What happens if you cross a 303 synth with a shepherd from Epirus? Greek Acid: a soundtrack to centuries of migration

On her fourth EP Greek Acid, Gavana (Anna Gavanas) retraces the Greek music she grew up with, with centuries of stories from the Greek diaspora. With her dad Manolis, Gavana has rummaged through the record shops of Athens looking for Greek traditional music like rebetiko, laikos and tsifteteli. Music inspired by migration and hybridization from east and west and speaking of crises, occupation and resistance. Greek rebetiko music was shaped among poor migrants from Asia Minor at the beginning of the 1900s. Between eastern and western scales and harmonies. Today Greek musicians are going back to the old songs about migration, hardship and love. But on this EP, Gavana has especially been inspired a shepherd’s song from Epirus with Tassos Chalkias. During all ages, shepherds from Epyrus have migrated with the changes of the seasons, regardless of national boundaries. Inspired by these sounds, and a meeting with the musician Lars Ydgren, Gavana has gone “all in.” With a 303 bassline, a sampler and a couple of analog synths she has made acid music for the dancefloor, breezing from the mountains of Epirus accompanied by crickets from Skiathos.

Dhangsha, aka Dr Das, has, in his turn, made The Greek Acid Exarchaeia remix from the streets of Athens. Dhangsha is the electronic incarnation of Aniruddha Das, aka "Dr Das," bassist and co-founder of Asian Dub Foundation. His remit is to explore minimalism, repetition and fragmentation in sound. While doing his Greek Acid Exarchaeia remix Dhangsha was thinking about the Athens district of Exarchaiea populated by Artists, Anarchists and Anti-fascists. This imbued the remix with a sense of militancy, energy and defiance. Dhangsha’s frequencies are always political. The remix is mastered by Ramjac at HMVS, London.

On all tracks of the EP are sounds from the clarinettist and saxophonist Lars Ydgren, whom has taken an interest in klezmer and roman music from Balkan since the 1990s. With the bands Den Flygande Bokrullen and Süperstar Orkestar he has been part of the klezmer and balkan brass influence on the Swedish live scene and released a number of records. The second record of Den Flygande Bokrullens ”20th century klezmer” was recently awarded as one of Sweden’s best folk/ world music records of all times by the music magazine Lira.

Greek Acid follows up on Gavana’s previous EPs Malaga Nights, Culture Vulture and Vicious Vibrations, which were played by Swedish National Radio’s ”Elektroniskt i P2” and covered by Johanna Paulsson, one of Sweden’s main music reviewers (Sonic #68, 2013). The track El Andaluz from Malaga Nights became a hit in Colombia (!) and the EP was listed as ”hot pick” by Sattelite Records in New York. With this new release, Gavana continues her mission as a driving force in the Swedish electronic music scene:

“Being a DJ, producer, remixer, music culture researcher as well as a label owner, Anna Gavanas is a mainstay of the Swedish electronic music scene. When producing, her perfect sense for musical intensity and mellowness guarantees a captivating listening experience.” (Gearjunkies, August 2012)

Release date November 28, release party at Club Sintetizator (at Time Bar in Hornstull/ Stockholm). The EP will be aired for the first time by Swedish National Radio/ P2 Elektroniskt