Greek Music Express: Bouzouki ensembles: Rast & Trichordo | 12 April 2024

The Rast bouzouki quartet was created in 2000, based on a joint idea of Giorgos Altis, Thanasis Vassilas, Nikos Katsikis and Pantelis Konstantinidis, four virtuosos of the bouzouki. The name of the group comes from the musical road “Rast”, which belongs to the basic musical scales of the Eastern Mediterranean and has been used widely and with very expressive results by composers of the classical era of rebetiko. Trichordo comprises bouzouki legends Costas Papadopoulos, Spyros Liosis, Christos Konstantinou and Spyros Ioannidis. Initially, the bouzouki was trichordo, i.e. had three pairs of metal strings. However, there was a progressive transition into four-stringed bouzouki, especially thanks to the initiative of Manolis Hiotis. Three-stringed bouzouki are still manufactured and are particularly popular among rebetiko fans.