Gavouna is the alias of Athens-born Athanasios Argianas. An artist and musician who in 2003, released his debut EP, 'Warm Industry' on Manchester's Melodic label (home of such electronic / jazz / folk / hip-hip / kraut enthusiasts as Pedro, Baikonour and Topo Gigio). The 'Warm Industry EP' was 12 sketchy tracks of scuzzed up noise, pianos and strings - it was the sound of your favourite musical tastes thrown together, into one gorgeous mess.

Recently, Argianas has completed his debut LP - the aptly name 'Stings And Dum Machines', which combines traditional instrumentation, built-up rhythms, heavy percussion and sparse, contemporary electronic influences. Although not released officially until the Winter, feedback from those lucky enough to have heard the album so far, has been more than positive.

Later this month, Gavouna will embark on his debut live show - an opening slot for The Earlies. Along with The Earlies blend of dreamy psych and electronic crossover, it promises to be one of the most exciting live shows of the year.

The show takes place on July 19th, at the ICA in London alongside The Earlies, Ella Guru and Clor. The album, 'Stings And Dum Machines' is set for release in the Winter, through the Arable label.

For more information on Gavouna's debut EP 'Warm Industry', check out - http://www.melodic.co.uk/melo016.htm.
For more info on the Arable label, check out - http://www.arable.net.

Hi Athanasios, how are things in the run-up to your debut live show?

Hello Jon. It's all good, a tiny bit of the needed sunshine and some very nice people dropping by to rehearse every now and then, preparing for the ICA show. Well, there's also a mass of photocopied score sheets and pencil detritus everywhere, but
one can't have everything.

The show takes place in July, opening up for The Earlies at the ICA... how exactly are you going to take your music to a live environment?

Exactly as described above...With lots of messy papers and a handful of good musicians. I thought of doing a laptop set, but then all my music is mostly acoustic now, and it's also much more fun to play a real live set. It's a lot of work having to write up the parts for the musicians, but it breathes new life into the music.

It'll probably sound quite different to the album, for example there isnt a single sax track on the LP, but it will be a dominant instrument for the ICA set. Also, Film & Video artists have made films for some of the tracks, they're not all finished yet but the ones I've seen are really successful in the way they work with the music.

You're a visual artist by day...how did you make the journey into music?

Hm. I was about to say it was the other way round, but I can't figure out which came first really. I studied music before going to Art School, and then when I had forgotten enough of the academic stuff, I wanted to make music again. Now it's all even more confusing, my 'visual' work mainly IS music...

So you've recently completed your debut album, the aptly named 'Stings And Dum Machines', can you tell us a bit about it?

I don't think I've ever worked on any one thing for such a long time, it's all sounding too familiar now, but when I started it, I think the idea was to make songs. Instrumental song-like tracks, with live and analogue instruments, but still making an 'electronic' record.

The few lucky people to hear it so far have been more than kind, are you pleased with the initial reaction it's getting? When will it be commercially available?

Very pleased, and a bit surprised. What I really appreciate is that the 'approval' comes from both 'camps' as it were, the electronica folks, as well as the indie-acoustic ones… I guess that can be problematic for people who like their music with a big stamp on it, but I think it's a good thing.

I think the release date is October, but the mastering and artwork are still not finished so it may sway a little.

Why the sharp change in direction anyway? I mean the 'Warm Industry EP' (Melodic) was very sketchy in parts, almost a mess of random samples and noise. However, the album is a lot more song-based and heavily relies on rhythm sections and live instruments...

'Warm Industry' was quite sketchy, but I have to disagree in that there weren't any 'samples' as in sampled music, it was all hand-made music, just much more amateurish and, erm, sketchy. In the album I knew more of what I was doing. It's a digital VS analogue thing. Really, it sounds superficial but for me there's more in that discourse. Live instruments are carrying people's performances and mistakes, it's a living breathing thing and its only for the sake of convenience and speed that people went nuts in the 80's with digital production.

I still edited things on a Mac, and I don't restrict the process, I don't want to make a retro record. But capturing acoustic sound is a beautiful thing and I'm more and more into that idea. The next LP is halfway there, and that's 100% live played and much more sparse and textural, more natural sounding.

Some of the tracks contain elements or riffs from some of the EP tracks, was this because you weren't entirely happy with the first versions?

Yes, partly I wanted to remake tracks from the EP, that I felt had more potential. Also, the album is on a different label, and if I wanted to use any older tracks I had to re-record them.

There's a beautiful cover of Isan's 'Kittenplan-A' as the album closer, are they quite an influence on your music?

It started as a re-work swap which I initiated, because I so wanted to cover 'Kittenplan-A'. For 'Kittenplan-A', we started recording the trumpets while some bits from my studio were getting serviced, so we got a lot of noise, lots of background and even windows trembling from the trumpet sound! It's all still in there you know. But it just sounded so boxy and clunky that it sounded right for some reason, so we kept it like that.

Isan music is a bit special - and I'm not saying it cause Robin is releasing my album! It's very hard to do single-digit melodies and such minimal instrumentation and get these rich and emotive records.

Speaking of influences... 'Stings And Dum Machines' is not so typically British sounding. There's a lot of varied and interesting styles that shape your sound, care to share any with us?

That could be a long answer, every musician gets all jittery and over-excited when someone asks them for influences but I'll try and keep it simple. Early electronic music, like BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Ron Geesin, early Kraftwerk, Jon Zorn, Lurie & The Lounge Lizards, CAN, F.S. Blumm, Tindersticks etc etc.

As well as completing your own album, you've also helped out on the forthcoming Micah P Hinson album (due out in August on Sketchbook). How did that come about and what was your role on the album?

That's another long story! I was going to write all the strings for Micah, about six tracks and after I just managed one track, there came a postal-service / technological incompatibility nightmare which culminated to my hard drive going on fire, (literally). Finally, I sent an mp3 of my strings and they re-recorded the parts played by ear, just a hours before they finished the whole album… It was a huge jinx, and a bit of a shame that the recordings were lost, but there's nothing to be done now, so I'm looking forward to getting to work properly with Micah in the future.

Any other musicians you'd like to work with? Or remixes for that matter...your Italo-disco reworking of Baikonour earlier this year was a stormer!

I've got a half-finished Earlies re-work somewhere here, and more Earlies and Isan related plans but nothing materialised yet. I was really into reworking tracks after my 1st remix. But then it proved to take up so much time (remember the digital VS analogue discourse?) since I really treat these reworks as if they were my own, so I'm not that keen on doing any more for the time being. That said, I'm starting collaboration with some artists who work with script and narration, to make pieces with a narrative context, I think it's the spoken-word tracks on Tindersticks records that inspired this.

Thanks for the talking to us, good luck with the live show!

You're welcome sir & thanks, we'll need some of that.