Ηρακλής Οικονόμου

Today’s tribute to songs about trains takes a more electrified turn with rock songs containing references to rail travel. Key protagonists of Greek rock are present, from Christos Thivaios to Dimitris Poulikakos and from Manolis Famellos to Vassilis Papakonstantinou. Also, rock mega-bands will be a...

Here at GME, we tried to think of the most appropriate way of honouring the souls lost at the Tempi disaster. We could spend hours talking about the inefficiency of the Greek state and the responsibilities of consecutive governments that undermined public services, privatised the Greek state railways...

We, here at GME, love trains. They are by far our favourite means of transportation, having offered us countless moments of departing, arriving, contemplating and a real sense of travel, especially in Northern Europe, in Belgium, Sweden, Wales and elsewhere. It is no coincidence that the name of our...

Today, we are exploring the contribution of Fotis Polymeris to the development of light song – the dominant style of music in Greece in the 1930s and 1940s. Polymeris, who passed away in 2013 at the age of 93, was one of the leading vocalists of his time and an equally talented songwriter who gave u...

Orfeas Peridis has been described as one of the most important singers-songwriters of his generation, although he prefers the word “troubadour”. As for Costas Makedonas, for more than 30 years he has stood out as one of the most expressive and uplifting modern male voices in art-folk. Today, here at ...

Who really was Nikos Gounaris and what enabled him to be accepted by everyone? What is it that launched and maintained his legend well beyond the confines of his genre, light song? The famous rebetiko musician Yiannis Papaioannou writes in his autobiography: “Of those so-called ‘Europeans’, only one i...

Kostas Hatzidoulis was a researcher, producer, writer and lyricist. A deep connoisseur and lover of folk and rebetiko, he dedicated his entire life to research and the production of records and books. Hatzidoulis curated dozens of compilations of old folk and rebetiko songs, as well as many record productions,...

This week, here at GME, we have been celebrating the outstanding work of Yorgos Kazantzis, a talented composer who has played a key role in boosting art song, the dominant genre of Greek music in the last half a century. Today, we will be exploring the song collections that he released in the 21st century...

Yorgos Kazantzis, one of the most important Greek composers, was born and raised in Thessaloniki, in the Kalamaria area. He has had numerous collaborations with prominent singers such as Dimitris Zervoudakis, Melina Kana and Pantelis Theoharidis, and has offered us some of the greatest art song collections...

The first period of Giorgos Kazantzis’ creative work strongly bears the characteristics of a musician seeking for his personal identity in the classical form, mainly, but also having basic influences from the modern Western world, rock and jazz music. His musical education, moreover, including theory, c...

Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, the general-in-chief of the Greeks in the Trojan war, avenges his father’s murder by his mother, Clytemnestra, and Aegisthus. This was his duty as expressed by his sister Electra and the oracle of Delphi. So, he returns to Mycenae from his hideaway and slays both of t...

This week, here at GME, we decided to commit all of our broadcasts to presenting the universe of a magnificent creator with a solid grip of melody and tons of sensitivity: Giorgos Kazantzis. The formal occasion is his 70th birthday tomorrow, on February 11. Kazantzis has been active in different fields...

The discographic debut of Iraklis Triantafyllidis, the 1976 “In Other Worlds” album, is widely regarded as a work of rare beauty by an artist who had the potential to become the ‘new face’ of Greek song in the second half of the 1970s – had he wanted to. The material itself, its sheer strength and dynam...

Naxatras is a hard psychedelic rock band from Greece. They play a warm psychedelia full of fat grooves, dreamy melodies, heavy riffs and trippy guitar solos all with the vintage touch of the 70's. They have been playing and developing their sound since 2012. "Naxatras", which was released in 2015, became...

Can you fit two massive world-class stars in one band? Yes, as revealed by the co-existence of composer-keyboardist Vangelis and singer-songwriter Demis Roussos in Aphrodite’s Child. Joined by drummer Loukas Sideras and guitarist Silver Koulouris, they formed a band that, despite its short existence, p...

“Two Little Blue Horses” and “Born Out of the Tears of the Sun” – two rare gems of psychedelic rock by singers-songwriters Giorgos Romanos and Andreas Thomopoulos respectively. These are the two springs out of which today’s track list here at GME originates. Romanos, a singer of the New Wave and Ma...

The week that starts today here at GME sheds light on a segment of Greece’s rock scene that has been in constant contact with global music trends; in fact, it has often led these trends in a pioneering manner. Monday’s destination: Socrates Drank the Conium. A legendary band, led by guitarist Giannis Spa...

Dionysis Tsaknis’ message of resistance: “I remain alone in my present in order to rescue whatever can be rescued / you will not have me as an accomplice in murder, even if I end up facing the consequences of the law”. Katsimiha brothers’ urban mythology: “We are living our little tales in the city ...