Louvana Records

Lefkosia Loop Festival 2012

Lefkosia Loop Festival 2012

3-4 January 2012

Melina Merkouri Hall

Indie record label Louvana Records is organising the first Lefkosia Loop Festival in Cyprus. The festival will take place at Melina Merkouri Hall on the 3rd and 4th of January 2012. Its main goal is to present a varied range of high-quality musical performances based on the live looping technique. To achieve this, Louvana has invited exceptional musicians from Greece, England and Cyprus, carefully selected for their knowledge and mastery of this technique, both on a technical and aesthetic level.

In particular, the artists and bands performing at the festival come from varying musical backgrounds and have a different approach regarding the use of their instruments, which adds to the diversity demanded in these live performances. Alkinoos Ioannides’ performance will be in two parts. The first revolves around the music he has composed based on the last two chapters of "I Fonissa", a novel by Alexandros Papadiamantis (which will also be narrated by actress Stela Fyrogeni), while the second will include renditions from his personal work. Guitarist Babis Papadopoulos, using a loop station, will be presenting instrumental compositions, as well as his own twisted interpretations of known songs. Sancho 003 (Kostas Pantelis - electric guitar, Fotis Siotas - violin/viola/keys/vocals) base their music exclusively on looping and synchronising two loop stations (that are in no way connected to each other) live. They will be performing pieces from their 2009 album "We Buy Gold", as well as unreleased material from their new album which is due out in spring 2012. Lüüp, after releasing two albums, they'll be performing live for the first time as a trio, with Stelios Romaliades (flute), Sofia Efklidou (cello, vocals) and Lefteris Moumtzis (vocals, guitar). Their music follows an ambient, psych-folk, neo-classical path. Electronic Meditation (Jannis Anastasakis) works with different techniques of reproduction of digital and analogue sounds through a unique collection of mainly homemade effects pedals. Last but not least, Soundspecies and Bunty are two major English acts that masterfully handle a wide range of genres, from afro-rhythms to ambient and all the way through to electronic jazz and more.

Live Looping

The looping technique gives the artist the ability to build, in real time, a complex, multi-layered musical piece. This is achieved by creating melodic and rhythmic phrases (with natural or electronic instruments), that, once structured, can be repeated as recorded samples over which the artist continues to add new lines. More than often, the final result, as well as its parts, can stand as a completed musical piece. The artist can therefore present, through looping to his/her audience, exactly how a song can be build on the spot, and what its major components are, while the listener gets a sense of being a part of the creative process.

Festival program:

January 3rd:

7:30p.m opening

8:15p.m Elektronik Meditation

9:15p.m Lüüp

10:30p.m Alkinoos Ioannides

11:45p.m Soundspecies

January 4th

7:30p.m opening

8:15p.m Raven’s Arm

9:00p.m Babis Papadopoulos

10:30p.m Sancho 003