Πρωινή Περίπολος (1987) - Νίκος Νικολαΐδης

Η τελευταία ταινία του Νικολαΐδη που είδα (στον κινηματογράφο) ήταν το Singapore Sling, το 1990. Μετά είδα και το Κορίτσι Με Τις Βαλίτσες (1994) που γυρίστηκε για την τηλεόραση και τέλος, έπαψε να με αφορά (όχι λόγω της τηλεταινίας, που ήταν συμπαθητική).

Οι ταινίες του αυτές, την πρώτη φορά που τις είδα (στην εποχή τους), μου άρεσαν (άλλες λιγότερο, άλλες περισσότερο). Θυμάμαι ατέλειωτες κουβέντες με φίλους για το τι τελικά συμβαίνει στο τέλος της Γλυκιάς Συμμορίας (ποιο το βαθύτερο νόημα ας πούμε) ή που το πάει το πράγμα με το Singapore Sling;

Τις ίδιες ταινίες όταν τις ξαναείδα αργότερα (εκτός εποχής), τις βρήκα σε μεγάλο βαθμό στυλιζαρισμένες ή και αφελείς. Εκτός από την Πρωινή Περίπολο (1987) που όχι μόνο τη βλέπω άνετα αλλά τη γουστάρω κιόλας.

Ο Νικολαΐδης ήξερε να σκηνοθετεί και φρόντιζε αισθητικά την αφήγηση του. Αυτός και οι συνεργάτες του έβγαζαν ένα άρτιο αισθητικά και σκηνοθετικά αποτέλεσμα (πχ η σκηνοθεσία και φωτογραφία του Singapore Sling είναι για σεμινάριο). Από τα θέματα του και τη σκηνοθεσία του μέχρι τους τίτλους των ταινιών και τις φοβερές αφίσες τους, δεν είναι τυχαίο το cult status που τον ακολουθεί.

Που έπασχε κατά τη γνώμη μου; Εκεί που έπασχαν οι περισσότεροι κινηματογραφιστές της γενιάς του: στο σενάριο. Στην αδυναμία δηλαδή να φτιάξουν μια ολοκληρωμένη δομή χαρακτήρων που θα έχουν βάθος, που θα καταλαβαίνει ο θεατής γιατί κάνουν αυτά που κάνουν ή τι τους έχει φέρει στο σημείο αυτά που κάνουν να μη γίνονται κατανοητά. Κάτι δηλαδή περισσότερο από τη στοιχειώδη πλοκή ενός σεναρίου που έστω και αν βασίζεται σε μια καλή ιδέα, δεν είναι δουλεμένο.
Το θέμα του σεναρίου είναι γενικότερα ένα θέμα που μάλλον πάσχουν ελπιδοφόρες κατά τα άλλα ταινίες της εποχής (Ρεβάνς, Βιοτεχνία Ονείρων, κα). Ταινίες με καλό καστ, ωραία φωτογραφία, ωραία σκηνοθεσία, αλλά…

Στην περίπτωση της Πρωινής Περιπόλου τώρα ίσως αυτό να ήταν που έκανε τη διαφορά. Η ταινία έχει λίγους διαλόγους, λίγους ηθοποιούς, άρα μπορεί να αναδείξει τη βασική σεναριακή ιδέα στηριζόμενη σε μεγάλο βαθμό στη σκηνοθετική αφήγηση. Σημαντική ταινία που ευτύχησε να έχει και ένα εξαιρετικό soundtrack γραμμένο από το Γιώργο Χατζηνάσιο. Η ορχηστρική, ambient μουσική του Χατζηνάσιου είναι πανταχού παρούσα στην ταινία, άλλοτε δίνοντας μια νότα ρομαντισμού κι άλλοτε ενισχύοντας την απελπισία του δυστοπικού κόσμου του Νικολαΐδη.

Ακούμε "Τα μάτια της ένα βαθύ μπλε - Γιώργος Χατζηνάσιος"


Εδώ βλέπουμε και την ταινία: https://youtu.be/U6QU7087yKU

Works of a man (Man + oeuvres)

Manoeuvres is “a collection of recovered movements of a decade” as described by Tom Kazas.
11 instrumentals written between 1995 and 2005, a collection of alternate mixes, sketches, film music and out takes claiming their right to be one piece of work.

Tom has worked on post production and this shows.
The album flows nicely from the opening track Sixes and Sevens – with the Greek element being present again – check previous post here – to the final experiment of Persistence of Paint.

The value of Manoeuvres lies in the possibilities they imply. It is like a segue in Tom’s ergography, to make the smooth transition to the future, to evolution.

You could be sky



The first if


listen to the album here
www.tomkazas.net

Sunny Day

It’s been a long time…

A couple of grooves for the New Year ’s Eve.
BEST WISHES!

A super groovy b-side from Dimitri’s Dream Dream Dream single.

The song was written by Harry Chalkitis and Boris Bergman, collaborators of Aphrodite’sChild, Demis Roussos and Nana Mouskouri among others.

Dimitri web site: www.dimitritambossis.com/

Dimitri - Sunny Day (1972)

In 1977 Ypsilon perform two songs composed by Georges Garvarentz for the soundtrack of Max Pécas’ movie Marche Pas Sur Mes Lacets!

Here’s the  disco-funky Cosmic Ride (1977).

On the Jazz Side

Yannis Spanos is a very special case of a composer.
He lived in Paris during the 60s and 70s where he served “la Nouvelle Vague” as a pianist and a composer. He collaborated with Brigitte Bardot, Juliette Gréco, Marcel Rothel, Michael Legrand among others.
During the 70s he returned to Greece where he initiated the Greek version of Nouvelle Vague (Neo Kyma).





Here’s La Panthere from Juliette Gréco album Complainte Amoureuse (1969)

Yiannis Spanos is also the composer of many soundtracks including Anazitisis (1972), This Summer (1971), Symposium (1972), Pavlos Melas (1974).

Listen to the funky Psychedelic Shake from the acclaimed Symposium soundtrack, produced by Michel Legrand, for Dimitris Kollatos film.


And here’s a fine blues/jazz tune from the movie Ransom Baby of 1972.
The soundtrack remains unreleased and what you find here is the pieces of the song I gathered from 3 different parts of the movie and joined them to come up with the full song.
Enjoy.

BBC Stories

An ex-soldier who fought during World War 2 alongside the local resistance returns to Crete where he comes across the ghosts of the past questioning and threatening his present…
That’s the story of TV Series Who Pays the Ferryman, filmed in Crete and produced by BBC in 1977.
Yannis Markopoulos has written the music score which became a hit in UK.





Who Pays the Ferryman? - Yannis Markopoulos

The Honeymoon Song was written by Mikis Theodorakis in 1958 for the Honeymoon movie by Michael Powell.
The song performed by Marino Marini appealed to The Beatles who recorded this for their BBC sessions in 1963.
This version was finally released in 1994 (The Beatles: Live at the BBC).
In 1969 Paul McCartney produced The Honeymoon Song for Mary Hopkin’s debut album.
The song has been covered multiple times since and in many languages.


The Honeymoon Song - The Beatles


The Hoenymoon Song - Mary Hopkin

An Thimitheis to Oneiro mou (If you remember my dream is the Greek title. Lyrics by poet Nikos Gatsos) - Giovana

Tokoloshe Men

John Kongos, born 1945 in Johannesburg, at Greek parents, is best known for his 1971 hit He’s Gonna Step on You Again. The song was a top 10 hit in UK and is cited in the Guinness book as the first song to ever use a sample (Wikipedia). In another interview (in Greek) Kongos claims that the use of tape loops was something usual at the time.
He’s Gonna Step on You Again was covered by several artists, most successful being the Happy Mondays cover under the title Step On.
The song was co-written by Chris Demetriou, another one with Greek origin (born in Cyprus and moved to South Africa).


He's Gonna Step on You Again (1971) - John Kongos


Tokoloshe Man (1971) - John Kongos

Both of them became known during the 60s, Kongos with his band Johnny Kongos and the G-Men and Demetriou with John E Sharpe & the Squires. The two form Floribunda Rose and in 1967 move to UK. After one year of touring and some singles Floribunda Rose change lineup and name. The new band created by Kongos and Demetriou, Scrugg, was another short lived project. After 3 singles and some heavy touring they split.The psychedelic pop music of Floribunda Rose and Scrugg plus the first solo album by John Kongos, Confusions About a Goldfish, are gathered in the Lavender Popcorn (1966 - 1969) compilation.

One Way Street (1967) - Floribunda Rose


Lavender Popcorn (1968) - Scrugg

Kongos followed a solo career with success in several countries during the 70s. Demetriou changed direction in 1972 and as a producer he produced many albums and singles with Buddha and the Chocolate Box by Cat Stevens (also from Cyprus) being one of them. Demetriou (according to Wikipedia) today is CEO and owner of a media company, a senior pastor (!) and a writer.
Kongos during the late 70s and 80s has written several film and TV scores including The Greek Tycoon, (story by Nico Mastorakis), Blind Date (b-movie by Nico Mastorakis), Cats Eyes etc. Today he lives in Arizona with his family (his children have formed their own band named Kongos).

Just a Dance With Me (1978) - Petula Clark (John Kongos from Greek Tycoon OST)

Cats Eyes theme (1985) - John Kongos (from Cats Eyes TV series)


I Need Your Love (1984) - John Kongos (from Blind Date OST)


Additional information about both Kongos and Demetriou plus interviews you can find in the nice Garagehangover blog (here and here) which I also used as a source of information.

Unreleased Soundtracks

Back to the 70s soundtracks with some unreleased ones. As in other posts with unreleased soundtracks, I have done some editing in order to improve sound. Some noises still exist but in any case I did my best.

So the first one comes from a 1975 movie, The Navel (Synomosia sti Mesogeio was the Greek title).
It’s a spy movie shot in various places with some great funk/jazz music from the great George Hatzinasios. Hatzinasios is a composer who not only has a jazz feeling but also knows how to conduct a small orchestra. Although he has released a number of quite significant soundtracks (The Hook, Soul and Flesh etc), a great portion of his work with movies remains unpublished.

The Navel (1975)

Mikaela is a sexploitation movie released in 1975.
Credits for the original music belong to George Paris and from a quick search I didn’t find any other soundtrack he has composed (although he was credited as Music Supervisor in at least 9 more Greek movies of the 70s). The score is a typical, funky exploitation one.


Mikaela, Sweet Temptation (1975)

The Last Flight is a drama from 1978.
The movie has some really great music from the soundtrack master Kostas Kapnisis and it is really a pity that the soundtrack is not released.

About Kapnisis we have said a few things in older posts and hopefully we’ll present more of his work in the future.

Here’s a small sample, a bossa nova from Last Flight.



Last Flight (1978)

Jazz Soundtracks 2+1

1. Lola (1964)

A movie by Dinos Dimopoulos with the great music of Stavros Xarhakos.
Xarhakos is a major Greek composer with lots of soundtrack and theatrical scores, Greek popular music and classical pieces. He became well know just a year before releasing Lola with another great soundtrack Red Lights.
Lola soundtrack is a smokin' jazz masterpiece.


Irma's Blues


2. Ace of Spades (Greek title: To Doloma) (1964)

Another great soundtrack for the movie of Alekos Sakelarios.
Composer is Kostas Kapnisis another great composer with more than 100 scores for movies and theatrical pieces. In 1967 he won the Gold Medal in Brazil Music Contest.






An Agreement with the Bate (Symfonia me to Doloma)


3. Media Luz (1976)

This is not actually a soundtrack but a concept album for a fantastic movie plot, a soundtrack without a movie.
Composer Loukianos Kilaidonis is closer than any other Greek composer to the New Orleans jazz idiom. In 1976 he released this "almost" soundtrack which was (and is) highly acclaimed. He actually visited New Orleans and played with several famous jazz musicians including Preservation Hall Jazz Band with whom he also released a live recording.

The song Media Luz (which actually consists of 2 songs) is the music played by the band when the hypothetical hero enters the bar Media Luz.

Media Luz

Diamonds

Diamonds on her naked flesh (1972) is a Greek sexploitation movie by Omiros Eftratiadis.
Composer of the soundtrack is Andrew Prezas who started his career in the 60s and is still active. The soundtrack was never published and it is a shame as the music is super funky with great drum breaks.
So hoping that someone will do some mining and get this "diamond" released, here's 4 samples I extracted from the movie and did some audio editing to make the sound listenable. The titles are mine, derived from the plot...

Enjoy!

1. Title Theme - Andrew Prezas (1972)

2. Bella - Andrew Prezas (1972)



3. A Better Life - Andrew Prezas (1972)



4. End Titles - Andrew Prezas (1972) (the only stereo track)

Sunshine for your dreams

This is a nice groove from soundrack "H Parisiana" by Mimis Plessas.

The singer is Dimitris Tambossis.
This version is not the original one but published in a very rare maxi single in 1993 and featured 3 remixes with the original voice of Tambossis. Not much information is included except for the production that was done by Looping in the loop (Lakis Chalkiopoulos & Spyros Tsiolis). Orchestration by Lakis Chalkiopoulos, guitars by Christos Georgakopoulos.

Groovy Soundtracks

Greece has not the wealth of soundtracks Italy or France have and certainly not the rich jazz groove that one can find in almost any well-known or not Italian b-movie soundtrack. Yet the music is there, mostly undiscovered, as there are lots of Greek movies of the 60s and 70s -a very productive era for the Greek cinema - with great but still unpublished music!

There was an attempt to explore the richness of Greek b-movie soundtracks through Greek label Potfleur which unfortunately did not last. The label ceased operation but still managed to publish some gems.  2 out of 5 posts below were published by Potfleur.

What follows is a sampler of 5 fine grooves from Greek composers:

1. Title Theme from Anazitisis (Search) - Yiannis Spanos
(from Anazitisis movie, 1972)


























2. On the Streets - Mikis Theodorakis
(from Serpico with Al Pacino, 1973)

3. A Travers Montmartre - Stelios Vlavianos
(from Le Jeune Fabre French TV series, 1970)

4. La Discotheque - Mike Rozakis
(from She Knew no Other Way, 1973)

5. Fluted Vibrator - George Theodosiadis
(from Gynaecocracy, 1973)