GIORGIS VRENTZOS - ANTARTOKRAXTIS (REBEL SOUL)

GIORGIS VRENTZOS - ANTARTOKRAXTIS (REBEL SOUL)

Download & Streaming: https://orcd.co/3rkpvpo

My 10-year absence from recording means more than you will hear at my new record label.

It is a sign of protest against the fall of morals and values.

However, music and verse have the blessing to overthrow situations that seem unsurpassable.

That’s what I tried to do on my return.

Something like a spark that can become a flame.

Or even bring consolation to some.

Like the song for the Homeland, or the two songs with the erotic dialogues that may touch new hearts in love.

Even the conqueror who in depicting the rebellious Greek soul, can awaken consciousness.

It is my honour that two legends of Cretan music participate with me and give a completely different dimension to the songs.  Psarantonis and Vasilis Skoulas. I thank them from the bottom of my heart.

A great thank you to Menelaos Dagyantas and ‘Pirixos Music and Recording Production Studio’ for the overwhelming attention they showed to my work, because apart from the sound he arranged, he helped me with a lot of the orchestrations.

The velvet voice of Kyvelis Sergiou gives new notes and beautiful colours to the songs we perform together.

Thank you very much.

 

A huge thank you to Nikos Vrentzos (or Bourgonikos) for his amazing narration in my historical song about Tiganitis. The deep tones of his voice give a Homeric feel to the piece.

 

To the lyricists who dressed my melodies with their sureness and experience, a huge thank you.

Aristides Heretis

Giannis Aerakis

My sister Irene Vrentzou

Emmanuel Karyotakis

Giannis Salustros

Myron Skoulas – Immortal!

Michalis Vrentzos

Kyvelis Sergiou

Vera Soultatou Xilouri

I thank them wholeheartedly and wish them the best.

I also thank friends who have been chorally involved in ‘Konstantinoupoli’. Vasilis Kalitsounakis, Giorgos Stratakis, Menelaos Dagyantas.

 

Thank you to Aerakis Cretan Music Workshop and Seistron musical publishers for their production of the CD and our long co-operation.

A special thanks to the sponsors who helped make this musical project a reality, also to my friend Father Nikolaos Tsamandouras who left to be with the angels and didn’t get to hear the finished CD.

 

I have left until last the musicians who have participated in the quest to complete this work, because they have captured the essence of the pieces.

Giorgis and Menelaos Dagyantas

Michael Chaniotakis

Stelios Androulakis

Kostas Markakis

 

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to Beverley Lenord and Kostas Skoubakis who spent many hours on translations, patiently turning the Cretan idioms and passages into English. I thought that the Cretan songs should, as far as they can, be heard outside of Greece because their conceptual content declares pride, heroism and an attitude to life.

Finally, I would like to conclude with a verse that I dedicate to every Greek, as well as to each of person on this earth who may be experiencing his own ‘crisis’ or personal quarantine.

‘If life knocks you down,

That is not the point.

To not want to get up,

That is the big drama…’

 

Enjoy…

All the music is especially dedicated to my cousin Kostas who left us too soon aged 14 years…