by Andy Carling Giannis Haroulis 3 March, Ancienne Belgique There’s no austerity in contemporary Greek culture, the home of the arts. You may not have heard of Giannis Haroulis, who is starting out on his first European tour after becoming a respected performer who sells out shows all over Greece, not just in his home island of Crete, averaging over 100 performances a year. He is being called, the reviver of Greek folk music, but if you’re expecting a man and a mandolin playing sweetly sad songs, well, he does that and much more as he combines electric music with choirs, improvisation, classical elements, live looping, progressive rock, jazz, Greek and Middle Eastern influences. He’s making his debut in Brussels, so if you’re new to him, he’s new to Brussels. Music came to him in 1987, at six years old as his sculptor father began to teach him the mandolin, then he taught himself the lyre and other instruments, at 15 he began stepping on stage at folk festivals and in 2003 he released his first album, ‘Around Me and Within.’ He has continued to perform, record and experiment, interpreting the songs of masters old and new, this performance will give people a chance to see the traditions within Greek and Cretan music, not as pure nostalgia, but as a living and ever changing part of their and our culture.
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