Sigmatropic is one of
the most influential and successful bands that came out of
Greece in the last ten years. The band is the musical vehicle of
founding member
and main nucleus of the band,
Akis Boyatzis.
AKIS BOYATZIS marked his musical
presence in his native Greece for the first time in the early 80’s
with local bands CAPTAIN NEFOS and LIBIDO BLUME.
CAPTAIN NEFOS (a tongue in cheek moniker & loosely translated as
“Captain Smog” as a tribute to the menacing & hovering Athens
pollution cloud) were a clear cut and poppy New Wave outfit.
Together with LIBIDO BLUME, AKIS BOYATZIS appeared on several
singles and on a couple of albums, therefore making an early
successful mark on the Greek music scene as an English-singing
artist.
In the late Eighties Akis moved to the US Midwest & started a band
called HUM along with three American musicians. Upon
returning to Greece in 1990, after a short-lived reunion of
Captain Nefos
he
founded the ephemeral DEKA METRA DENDRA (Ten Meter Trees)
but with no official recording output.
After a period of playing as a session musician AKIS definitely abandoned the New Wave power punk persona and reemerged
in 1997 as a new revolving outfit called SIGMATROPIC. Aptly
named after a chemical reaction type, it soon blossomed from a
single person home-studio project into an exciting full blown live
band. Meshing breezy Mediterranean flavoured beats with
ice-chilled Electronica SIGMATROPIC soon dished out some excellent
material. Together with the wizardry of highly respected
musician-producer Antonis Livieratos, SIGMATROPIC released
a single “Air” & an album “Random Walk”, both on
cool Greek indie label Hitch Hyke. In 1999 the EP “If You Were
Me” helped to enhance their profile with a heavy airplay
rotation.
The same year, Sigmatropic were invited to perform at the great
Athens summer ROCKWAVE festival as a local band sharing the
same stage with the likes of Blur, Prodigy, Patti
Smith & Placebo. Despite a raised profile and critical
success in Greece, AKIS BOYATZIS remains far removed from the
overall music scene. As an elusive master technician he only
emerges to occasional dazzle audiences with a live set.
In 2002 SIGMATROPIC released to an unsuspecting public the Greek
original version of “Sixteen Haiku And Other Stories” which
was based on the poetry of the late great Nobel laureate George
Seferis. This album had the decisive production of Coti K
and contained a sprawling musical & literary odyssey with
outstanding results. The extensive praise underlined spellbinding
soundtrack like music with the sophisticated vocalisation of the
Haiku poetry.
The next instalment by SIGMATROPIC was the international
version of “16 Haiku And Other Stories”, produced by
Antonis Livieratos and Akis Boyatzis. This
project was the English version of the previously mentioned
Greek-sung album featuring 18 guest
vocalists from both sides of the Atlantic. An astonishing
list of
cult musicians graces this enhanced version, delivering their own
vocal interpretation to an English translated poetry over the same
music.
A tour followed in a number of
Greek cities with guests like Carla Torgerson, Pinkie Maclure
and James Sclavunos.
The next major step for the
band and Akis especially was its participation in the production
and songwriting of Carla Torgerson's first album "Saint
Stranger". Carla with lyricist Michael Willet stayed
in Akis' home in Athens for 3 months in the Spring of 2004, were
most of the album was recorded and produced. and finally
released by Glitterhouse.
The same time the band was
active performing live around Greece. Among others, they
performed (second time in their career) in Rockwave festival
(July 2005), in the International Day of Music (Athens, 2004 and
2006) and opened for Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds (Athens and
Thessaloniki, December 2005).
The band has just finished
working on their long anticipated new album "Dark Outside" to be
released in September 2007 in Greece (Hitch Hyke) and the UK
(Tonguemaster). A number of guests (Robert Fisher, Howe Gelb,
James Sclavunos and Carla Torgerson) also contribute with their
vocals in the album that was mixed by Ian Caple, the legendary
engineer and producer of the Tindersticks, Tricky, Mansun, and
Shriekback.
Current line up:
Theodore Pistiolas: ac.
guitar, piano, cello, celtic harp, Theremin
Foivos Zitis: guitars
Yiannis Tryferoulis: drums
Akis Boyatzis: lead vocals, backing vocals, bass,
acoustic guitar, electronics, programming
Sigmatropic
Discography:
2007:
“Dark
Outside”
(Hitch
Hyke,
to be released September
2007)
2004:
“Could
That Be The Voice?”,
EP
12'
Limited Edition Vinyl
(Tongue Master Records)
2003:
Sixteen haiku and Other Stories
(LP,
Hitch-Hyke,
Lift
071, produced by
Antonis Livieratos and Akis Boyatzis.
Based on the poems of the great poet and Nobel
Lauriate George Seferis. Featuring the voices of
CAT POWER,
MARK EITZEL,
ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO,
ALEX GORDON
(Lincoln),
JOHN GRANT
(The
Czars),
EDITH FROST,
HOWE GELB,
JAMES WILLIAM HINDLE,
SIMON JOYNER,
PINKIE MACLURE,
MARK MULCAHY,
LEE RANALDO,
MARTINE ROBERTS
(Broken
Dog),
LAETITIA SADIER
(Stereolab),JAMES
SCLAVUNOS
(Nick
Cave
&
Bad Seeds
/
The Vanity Set),
CARLA TORGENSON
(Walkabouts),
ROBERT WYATT,
STEVE WYNN.
2002: ÄåêáÝîç ÷áúêïý êáé Üëëåò éóôïñßåò (in
greek;
Hitch-Hyke
Records Lift
070, ðáñáãùãÞ
Coti K.
êáé ¢êçò ÌðïãéáôæÞò). The Greek version of the
Sixteen Haiku and Other Stories album.
1999:
If you were me,
(EP,
Hitch-Hyke
Records Lift
065) produced by
Antonis Livieratos and Akis
Boyatzis.
1998: Random Walk (LP,
Hitch-Hyke, Lift 054)
produced by Antonis
Livieratos and Akis Boyatzis.
1998:
Air
(cd-single,
Hitch-Hyke
Records Lift
055) produced by
Antonis Livieratos and Akis
Boyatzis
CD
Compilations:
1998
Pocket
Ozonizer,
Hitch-Hyke
Records,
(Sigmatropic
appears with two tracks)
1998
Local
Heroes: The Fine Art of Hitch-Hyking”,
Pop & Rock (Sigmatropic
appears with one track).
2004
Protect
Our Secret Handshake, Smile
009,
CD
accompanying the British magazine
Comes With A Smile
2004
CD
accompanying the British magazine
A Bucketful of Brains
(BOB
65)
2007 Compilation “In
The Junkyard, vol.
3” (to be released by
Spinalonga
Records)
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