"I was painstakingly born in noisy Athens, Greece August 1976. After using my father's surname in my visual work, I thought it'd be natural to use my mother's maiden name in my music work." Explains Athanasios Argianas the one-man show behind Gavouna.
"I started doing music (with non-household equipment) at about 8 when I was given a violin as a Christmas gift. Since then, bi-monthly decisions on whether I'd be a musician or a painter were regular and always 'final'. Within that time I managed to skip several years in music theory class, and ended up following composition class with a fantastic guy who was part of the whole 70's avant guard thing and worked closely with Xenakis and Berio etc. He really changed the way I saw creative processes in general, not just music."
Being from Athens didn't actually influence Athanasios' music in a straightforward way but subtly maybe it has, '"I was really stunned when I first heard Eric Satie and that was because it sounded awfully familiar since he was using Greek modals. I didn't know that then but there was something I could really understand. For instance I'd really love to be able to make music like Kraftwerk but I just can't. Whatever I do has to be 'softened-down' and humanised at the end. No straight lines and corners. If you look at a map of Athens you'll know what I mean."
Electronic friends ISAN recently pointed out that Gavouna's music is hand-made but in a more 'pointful' way. This may have something to do with Athanasios' living being made from creating art or 'objects'. Like his art the textures are vital and as ISAN described, the timbral part is full of 'scratches' and 'scrapes' and 'clangs' and 'swells'. Compliments indeed as Athanasios says, "I thought 'that's one of the most insightful things I ever heard about my work, and it also made me realise how close it is to my visual work."
(Official Biography by Melodic)
Website: http://www.melodic.co.uk
