New CD
Sotos Kappas
Reflections in Time
a retrospective of musical compositions
This music was developed over a long period of time. Ever since I was growing up in Gizi (a neighborhood in Athens), I remember the heroic poems we were singing in school, mostly by Rigas Fereos. These pooems-songs inspired me to make my own songs and sing them to my neighborhood friends. Later on, I was fortunate enough to travel, and these journeys gave me the opportunity to create more melodies.
While in Spain, the enormous paintings of El Greco, Goya, and especially Picasso's painting of "Guernica," impressed me enough to develop music based on their work. When I was in Paris, I was inspired to create music for the neighborhood of Montmartre, a picturesque area of Paris where Renoir, Lautrec, Picasso, Matisse, and many other famous painters used to live and work during the beginning of the last century, when they were still largely unknown.
In Hawaii during my first visit at the Volcano House in Kilauea, I learned about the adventurous George Lycurgos, originally from Sparta, who owned that hotel, until his death in 1961 at the age of 101. Everybody lovingly called him "Uncle George."
My father came to Athens from Smyrna in 1922, and he often talked about a famous man from Smyrna, who around that time had migrated to Buenos Aires, in Argentina. His name was Aristotle Onassis, and one of his first jobs in Buenos Aires was a dishwasher in Tango Cafe. There, Onassis had the "honor" of serving coffee to a very famous Tango singer by the name of Carlos Gardel. Onassis was always proud of that moment, and in order to honor my father's memory from Smyrna, I dedicated a song to Onassis.
Other songs were created during various moments in my life, when alone ... Some were happy moments and others were sad ... I always try to follow my feelings when I express them into music. However, it would be a great oversight if I didn't mention and thank my friends who helped me to make this recording.
Sotos Kappas
Stavros Sakatos, vocals, bouzouki
Christos Konstantinithis, piano, keyboard
Ilias Karayiannis, guitar
Gulielmos, bass
Tolis Piperas, drums
Maria Papazoglou, vocals
Dimitris Papakostas, keyboard
Alex Galas, bouzouki, tzoura, baglama
Louis Skoby, bouzouki
George Spanopoulos, guitar
Dean Ruby, percussion
Sotos Kappas Reflections in Time