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Tania Giannouli



Last Updated: 12/6/2009

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Status: Single
City: Athens
Country: GR
Signup Date: 6/22/2007

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November 29, 2009 - Sunday 
My band 4+1.


http://www.myspace.com/tesseraena

http://www.youtube.com/TesseraSynEna



Το συγκρότημα 4+1 δημιουργήθηκε το 2007 από μουσικούς που είχαν συνυπάρξει σε μουσικά σχήματα και παλαιότερα. Με όχημα τον αυτοσχεδιασμό και τις ποικίλες μουσικές αναφορές, το συγκρότημα ξεκίνησε τις συναντήσεις του επιχειρώντας μια σειρά ηχητικών συνειρμών άλλοτε με τον φυσικό ήχο των οργάνων και άλλοτε – με τη χρήση εφέ – με τη μετατροπή του ήχου αυτού σε ηλεκτρονικό, παίζοντας με την εναλλαγή μελωδίας – ρυθμικών μοτίβων - ηχοχρώματος. Στόχος των 4 + 1 είναι η μουσική δημιουργία που συνδυάζει τη χρήση προετοιμασμένου υλικού και της μουσικής που προκύπτει «ζωντανά», κατά τη διάρκεια των αυτοσχεδιασμών.

The group 4+1 was created in 2007 from musicians who have coexisted in several bands in the past. Through improvisation and various musical influences, the group tries a range of sound associations, using natural instrument sound or transformed electronic sound, playing with the alternation of melody, rhythmical motives and timbre. 4+1' s effort is making music that combines prepared stuff with improvisation.

Τάνια Γιαννούλη: πιάνο

Νίκος Νικολόπουλος: φλάουτα, synthesizer

Σταμάτης Δελλαπόρτας: κλαρινέτο, shacuhachi

Βασίλης Τζαβάρας: κιθάρες, loops, tapes

Ορέστης Ζαφειρόπουλος: βιολοντσέλο

Γιάννης Νοταράς: drums, percussion




Tania Giannouli: piano

Nikos Nikolopoulos: flutes, synthesizers

Stamatis Dellaportas: clarinet, shacuhachi

Vasilis Tzavaras: guitars, loops, tapes

Orestis Zafiropoulos: cello

Giannis Notaras: drums, percussion

4+1's music free for downloading in one out of three Trente Oiseaux 's compilations " Tori no Kaigi". Booklet free download also. Please visit:


http://klangstaub.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=4&products_id=22





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September 23, 2009 - Wednesday 

Ερωτική νύχτα δίχως αύριο

* «Αριστερά-δεξιά» των Σταύρου Ράπτη και Αργύρη Γερμανίδη
Δεν βλέπουμε συχνά τους δύο πρωταγωνιστές (Σεραφίτα Γρηγοριάδου και Κώστα Φιλίππογλου) στο ίδιο κάδρο, γιατί η ταινία είναι ένα παιχνίδι με τον χώρο Δεν βλέπουμε συχνά τους δύο πρωταγωνιστές (Σεραφίτα Γρηγοριάδου και Κώστα Φιλίππογλου) στο ίδιο κάδρο, γιατί η ταινία είναι ένα παιχνίδι με τον χώρο Είναι μια ταινία συνεργασίας. Την υπογράφει το δημιουργικό ντουέτο Σταύρος Ράπτης-Αργύρης Γερμανίδης. Το στόρι είναι το εξής: Ενας άντρας κλειδώνεται έξω από το σπίτι του, καταλήγει απρόσκλητος στο διαμέρισμα της γειτόνισσάς του και περνούν τη νύχτα μαζί. Το επόμενο πρωί ο καθένας τραβάει τον δρόμο του και η αμήχανη συνάντησή τους μένει ως μια θολή ανάμνηση.
Λιτή και χωρίς διαλόγους, γυρισμένη με ακίνητη κάμερα και με την έννοια της απόστασης να παίζει σημαντικό ρόλο, η ταινία στηρίζεται στη συμμετρία και σε ένα γραμμικό σινεμά.
«Εχει να κάνει με τον χώρο. Δεν βλέπουμε τους δύο πρωταγωνιστές στο ίδιο κάδρο, κρύβονται πίσω από αντικείμενα, ενώ υπάρχει δράση εκτός κάδρου», λέει ο 34χρονος Αργύρης Γερμανίδης. Αυτό άλλωστε τους ενδιαφέρει αμφότερους, «ένα σινεμά της παρουσίας, όπου εξασφαλίζεις ότι είσαι παρών ως κινηματογραφιστής. Αυτό που κάνει ο Ρόι Αντερσεν».
«Ισως και να είναι ένα σχόλιο για τη μοναξιά που υπάρχει στη μεγαλούπολη. Είναι μια σκέψη για το πώς θα μπορούσαν δύο άνθρωποι που δεν γνωρίζονται να υπάρξουν σε ένα χώρο», προσθέτει ο 33χρονος Σταύρος Ράπτης.
Αν και είναι η πρώτη φορά που ανεβαίνουν με ταινία στη Δράμα, έχουν εμπειρία πίσω τους σε άλλα «πόστα». Ο Σταύρος Ράπτης στο κάστινγκ (διαφήμιση και σινεμά) και ο Αργύρης Γερμανίδης στο σενάριο.
Το σκηνοθετικό τους ντεμπούτο τούς ανοίγει τον δρόμο της σκηνοθεσίας; «Με ενδιαφέρει η σκηνοθεσία αλλά όχι με τη λογική "κάναμε μία, άντε πάμε γρήγορα για την επόμενη", λέει ο Σταύρος Ράπτης. Και ο Αργύρης Γερμανίδης συμπληρώνει: «Μου αρέσει να ασχολούμαι με το σενάριο, αλλά έχω κουραστεί να κάνω παρέα σε έναν σκηνοθέτη που φαντασιώνεται χαρακτήρες. Ο σεναριογράφος στην Ελλάδα δεν είναι ακριβώς ρόλος, αλλά άλλοθι του σκηνοθέτη».
Η συνεργασία τους δεν προέκυψε τυχαία. Η φιλία τους μετρά ήδη 15 χρόνια, από τότε που ο ένας βοηθούσε τον άλλο στις πτυχιακές που έκαναν στη Σχολή Σταυράκου.


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August 6, 2009 - Thursday 
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July 25, 2009 - Saturday 


http://eu.greekreporter.com/2009/07/24/greek-films...

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"Left-Right" by A. Germanidis-S. Raptis at Sarajevo Film Festival. Music by Tania Giannouli

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July 16, 2009 - Thursday 
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July 4, 2009 - Saturday 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR0GQhxl4Yc

48 hour festival 2009. "Sell your dog" production. Music by Tania Giannouli

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October 25, 2008 - Saturday 
TANIA GIANNOULI
COMPOSITIONS & IMPROVISION
LOVE WAR & UMBRELLAS

 
Tania Giannouli ~ Compositions & Improvisation ~ Love War & Umbrellas


Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.
~ Plato

We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
~ T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets



When the world is moving too fast, it may be necessary to slow down to catch up.  There is no better argument for this principle than the music and video of Blue On The Move.  Habit is a great deadener, and the constant assault of seventh chords in march time can numb the soul with the false hope of easy and angry progress.  Tania Giannouli's music takes the time to feel its way through the predicament of being human through the curse of interesting times. 

Tania Giannouli creates evocative music: whether pure, theatrical or improvised in extended tonality.  There is a visceral reaction to the sounds she produces worthy of popular acceptance wielding enough force to reeducate the unsuspecting Cincinnati-born, Erich-Kunzel-loving Luddite with the spirit of this music.  For my money, Tania's organization of sound feels like a cohesive and coherent voice expressed in each of three distinct musical forms.  There is a sense of joy tempered by a depth of emotional. human experience expressed in her choices across three distinctly different forms of musical expression.  I like the voice I hear and find it familiar and unique.  

There are three discrete forms of music produced by Tania Giannouli:  Pure, theatrical and improvisational. 

The "pure" music found in Blue on the Move and Mistral define a feeling for me using orchestral instruments with extended tonality and an ensemble extended by instruments found in serious music around the world.  The range of expression between these two songs is remarkable.  Mistral has a consistent cadence, while Blue on the Move creates events in the music but doesn't depend on a "beat" to move it along.  Both have a sense of mystery and breathless unpredictability.  Both are just plain beautiful. 

The "theatrical" music Giannouli writes on commission from dance and theater groups as a support to a story.  As I am unable to see the play or the dancers, this music is "programmatic" to my ears.  I hear a story.  The music to Trojan Women is a good example.  I was honored when the composer asked me in an email to listen and describe what I heard.  I listened and wrote back a quick description of what went through my head.  I'm an American living in Ohio, and I've never been to Greece, but I can find it on a map.  The music took me to Iraq, and the march of soldiers into Baghdad.  It was a feeling.  Greece is a gravity's rainbow from that war.  The sounds I heard, a glance at Euripides' play, a look at the world map, and my own understanding of the war lead me to a feeling of loss with the movement of boots on the sand.  A few hours later, I got a reply from the composer saying that was what she had been thinking of while writing that piece.  Theatrical music should tell a story, but this was a bit of a miracle to communicate such a complex understanding of war in general, the tragedy of The Trojan Women, and the specific march of soldiers on modern sand.

While most familiar improvised music finds its way out of the chord or the key in moments of ecstasy, the players in 4+1 have in their improvisational arsenal a whole series of intervals that seldom find their way into jazz, blues, or jam music.  "Improvisational" music is usually based on the blues or some other simple and profound progression known to each of the players.  The noodling brilliance of Phish or The Grateful Dead, those long expressive jam sessions on George Harrison's bonus disk from All Things Must Pass and most of jazz are familiar examples of this form.  There is a significant difference in the music of 4+1.  The rules are different.  The sound comes from a different impulse.  I believe these musicians are after a sense of wonder in music that differs from the ecstatic ramblings and noodling of other improvisers.  What really matters most as always is the joy of the journey.  I believe this is a different side of the coin of improvisation.  When I listen to 4+1, I'm looking for the insight of a group of composers into what current music seeks to find. 



THE MUSIC:

Blue on the move
..

BLUE ON THE MOVE

My first recollection of Tania Giannouli's music was from the video of Blue on the Move (included here below).  First impression:  Nothing is happening, and there is no music.  Sometime later, I tried again with a little more patience.  Second thoughts after viewing in full screen:  Aha!  The little lights are cars driving at the shore of the sea.  The sun is setting.  This music arrives late to give the dimming light the downbeat, approaching that still-moving-still-so-unmoved deal the sea implies about the way we sometimes feel with the passage of time.  Maybe the brain wave patterns it invoked in me were meditation.  I don't know.  These were simple, focused thoughts I was having.  Very rare.

Blue on the Move works so well with that video I imagine the image of that road and the sea when I hear the music. There's a line from Shakespeare about the sea, "Still moving. Still so unmoved." This music reminds me for some reason of Prelude To The Afternoon of a Fawn (Claude Debussy).  That may be more than anything that there are events in the music that seem to build like bubbles coming to the surface of a pond to dissipate.  Keeps me guessing.  The bubbles form into events.  That's attractive music. 



MISTRAL

Mistral in Greek is called "maistros" (its pronounced ma-ee-stros).  Its the wind that comes from north-west.  This is my favorite wind when I'm in my summer house by the sea because its a strong wind yet there is not big wave because there is a little cape on the left that protects our beach.  The sea is normally warmer these days in a strange way, the density of water is surreal and this wind takes you along.  I personally feel like flying with the wind.  This wind is summer to me.  I could not describe it better."
~ Tania Giannouli

There are bells in this music.  They may be gamelan bells.  There is also a sense of static progression that suggests shimmering on a pond or twinkling stars.  The Doppler effect of these bells suggests the decay of a tone or the dying of a light.  This song is fun to describe, and I could go on.  There is no point to that.  This music is the best definition of itself.  I hear sorrow and hope in an intoxicating mixture that suggests a deep mystery.  As pure music, I believe this song has the strength and imagination of an early Lou Harrison composition.  There's enough music here to stop time and create a place in the mind untouched by familiar certainties.  I'd like to find a clever way of saying this, but it's beautiful.  This music is beautiful.

 


AUTUMN'S JOURNEY

I'm listening to Autumn's Journey. At first it reminds me of Keith Jarrett's improvisions on piano or McCoy Tyner's album of ballads. There is always a sense of drama in this music. Autumn is a great month. The leaves turn colors as they begin to lose hold of the tree. I hear a sense of loss and longing.



LOVE SONG

(Love song: from the theatre play Evdomada xoris Kyriaki, Culture Victims, theatro AMORE)

Love Song begins a little like Satie's Gymnopedies, but there is more of a progression to follow. The heartbeat of a slow and regular drum suggests separation from the loved one. The electronic sounds are the steady wind that can't be controlled. The wind tells the truth. There is discordance in the decay of that constant high-pitched sound. As the cadence is taken up by the keyboard and string sounds, some resolution in the heart seems to take shape. Maybe it's the formation of a dream. Dreams are impractical, but they are why we resolve to do things we may not be able to achieve.



UMBRELLA VALSE

Umbrella Valse is a beautiful piece of programmatic music. There is a teaspoon or more of Ravel's Bolero in the form. The choice of instruments suggests a carnival or circus orchestra. The course of events in the piece leads to a dizzying activity. There may be some brash hurrying into a kind of performance. Things are happening that take away the freedom of choice. It seems the characters are forced to work to set the balance after the dance takes on a life of it's own.

 

The unattributed 18th Century engraving Death of Astyanax and Picasso's La Minotauromachie.


TROJAN WOMEN

Euripides' play The Trojan Women performed in 2008 in Greece suggests to me a commentary on the occupation of Iraq to me.  The insistent cadence of this piece is a departure from Tania's previous work that I have heard. There is a sense of outrage in this work. Troops seem to be marching mechanically without conscious to the beat of the bowed bass.  This is a sorrowful piece. The violin sounds almost like bowed metal. There is something happening the listener wants to stop but the unchanging bass line indicates that it will continue.  It is as though I want to scream, but don't from fear.

The cadence reminds me of Maurice Ravel's Bolero, in that it seems to describe something that is inevitable. It may be the march of time.  This piece makes me want to listen to Pauline Oliveros' Crone Music composed for her 20th Century accordion as an example of extended tonality and contemporary composition used as the theme for a stage play.



Update on Trojan Women some months later:

I've commented on Trojan Woman before. The dark march of a bad idea turning into marching armies suggests the fiasco in Iraq. There is certainty in the building force of the piece, but the truth has been lost along the way. Something unthinkable has been put into motion. This is a false cause leading to an atrocity. All things true need to be doubted and reproved again and again. This is the sound of certainty, resolve, dogma, doctrine, and the march of good men toward a disaster they have been conscripted to bring into the world. It's like the story "Killing An Elephant" by George Orwell. He was an English policeman in Burma. A mob had come to him because they said an elephant had killed a child. He took his rifle and followed the mob to the elephant, wondering what he would do when he got there. When he saw the animal, he realized he didn't have a decision to make because he had followed the mob to kill the elephant. This song is that journey and the building resolve to do what should have been avoided.






THE IMPROVISATIONAL GROUP "4+1"

Description from the myspace page for "4+1" found on myspace at www.myspace.com/tesseraena:  "The group 4+1 was created in 2007 from musicians who have coexisted in several bands in the past. Through improvisation and various musical influences, the group tries a range of sound associations, using natural instrument sound or transformed electronic sound, playing with the alternation of melody, rhythmical motives and timbre. 4+1' s effort is making music that combines prepared stuff with improvisation."

Now, this is astonishing.  This group "4+1" was created as an improvisational ensemble that doesn't depend on blues, jazz, or any other repetitive popular progression.  These players are comfortable with what I have come to call "extended tonality."  There is a cadence and a series of bass lines that work to form a construct over which improvisation is possible, but this improvisation is unique in my experience.  Billy Jenkins, the great British blues/jazz/pop/rock hybrid master, suggests that the true improviser must only play once.  His point is well taken, since the second time through any progression the improvisation is inevitably "improved" with tricks learned from the first time through.  "4+1" seems to float free from the tricks sufficient and sufficient discovery to justify their description of improvisers, while retaining an extended sense of musical joy to keep the listener feeling through the song.  This is the closest thing I've heard to improvised current composition.  I've heard improvised poetry before, and consistently joke that such a thing is an oxymoron.  This group has found a way to improvise without sinking into the murky comfort of familiar territory.  There is a spirit to this music more important than a mere experiment.  Most experiments in music are dead on arrival.  Music either makes you feel something or it doesn't matter.  This music matters.

Tania Giannouli: piano
Nikos Nikolopoulos: flutes, synthesizers
Stamatis Dellaportas: clarinet, shacuhachi
Vasilis Tzavaras: guitars, loops, tapes
Orestis Zafiropoulos: cello


ABOUT TANIA GIANNOULI

Piano Soloist Diploma (K. Vournazou), Harmony, Counterpoint, Fugue, Composition (K. Varotsis) at Athenaeum Conservatory.  She also studied Agriculture-Food Technology at Agricultural University of Athens.  She performs in piano recitals with a theatrical touch, composes music for short movies, theatre and is a member of improvisation bands.
 
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July 26, 2008 - Saturday 

H Τάνια Γιαννούλη

 

Την Τάνια Γιαννούλη δεν την ξέρω προσωπικά, απλά έχουμε κάνει επαφή στο face book.Είναι πιανίστα ,σύνθετης και μέλος του συγκροτήματος 4 + 1.Έτσι από εκεί (δηλαδή από το facebook) μου έστειλε την σελίδα της στο my space.

Επιτέλους,αληθινές μουσικές συνθέσεις!Είχα πολύ καιρό να ακούσω κάτι που βγαίνει από τα βάθη της δημιουργίας.Δυστυχώς ζούμε σε δύσκολους καιρούς για την δημιουργία .Άλλοι τρέχουν πίσω από τα φουστάνια της coca cola,όπως λέει και ο αδελφός Vita Mi Barouak,άλλοι ζουν την δική τους τραγική Σαββοπουλιάδα,άλλοι χαμένοι στα κλούβια της ύπαρξης και του δήθεν,άλλοι ονειρεύονται θεάματα …

Μα τι σημασία έχει πια να γκρινιάζεις αφού η τεχνολογία σου δίνει την δυνατότητα να υπερπηδήσεις «συρματοπλέγματα» που μπορεί να σε ματώσουν. Ο κόσμος δεν περιμένει πια, αλλά ψάχνει, ψάχνει στους ηλεκτρικούς φωτισμένους δρόμους. Εδώ θα σταματήσω να γράφω το κείμενο και σας συνδέω με την σελίδα της Τάνιας Γιαννούλη, εκεί θα βρείτε γνώση και φρεσκάδα, κάτι από το μέλλον δηλαδή.

www.myspace.com/taniagiannouli

4+1
www.myspace.com/tesseraena

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posted by al barouak at 10:36 AM

 

http://barouak.blogspot.com/2008/07/blog-post_26.html

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