Drums & Voice Jazztronica Duet
«Drums & Voice Jazztronica Duet»
Nu Jazz | Practice based research project
Ilias Doumanis -drummer, composer, educator and mixed media practitioner- explores systematically, through composition and orchestration, the combination of drumming with technology. Aggeliki Toubanaki –vocalist, vocal educator, PhD, sound experimentalist- studies and teaches the mechanism of voice and searches the «extended vocal techniques», through her musical projects and the interdisciplinary process.
In February 2014, they create the original Nu Jazz, practice based research project “Drums & Voice Jazztronica Duet”. The project started by the need of the two musicians to search and experiment on the limits of their instruments’ sound and by their desire to design a versatile sound environment using electronic media and programs.
With the specially designed electronic drums set, digital percussion sounds, effects, samples and real time loops, they arrange forms, harmonize and deconstruct the usual role of the two instruments, giving them a multidimensional presence. They present original compositions from their upcoming album and pieces of bebop, modal, hardbop jazz scene. Their arrangements underline the improvisational interaction and the assembly of a synesthetic performative universe.
The “Drums & Voice Jazztronica Duet” is for the two musicians a field of free expression and composition as personal interpretation of contemporary reality.
Aggeliki Toubanaki: Voice, Fx, Loops | Lyrics, Composition
Ilias Doumanis: Drums, Fx, Loops | Composition, Custom Design Programming
Collaborators
Sound engineer: Paschalis Kolentsis
Lighting designers: Valentina Tamiolaki & Nikos Syrigos
Graphic designer: Sugahtank (creator of their logo)
Video maker: Ira Drakou
Text editing: Keli Daskala
Booking manager: the producer-director Louizos Aslanidis
Venues – Festivals Performances
Greek Participation at International Conference and Festival “Showcases” in the context of Athens Music Week 2020, “Life in between” an online project of Gallery ONKAF India 2020, Technopolis Athens Jazz Festival, live on the radio of ERT (Greek National Radio)-“Jazz in the City”, “Stavros Niarchos Foundation”, Live & Interview on “Woodiments” European drumming network broadcasts, Preveza Jazz Festival, Tinos jazz Festival, “Benaki Museum”, Jazz Full Moon Festival, Music Expo -Zappeion Palace Hall, Jazz duet Festival-2014, Athens Jazz FX Festival, Athens Sofar Sounds, Athens Voice Festival , “Philippos Nakas Conservatory”, “Numismatic Museum”, 2015 etc.).
Collaborations
The approach of the two musicians to art is in dialectic and synthetic relationship with the performing/audio-visual arts and visual creation.
They have shared the stage with the photographer Giorgos Vitsaropoulos (video projection) and the cartoonist Soloup (live drawing). They have composed the original tune “Big Bad Wolf” inspired by Soloup’s Graphic novel “The Collector. Six short stories about a bad wolf.”
They have invited the jazz trumpeter Dimitris Papadopoulos, the lyra player Lefteris Andriotis and the trumpeter Pantelis Stoikos.
MIRROR | an inter-media Performance
In the context of the presentation of their debut album “Mirror”, Drums & Voice Jazztronica Duet creates the inter-media performance “Mirror” based on the inter-artistic interaction, the development of a common code of improvisation and co-creation that combines different arts. “Mirror” is a field of research collaboration among the Nu Jazz duo with the multidisciplinary visual artist Dimitra Kousteridis, the physical performer Thekla Gaitis, and the English director, researcher and director of the international collective of artists DUENDE John Britton, as well as founder of the Self-With-Others method.
Ilias Doumanis
Drummer, composer, educator, mixed-media practitioner, sound designer
Official Youtube Channel | Ilias Doumanis
Official facebook Page | Ilias Doumanis Drummer
Ilias Doumanis started his studies on music with piano and flute. However drumming finally gained him. Today he is an active member and well known drummer of the Greek jazz, rock and blues scene.
Since 1980, he has participated in many music projects presented in jazz clubs, music venues and festivals in Greece and abroad (Switzerland, Germany, Turkey etc.).
He is a drums educator at the Philippos Nakas Conservatory (Athens-Greece) since 1990. He has taught more than 1000 young drummers; many of them are currently active musicians in Greece and abroad. Since 2014 he teaches at the “Yamaha Popular Music School Drums” for children.
He has been collaborated with the most influential Greek composers and singers, as Thanos Mikroutsikos, Miltos Paschalidis, Elli Paspala, Orfeas Peridis, Vangelis Germanos, Christos Thiveos, Giota Nega, Yiannis Charoulis, Anna Vissi, Yiannis Spanos, Christos Nikolopoulos, and Melina Kana & Askabat etc., in Greece and abroad.
In the experimental music scene he has collaborated with the composer and keyboardist Vangelis Katsoulis on the work of the composer, with the pianist composer Konstantina Polychronopoulos in the project «The Classical World of Jazz» and the multidisciplinary artist, Dimitra Kous on site-specific projects and noise, free jazz improvisation concerts.
Since 1991 he systematically explores the combination of drumming with technology through personal research, composition and seminar organization. He has conducted Master Classes Seminars: “The computer in the service of electronic Drums”, “Technical and Polyrhythmic approach to the drums set”. At the same time he was invited in the seminars of well-known musicians, as the seminar of the composer and drums player in the context of “Drumfest” in “Jazz Guitar” -Workshop of the German guitarist Michael Sagmeister and in the Workshop of Matthew Nicholl “Effective rehearsal techniques” at the Filippos Nakas Conservatory. He is often invited to present his distinctive way of orchestration with electronic drums and programs. Recently the show Woodiments in the context of “Behind the Set” had an extensive tribute to his compositional and orchestrating imprint on the drum set through the project “Drums & Voice Jazztronica Duet”.
He was the co-founder and composer/sound engineer at the studio of sound recording “Studio ONE” (Athens Greece). He has composed original music and was responsible for the composition/sound design for many radio and television advertisements, and mini-documenters on experimental tourism and social and humanitarian projects.
Ilias Doumanis belongs to the organizing team of the Community Sounds Sofar in Greece, and collaborates by having an “endorsement” deal with Yamaha, Vic Firth and the Zildjian Company. Since 2008 he is an Honorary Professor of London College of Music.
Aggeliki Toubanaki
Vocalist, voice educator, PhD, producer, sound experimentalist
Official Site: aggelikitoubanaki.com
Aggeliki Toubanaki YouTube Channel
Facebook Page: ToubanakiMusicProjects
Aggeliki Toubanaki uses the human voice as a musical instrument. She considers that it’s probably the most complex instrument and the richest one on expressive nuances. In order to explore its capabilities, she detects personal improvisational passages, bringing together various musical styles and genres.
Starting from her training in jazz music and with the research and collection of traditional scales, rhythms, musical idioms and extended vocal sounds, she creates her personal imprint on performance and orchestration.
After a long term period of studies on music and scientific research –PhD on Molecular Biology, Medical School, University of Athens, Greece-, she chose the first. At the present time, she is entirely devoted to singing vocalism and music, exploring conceptually and experientially the possibilities of the human voice.
PROJECTS: Since 2005 she is the creator, producer and lead vocalist of various musical projects, specializing mainly in World Jazz and Nu Jazz Music, that have been successfully presented in Greece and abroad: «Toubanaki & the Buzz Bastardz», «Jazz Plus», «On the edge: Aggeliki Toubanaki ft Maria-Christina & The 7 Pedals», «Ulaloum», «Crossovers».
RESEARCH: In 2006, she started to search extended vocal techniques, studying traditional vocalisms, contemporary improvisation, and experiment with looping. She is a member of the Interdisciplinary Group “Voice Mentoring”, which aims at the design of treatment and the rehabilitation of patients with vocal disorders.
TEACHING: She teaches “Vocal Technique” and “Jazz Improvisation” and “Theory of Music” at the ‘Philippos Nakas Conservatory’. She teaches performers/actors and she undertakes “Vocal preparation” and “Music teaching” in theatrical productions. For the last three years she has collaborated with the director/acting coach Sotiris Karamessinis, teaching performers/actors based on “MUSA” (Musical System of Acting) method –a holistic method of vocal exercise, training, and preparation of the actor and composition of the role.
She belongs to the team of educators of Artventure Camp – an alternative artistic camp, organized by the multiperscussionist, composer and percussion teacher Petros Kourtis. Artventure Camp was awarded with the 2019 Gold Tourism Award in the category Experiential Tourism.
She conducts seminars on “The Multidimensional Role of the Voice” and “Vocal Improvisation”. She directs “Voice Circles” (Circle Singing), following the technique of Bobby McFerrin and his Team, Rhiannon και τον Bob Stollof, which she has been taught in New York (2005), using them as a means of musical education and human communication. She often invites famous vocalists from abroad (Christiane Karam, Jay Clayton, etc.) and organizes seminars and events about the mechanism of voice.
ACTIONS
She participates in the actions organized by the Second Chance School in the Women’s Prison of Thebes, in collaboration with the Support Network for Prisoners Women.
She is the Educator/ Choir Director of Kalesma Project, a humanitarian-educational program, an initiative of the internationally renowned musician and composer Vassilis Kostas. The aim of the initiative is to improve the life of the children of “I kivotos tou kosmou”, by offering a permanent music-educational program of a high level for the children of Kivotos in Athens, as well as scholarships for further music studies in the United States of America.
Official Facebook Page Drums Voice Jazztronica Duet
Official YoutubeChannel: Drums & Voice Jazztronica Project
Soundcloud: Drums Voice Jazztronica Duet
Official Instagram: Drums & Voice Jazztronica Project
CONTACT
Production Company: Ekso Productions
Booking Manager: Louizos Aslanidis
Tel: 00306932279431
email: louizos@ekso.gr