(CD) ASATE - ΑΝΔΡΕΑΣ ΓΕΩΡΓΙΟΥ

Andreas Georgiou composer and multi instrumentalist,was born in Famagousta Cyprus.He began his musical activities at the age of ten,with classical guitar studies and continued later with classical piano ,classical and contemporary harmony,counterpoint,fugue and composition with composer Dimitris Dragatakis. Furthermore he studied Byzantine music at the National musik school of Simon Karras with precentor George Remoundos. His research,expanded in differend ethnomusicological idioms,such as African and classical Indian regions, playing traditional instruments like sitar,shahnay,tambura, african sanza,cretian mandura,pithkiayli of Cyprus,and small percussion. Georgious interest towards the polyrhythmic approach of the guitar,lead him to the design of differend multi-string acoustic guitar models,with 13,14,15,16 and 19 strings, all materialised by the Greek luthier Leonidas Vrachatis. Furthermore his research for non tempered scales,lead him to the design of an electric fretless guitar,which can create very special "etherial" quality of sound,by the superimposition of electromagnetic fields. Georgiou has composed music for the Third program of the Greek National radio,for theatrical performances and dance theater. During the last 25 years he has been giving concerts in Cyprus ,Greece ,Holland,Hungary, Germany, Ireland, Russia, Argentina,solo,leading as well as participating in Jazz and Ethnic groups,such as "Sansa Quartet","East-West Wind","Szabo Sandor Duo","Hermae","Embryo","Aeora", "Trio Kutsukuta","Trias","Andreas Georgiou Ethnic Jazz Quintet". Among his most recend cooperations, exist some of the worlds most creative musicians: bassist Eberhard Weber, percussionist Airto Moreira, Ramesh Shotham, drummers Mark Walker, Reto Weber, saxophonist Paul McCandless, pianist Reiner Bruninghaus and vocalist Savina Yiannatou. He has been teaching Jazz improvisation and harmony at the Municipal Concervatory of Patras since 1989. Further of the above, I'll jump straight into the virtues of this disc, which ushers back Eberhard Weber and inducts Airto Moreira and Savina Yiannatou, also luminaries in the chamber jazz / ECM worlds (Moreira possessing an even longer history, a years-past alum of the illustrious CTI label and a very in-demand percussionist). The disc is of a piece with everything else Georgiou has done, and not a single cut in any of his many releases veers one inch from the highest standards. Where Paul McCandless appeared with his sax on Jua Ni Juu, Harris Lamprakis plays the caval, a flute, here on two cuts redoubling very strong Grecian, Mediterranean, and even Arabic airs. Yiannatou dubs in her angelic melismas, and Moreira is as lush and ingenious as he's ever been. Georgiou has a way of bringing that out even in already hallowed stalwarts, his compositions and shimmering guitar playing re-mounting a drive to perfection that has been sadly decaying in much of the music world in toto in the last couple decades.