Music] 1860s back in 50 where there were Bandits the mountains and they came down here at oh wow right here they were very rough guys IM back in 1896 during the first modern Olympics a police officer infamously kicked the Leets out of City the very neighborhood we are in now this is very much Urban Music about how to deal with the challenges of city life because in 1922 the Greek city of smirna in the aan coast of Anatolia was burned down to the ground leading to more than one 5 million Greeks being displaced from their homelands in modern-day turkey and flooding Athens this music expressed the feeling of alienation in a city that wasn't their own and lacking the resources to handle their arrival [Music] we uh what's the difference with Zoro the Greek and all the traditional the three most famous songs the Greek guys from and so is Froman theme song it's the classic D steam you know it's a something like a Greek blue and Mr Lou you know that you know it from B fiction this is Greek that's so there is a link even in the big places you go you know 3,000 people and they play in all the great names there is a link from so you hear a little bit of lesos a little bit a little [Music] bit so this is quite a gigantic massive meal no wonder the waiter was a bit nervous as how much we ordered here we have rooster pasta I'm not sure why they use a rooster instead of of a female chicken but maybe it will taste the difference I'm sure in another life I had a Greek [Music] Yaya okay are you ready for this gigantic pork knuckle ooh look how soft and just pulls apart it's baked for like 8 hours in this traditional baking technique that they have and you can really tell super super tender and soft just melts in your [Music] mouth [Music] wow I'm going to need a moment [Music] [Applause] [Music] wo according to dasos there's a line that Greeks abide by when they go out they will eat they will drink they will dance and they will sing [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Applause] yeah because even Socrates said that the best ideas come when you're moving walking and maybe even dancing but definitely one movie when you are dancing you don't have to think just dance yeah [Music] speee [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] oh woo [Applause] [Applause] I had I had no clue of that I was going to actually see that I thought I had to go to a wedding but luckily wasn't here I that [Music] but this night isn't over the night life of Athens isn't just about the classic Tas there's so much more especially in this neighborhood up CD the graffiti filled streets are often buzzing with night life dance clubs late night cafes Cocktail Lounges hookah rooftop bars restaurants late night drunk food you name it is here in CD we met with Marcos who offered to show us around he's a huge fan of the burine beer scene here so he took us to the perfect place for a cold brew one of them yes that's cool that's the very one we're going to space behind this tiny Bar Named tap Fields is Milos a man bursting with passion for the art of beer brewery he gave us a tour of Greece through pint after pints of delicious fresh Greek beer what do you want to drink bitos also had an affinity for Guinness hailing from Ireland and he boldly claimed that he can serve the best Guinness in Greece think so wait I don't think I know he know okay Guinness in uh in Greece there we [Music] go you're doing it the right way [Music] motion that's the proper form froy silky smooth with roasted moltin exactly how we expect it in Ireland meos along with many of the Athenians I've met along this journey embody what in Greek is known as makaki which means to do something with heart and soul and to put a piece of yourself into your work and Mos believes that miraki is the core ingredient for a great beer flow and after assisting that we try his own special Brew which he has meticulously tinkered with over the years I can totally taste the heart and soul with every Sip and I destroy thank you again man for your [Music] hospitality I don't know if you know about this all Mediterranean civilization they would sacrifice the their children for a favor from from the gods but when did that end I think that it ends when Christianity start to spread in Europe the end of the Punic Wars the cenans and the Romans went to war or also the Spartans they would do do human sacrifice if they felt like their children were not strong enough maybe this is the place but I'm not sure if it's open every Tuesday Clos porodo oh it literally says every Tuesday close specifically Tuesday specifically Tuesday why no it don't worries we'll find another FL yeah but I think that well at least there's parking exactly I mean yeah it's cars yeah can is I mean yeah yeah that place was not open but the parking is open so so so that's good yeah of course Oh indeed yeah no I mean no MOS was a blast to hang out with while we continue to explore the nightlife of CI drink after drink he was dropping knowledge bombs we were chatting about everything and anything Greek culture and its idiosyncrasies the Romans were expanding fast Punic Wars where they went to war with the cenans it is true that ancient Greek and ancient Italian AKA Latin are two different languages but they have like they have influenced each other a lot as a citizen in general it is kind of better in my opinion kind of be lost in the crowd and kind of receive more than you give back it feels like a welcome change from uh New York culture because New York culture can be so fast yeah and high energy it feels like taking a stimulant and you get hooked on it and it just becomes normal and then when I came here I realized oh no I can't I can't be coming here to Athens and Greece and be going as fast as I do in New York I have to chill out I have to yeah no ex know what I'm going to say I got to go seaa yeah are you hungry I can come and bite but I'm more interested in drinking rather than eating I must admit you know I'm not going to lie to you but yeah okay we'll have another drink then we enter to the next neighborhood over at monaki during the day this is bustling with shops selling kitsi souvenirs to tourists but at night we ventured several flights up one of these buildings to a rooftop bar with spectacular views of the Acropolis at night really oh my god well in that case [Music] where where where are we right now this is interesting we have to get the elevator and stuff oh awesome this is what I like about Athens you have these like little passageways that lead to like bars and rooftops it's cool have to get the the elevator I'm so excited saki [Music] right that's CRA that's awesome I mean [Music] feel like I'm a Oracle of Deli reading the the the drinks [Music] jeez Che Yas Yas oh awesome awesome the Bri and it's very interesting because in school we actually learned how to translate ancient Greek to New Age Greek even though it's a different langage really translated okay [Music] on my adventure through Athens I've gained an affinity for the Athenians during the day we can have profound chats about everything and anything may it be ancient history food how architecture impacts our daily lives the challenges of gentrification and the love for making art and music and during the night we can party with a fervor for life this city has been through so much throughout its long history and yet Athenians keep their heads up high and live to the fullest extent at least that has been my experience spending time here maybe I'm lucky to be having such an experience but I sincerely hope that many others will have the chance to appreciate what I've come to appre appreciate about Athens however one question remains the very question I've been seeking to answer in this journey why is Athens a vibrant [Music] city thank you so much for watching this episode of the Athens urbanist this is episode 5 out of six we have just one more episode and remember if you want to go on the real life Greek adventure and see some of the most beautiful iconic sites you can book yourself an official multi-day tour through Greece go to tours. urbanist dolive for more information everyone

Channel: Urbanist: Exploring Cities

Views: 18,958

Keywords:

Id: Dulp2HMsCJc

Length: 33min 49sec (2029 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 18 2024