Who[’s] Is Who[on]

Faces in shop windows: the Onassis Stegi exhibition hall meets Amsterdam’s Red Light District from 12-14 October in Michalis Siganidis’ "Who[’s] is Who[on]". How does it all connect with what the group is about to play? Who is this mysterious Hamm? The connecting tissue is the poetry of Samuel Beckett and Miltos Sachtouris, which has been a staple in Michalis Siganidis’ work for years.

Siganidis, one of the most idiosyncratic musicians of the Greek scene, absolutely individual and consistent, comes to the OCC with an audio-visual installation, with the participation of friends and partners (Gavriil N. Pentzikis, Hainis Dimitris Apostolakis, Martha Mavroidi, Savina Yannatou, Natalia Manda, Harris Lambrakis, James Wylie, Vasilis Mantzoukis, Panayotis Manouilidis, Jannis Anastasakis, Zoe Patini Keselopoulou) with whom he goes back a long way. Evan Parker, an emblematic sax player of contemporary jazz, joins them in a surprise guest appearance.

The audience will move freely among the musicians, impacting on the sound and aesthetics.

Credits

WHO[‘S] IS WHO[ON] – (dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return)

since the cinema is not fond of death*

Michalis Siganidis iconic soundtrack

feat Evan Parker

Concept - Original Score - Script: Michalis Siganidis

Director: Giorgos Voudiklaris

Text Editing: Michalis Siganidis, Gavriil N. Pentzikis

Set Design: Natalia Manda

Video, Lighting: Tasos Palaioroutas

Video Editing - Visuals: COM.ODD.OR / Sofia Pappa

Production Manager: Konstantinos Sakkas

Coordination and Executive Producer: Danai Giannakopoulou

Productions & Art Management: Delta Pi

An OCC Production

Characters/Installations:

Beckett: Evan Parker

Pentzikis: Gavriil N. Pentzikis

Hamm: Hainis Dimitris Apostolakis

Singer 1: Martha Mavroidi

Singer 2 “do not touch”: Savina Yannatou

Mandala widow: Natalia Manda

Musicians [the singing children]:

Harris Lambrakis: piano, hammond, ney, samples, voice

Michalis Siganidis: double bass, electric guitar, voice, samples

James Wylie: alto saxophone

Kostas Anastasiadis, Vasilis Mantzoukis: drums

Panayotis Manouilidis: electric bass guitar, electric guitar, voice

Jannis Anastasakis: electric guitar, special effects, sitar

Zoe Patini Keselopoulou: percussion, voice

*From Miltos Sachtouris’ poem "The Morning and the Evening"

The audience will be moving among the performers. Only a limited number of seats is available.

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The composer’s engagement with Miltos Sachtouris goes back to 1989 and Siganidis’ second personal album, "Morning and Night". This marks the beginning of his acquaintance with Sachtouris, whom he used to visit in his Kypseli home.

Among Siganidis’ musical and semantic references are jazz improvisations, and the work of Frank Zappa, not so much as a musical influence, but as an inspiration towards a satirical look at man, an oblique take on reality.

Evan Parker is an emblematic saxophone player of contemporary (and more specifically free) jazz. He has collaborated with so many musicians in this field and contemporary music in general that namedropping seems pointless. He has also been influential in forming an autonomous, characteristic jazz trend in Britain. His previous OCC appearance was in October 2012.

Michalis Siganidis (hailing from Bursa, Crete and Siatista) was born in Thessaloníki in 1958. He writes music and lyrics, and plays double bass and guitar. He belongs to the “deconstructive” song writing and musical collage school in Greece. He has worked extensively on Miltos Sachtouris poetry. He composes music for the theater and the cinema. He is a founding member of the Winter Swimmers and Primavera En Saloniko. Since 1980 he has worked with musicians of contemporary improvisation, and the traditional and popular scene in Greece and abroad. Using the alias Michalis Giavasoglou he has published verse and prose in the journals: Pheaderon, Mormo, Jazz, Plus and Minus, Jazz and Jazz, Naked Eye, Menology.