A short documentary depicting the environment of experimental musicians trying to create the soundtrack of their city - Athens.
Soundtrack of Athens is a one-man band project which derived from the enthusiasm of exploring Athens through music.
Final soundtrack
The story behind this project starts in March of 2020 when the coronavirus was about to spread out in Europe. Just when I was traveling with my camera to Athens to visit my family relative, a state of emergency was declared in the Czech Republic. Due to the closure of the borders, my return flight was canceled, and I eventually got stuck in Greece for 3.5 months. When a lockdown started in Greece, I began to think how to take the biggest advantage of the current situation. The first month, I spent doing a thorough online research of the local musical scene.
I’ve been to Athens many times before this stay, and every time, I’ve been fascinated by the atmosphere of the place. The atmosphere created by the unconventional contrasts, by the diversity, the colorful palette of people around, of the architecture and streets etc. I was interested in how this environment affects being an artist. As a musician myself, I decided to focus on how it affects musicians. The chaos and huge contrasts go hand in hand with experimentation. I suspected that in such city with huge contrasts and with a bad economic and political situation, some experimentation must be going on under the surface.
Based on my research, I gained some insight into the local experimental music scene. Knowing new people plus my findings enabled me to arrange an interview with Jannis Anastasakis. Jannis, being the founder of the world-renowned guitar effects JAM Pedals, is one of the most important figures for the experimental music community in Athens.
/ Jannis Anastasakis /
ATHENS
“Athens apart from being a big capital city is a very unique city as well. Like with every big cities, it has its hidden beauties and its hidden cruelties. There are neighborhoods where you can feel fear and there are neighborhoods where you can see the beauty. It is a very diverse city and I think this kind of diversity inspires musicians to make music which can be melodic and noisy at the same time. A great place for experimentation.”
“Athens apart from being a big capital city is a very unique city as well. Like with every big cities, it has its hidden beauties and its hidden cruelties. There are neighborhoods where you can feel fear and there are neighborhoods where you can see the beauty. It is a very diverse city and I think this kind of diversity inspires musicians to make music which can be melodic and noisy at the same time. A great place for experimentation.”
VENUES, EXPERIMENTAL SCENE
“The experimental scene in Athens is not considered to be a big scene, but it’s a growing scene. It has grown a lot in the last ten years. Today there are many experimental musicians in Athens but almost no venues to host them. You need to have venues that support this kind of music in order to feel 100% free to express yourself. The last 3 years some venues in Athens have helped in this direction, to make experimental musicians feel like they have a home”
“The experimental scene in Athens is not considered to be a big scene, but it’s a growing scene. It has grown a lot in the last ten years. Today there are many experimental musicians in Athens but almost no venues to host them. You need to have venues that support this kind of music in order to feel 100% free to express yourself. The last 3 years some venues in Athens have helped in this direction, to make experimental musicians feel like they have a home”
Nikos Roussos, Chimeres.space team member
PERSONAL APPROACH
“I don’t consider myself a guitar player. I use a lot of effects and electronic devices, analog synths and noise generators, I consider the effects as my primary instrument. The last years, I have been into the live-sampling technique. When I improvise with other musicians, I use a mixer to get their signal to be able to alter their sounds with my effects. I love this live interaction. I’m also using an analog synth connected with a foot controller to be able to play bass lines. And of course my guitar for melodies and harmony. That’s the recipe for most of my performances at TV control center (Kypseli, Athens) where once a month I invite other musicians and visual artists for free-improvisation performances.”
JAM PEDALS
“As a guitar player I always used guitar pedals. I started building my own guitar effects in 2005, first from simple curiosity, and after as a hobby. Very soon many friends, guitarists were asking to make pedals for them too. At that moment I realized that I should think of all this more seriously. I built a simple website, and that’s when JAM pedals were born (JAM = my initials: Jannis Anastasakis Marinos). In 2007, I started taking part in exhibitions in Europe. It all happened very fast! Today we’re still chasing the orders. Demand is always higher than our production. It all started as a one-man operation and today we’re 35 people working at JAM pedals. The happiest thing is that some of my personal guitar heroes are using our pedals, like John Scofield, Bill Frisell, Nels Cline, Marc Ribot etc. That’s the best I could ask for!”
