diVERSIONS music festival 2012

Event Information

diVERSIONS is a brand new festival of contemporary music that adds a bit of spike and chaos to London's music scene. It aims to bring together some of the most innovative and prominent art practitioners emerging from the Greek and international world today, presenting a wide spectrum of musical styles and 21st century audio-visual productions that often blend experimental sounds with current technologies and performance.

diVERSIONS 2012 is a 3-day music spectacle featuring the brilliant, the naughty, and the fiery of the Greek international music scene. An explosion of sound and image from an extraordinary array of established as well as new musicians, performers, music-makers and multi-media artists, featuring an eclectic mix of electro-acoustic, experimental, indie rock, punk, trip-hop, power pop, jazz, R n B and visual elements.

THURSDAY 24 MAY, 2012
Spyweirdos
Ta Mère
Blue Soup

FRIDAY 25 MAY, 2012
Berlin Brides
Vassilikos
Maria Yerosimou

SATURDAY 26 MAY, 2012
Yianneis
Asaf Sirkis Trio

Spyweirdos (aka Spyros Polychronopoulos) is an Athens-based musician/composer in experimental, electroacoustic, glitch, ambient, and drone music. He has dealt with a number of musical types and has been involved in various projects exploring new ways of artistic expression and new technologies of music composition and digital sound. He participated in the Greek delegation at the Venice Biennale in 2008. He has also dealt with mastering of albums and acoustics of studios as well as high end places of stereo and multichannel audio systems. (www.spyweirdos.com)

The Ta Mère experience - a boot stompin', hard-driving descent into the dark depths of sophistication and visceral class; a heavy swung gleeful celebration exploding onstage in raiment of yore and fore. This malevolent circus draws from a plethora of musical strains - jazz, blues, rock, funk, 'grass - but the presence of a powerful 2 guitar line-up, a dangerously handsome drummer, devilish 6-string bassist supporting the mad bagpiper, fiddler, harp and raw, rasp vocalist renders it unique unto itself. (www.tamere.co.uk)

One of London's finest and most unique quartets, nominated for Grammy 2012 for their second album 'Attention', Blue Soup have a fresh and friendly new sound - upbeat odd-time swinging grooves, soulful jazzy songwriting, cheerfully downbeat lyrics, Latin, Balkan and Eastern influences. The band has established an excellent live reputation with their musicianship and their energetic and entertaining performances. (www.bluesoup.net)

Berlin Brides are no strangers to London. This Athens-based duo, comprising singer/lyricist Natasha Giannaraki and synth player/composer Marilena Orfanou, play an explosive mix of electro, punk & power pop and are renowned for their caustic lyrics and electrifying live performances. They are winners of the Velvet Prize 2009 and 2011. Artrocker Magazine labelled their EP 'Failure to Wank' one of the two best releases of 2008. The band have toured extensively not only in Greece but also in the UK, Germany, North America and Canada, playing at some of the most best-known festivals and winning both fans and critical acclaim. (www.berlinbrides.com)

Vassilikos is one of the most talented Greek artists of his generation, with influences from the European music scene. He has released 6 albums with his band Raining Pleasure, of which he was the composer, singer, bassist/guitarist and lyricist. With his band, they have shared the stage with the likes of Pixies, The Cure, Pearl Jam, Arcade Fire and many more. Apart from his unique voice, Vassilikos adds his own distinctive and fresh look to pieces that have become classics over time, and makes them sound as if they were written today. (www.myspace.com/vassilikos)

Cypriot harpist Maria Yerosimou is an active performer, music educator and music researcher currently living and working in London, with a special interest in contemporary and experimental music. She has performed with the Ealing Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Orchestral Society at St. John's, Smith Square and the Goldsmith’s Sinfonia at Queen Elizabeth Hall. She is also Art Director of the Studio Avant Garde, where she is in charge of artistic projects related to music, theatre and education. Maria (www.mariayerosimou.com)

Yianneis were born into the music world in 2009 in riotous Athens, GR. Since then they keep making a fuss, a habit they grew from the very first concert and will never give up. After all, they are not only six professionally trained musicians; they are also performers who love to challenge their audiences in a way that they love to talk about later on. Their music ranges from indie rock and art pop to freak folk and trip hop. Their avant-garde live show is part concert, part theatrical performance. They combine the precision of a classical orchestra with the creative chaos of any original punk band. (http://www.yianneis.com)

In his long and playful partnership with saxophonist Gilad Atzmon, and in many other settings from improv to fusion, Israeli expatriate Asaf Sirkis keeps confirming that he's one of the British jazz scene's most creative drummers. John Law says that the way Sirkis just touches a cymbal is an inspiration, long before he's played a beat. North African as well as Middle Eastern music played a big part in his early listening, and he was a bass guitarist as well as a drummer in his teens, so rock and fusion music went deep with him. This trio generates a compelling intensity, and the leader's percussion responses to their ideas are dazzling eruptions of drum mastery. (www.asafsirkis.co.uk)

diVERSIONS is co-curated and produced by Anasa Productions (www.mythopolis.co.uk) and Ekon Arts ( www.ekon.org.uk ).