Portrait: Nikos Papazoglou

Booklet-Text "ANTHOLOGIA"

(EFA CD 01888)

Looking behind the clichés of greek music, one will discover a scene of young, dynamic and urban musicians, each folio wing his own path along the long and winding road of tradition. A new generation of troubadours emerged from the collision between urban life and rural roots, oriental mood and western progress, conflicts which inspired melancholic melo dies, driving rhythms and thoughtful lyrics. The struggle of contem poraryGreece for a place in the modern world and for maintaining its roots, the struggle for its own identity between Orient and Occident is shaping the sound and language of its music.

Nikos Papazoglou is one of the most outstanding and most impressive artists on this scene being an extraordinary singer, composer, arranger, lyricist, producer and soundengineer. His compositions are rooted in the tradition of Rembetiko music, its expressive form being the starting point from where he develops his songs, reinterpreting the tradition and reaching beyond stereotypes of style and content: "I've been confronted with a lot of different music and styles of singing. Through practice and experiment all these different elements have become a part of myself: the singing of Spanish Gypsies, the voices of Soul and Jazz or of Folk singers like Kazandzidis or Christodoulopoulos, or the way my mother raised in Asia Minor used to sing. Somehow I managed to extract the strong elements of these musical idioms, giving them a new shape and making them mine. I'm working as well with various arrangement techniques, not only of Greek music, but also those of Jazz or Rhythm'n'Blues ensembles. I want to bring together all these different but valuable elements creating a new musical language, because I love them all the same. In fact something interesting emerged from this synthesis: inspiring sounds for me and for many other people as well. Handmade songs with strong folk roots, with lyrics focusing on the microcosmos of everyday-life in urban Greece and with the feeling of Rock music. Some mistook this development as a simple attempt to achieve some success. But the sound of the electric guitar fascinates me because of its timbre of protest and not just as a substitute for bouzouki or saxophone intros. in my songs I always try to keep a fine balance avoiding anything unnecessary.

I know that for many people it is difficult to accept that I'm behaving as I do. I'm talking about this 'anti-star'-star image some like to fix on me. But I'm not playing any game. I just don't want to accept the rules of music business as they are. I have to offer something much better. I'm not interested in the lots of money I could make. I like doing things because I want to do them and not because they bring money. This is difficult to understand for people whose aim in life is simply making money. I wouldn't waste even a day of my life for such an aim. I'm convinced: only things made out of an inner need and true belief are recognized as such. I very much believe in this kind of common feeling ... although roots music which is made just for the joy of singing is apparently not supported by the music market.

I was lucky to sing very good songs, songs which I have in high esteem and which I'll never get bored of. Every time when I have to sing one of them I feel the same quivering and I need the same energy to sing it right. A good song you will always sing with joy. I think that the continuous renewal of repertoire is an artificial need. If you have songs which you really love, you just want to sing them every night. The good songs are those which live forever, which you don't care how long ago they were made. Folk music is like grandmother's trunk: a never-ending source of new discoveries!"

For more than 15 years now, Nikos Papazoglou has succeeded in inspiring his audience with his special blend of music. He has an intuitive feeling for good songs and catchy arrangements, knowing how to give a special flair to each of his performances. Especially important in doing so are these magic moments of a live performance, when a single note can tell a whole story, the story of the intimate relationship between artist, audience and song.

Katerina Pavlaki  (1994)