Dichotomy

Dichotomy. By Vasilios Gardiakos. Albrite, Inc. New Age, Ambient, Greek Classical and Jazz Improvisations. Keyboard excursions on two instruments that reveal a unique improvisational approach to both free and structured musical styles. Gardiakos first offers five original compositions performed on an electronic keyboard in 1992, processed through MIDI equipment his studio in Greece. An ode to New York City evokes small group jazz, a vibraharp effect here and there, strings for lush. Three New Age songs explore the power of repetition, collective themes, notes that build ladders for the spirit. And synthesized voices, like angels, that sing on high in the appropriate Angel's Lullaby. The final electronic offer explores all orchestral voices in an expansive piece called Cattle Drive that builds on bass and cello memories toward competitive strings clarinets. On Side Two, Gardiakos turns loose on an old Steinway in four recordings made in Chicago in 1980 that explore his Greek heritage further with untethered improvisations. Here are dance tempos, percussive and primitive motifs, others that recall Greece's huge part in the development of early plucked and strummed instruments. Don't look for lush melodies here. The effect is more like those of some early Expressionists. Explorations, for example, of all notes below C in Gamma, then on to wild abandon. On to frantic explosions of chords in Delta that propel the CD towards its conclusion. A very personal, sometimes nationalistic, always energetic journey over the keyboard.
The Book Reader 1998