Beyond the Sea | Pavlos Pavlidis crosses paths with Yannis Markopoulos

A contemporary songwriter "meets" one of the greatest Greek composers and forges a music performance that takes us to the future. Following an invitation from the family of Yannis Markopoulos, an unexpected music encounter is unfolding at the Onassis Stegi Main Stage, brimming with memories, strong feelings, but also uncharted soundscapes. Pavlos Pavlidis breathes new life to 16 of the composer’s most iconic songs and places them amid a contemporary sound environment, enriched with electric and synth sounds, loops and polyphonic singing, assuring at the same time not to stray away from their deep essence.

Preserving intact the messages of yesterday’s songs while transferring them sonically from the 1960s to nowadays, Pavlos Pavlidis creates a music performance as if conceived in the future and for the future. Accompanied by great collaborators, bringing forth his own signature style and combining it harmonically with the unique artistic mark of the internationally renowned composer Yannis Markopoulos, while aided at the same time with the use of appropriate visuals that underline the futuristic character of “Beyond the Sea,” Pavlidis tells a story on stage through this concert. “Someone could argue that Markopoulos succeeds in making the inconceivable seem normal, bridging the East and the West, and redefining Greekness by furthering its horizons.”

The collaboration between the two musicians begins in 2019, when the composer expresses, through his daughter Lenga, his wish for Pavlos Pavlidis to cover his songs.

Four years later, Pavlidis reimagines Markopoulos, and Christos Sarris conceives at the Onassis Stegi Main Stage an intriguing visual environment that accompanies the performance: a futuristic post-landscape, where people search again and again for a better tomorrow, beyond the sea. “An insight into human violence that leads to displacement, the constant flux of gender identities, a snapshot from the future of immigration, and the impact of climate change. Social issues from today, yesterday, and tomorrow, frame the performance, urging us to immerse ourselves in a universe where time ceases to move. The remains of a civilization from a future that no longer exists. And suddenly, with the gaze always fixed to the future, the work of the composer remains once again ahead of its time, as well as our own.”

In the center of it, our ‘very own’ and great Pavlos Pavlidis, responsible for some of the most beautiful and important songs of Greek music in the past thirty years. From the time when, as a leader of Xylina Spathia, he contributed to a watershed moment for the local youth culture, until today, where he is now in the third decade of an idiosyncratic and multifaceted solo career.

From “Malamatenia Logia” [Gilded Words] and “Hilia Miria Kimata” [Countless Waves] to “Pera Apo Ti Thalassa” [Beyond the Sea]. A charismatic songwriter that constantly dares to graft his sound with new elements has now the opportunity to ‘fiddle with’ the work of a composer that he dearly admires and from a young age.

“A few years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Lenga Markopoulos, daughter of composer Yannis Markopoulos, who conveyed to me his desire to cover his songs and instrumentals from across his oeuvre. I was pleasantly surprised and moved, since I had fond memories, especially from his record ‘Metanastes’ [The Emigrant Workers] that my parents were listening to when I followed them to Hanover in the former West Germany. Of course, living during the 1980s, when radio and television had a profoundly different character, i.e. promoting great artists from across the specter, Markopoulos was to be played extensively whenever he released a new record. It was also clear that he was one of the great composers who also represented the country on an international level.

However, I remember that the first song of his that literally shocked me was ‘Ta lógia ke ta khrónia’ [The Words and the Years], with lyrics by Manos Eleftheriou. The vocal delivery by [Haralambos] Garganourakis was almost beyond what is humanly possible. You could sense that, here and now, something earthshaking was happening for the Greek Song overall. As a songwriter, I always carry this experience as a heavy and precious inner load. I can also recall the bizarre sensation from listening to the enigmatic ‘Zavara-Katra-Nemia’; it was like listening to a secret language code. A dear relative of mine had a turntable. He was a teacher, we were living in the final years of the dictatorship in Greece, and he helped me understand that Markopoulos’ work was also related to the political situation of the country. When I heard ‘Paraponeména lógia’ [Words of Grievance] in my adolescence, I needed no more explanations.

As a teenager, I began listening to a lot of foreign music. The high volume and energy of my favorite bands changed my view on what is capable of fitting within one song, but even now, when listening to songs such as ‘Káto stis margarítas t’ alonáki’ [Below, On the Daisy’s Small Threshing Floor], with the breathtaking poetry of [Odysseas] Elytis, I realize that the work of Markopoulos already contained this tension in orchestrations that were indeed adamantly pioneering for their era, and forever on. When I saw Pavlos Sidiropoulos among his performers, I wasn’t surprised.

Therefore, while exploring his work from scratch through this opportunity I was given, I passed through familiar landscapes I have known but never realized they were his, such as the magical ‘Péra apó ti thálassa’ [Beyond the Sea], and hearing the voices of [Vicky] Moscholiou and the huge Nikos Xylouris in other, well-known songs that stopped me in my tracks. You stand in awe and begin thinking: ‘What I am doing here...’ I called Lenga and said: ‘Are you sure about it? I am not even a singer...’ She laughed and said that ‘this is exactly the reason why my father picked you, as he appreciates your style and sees you as a performer.’ Thus, I let myself go and started discovering myself among the work of this great composer.

It is not my aim to delve into a musicological approach that someone can apply on the work of Markopoulos, but it would be unfair not to mention the shock that someone experiences when they attempt to become entangled in his rhythmology. Talking to friends, who are accomplished musicians, we always agree that his scores, with regards mainly to their rhythmic component, should be preserved in some world music heritage museum, as well as the way in which he sets free verse to music. In short, someone could argue that Markopoulos succeeds in making the inconceivable seem normal, bridging the East and the West, and redefining Greekness by furthering its horizons.

I am not sure what me and my colleagues have achieved, but I certainly tried to transpose his songs to a contemporary sonic landscape, seeking at the same time not to miss the essence of the compositions. I tried to remove some ‘thorns’ with regards to style and not ‘betray’ him at the same time. As a friend once told me, we should not forget that Markopoulos comes from an age of Myths. Markopoulos reserves a vast work in terms of value and breadth.

I engaged with the songs. The selection of the songs was mainly based on whether I could locate myself in them as a performer. We are talking about a composer who has set to music words by great poets and lyricists. In order to serve the style, I took out a few lyrics in certain songs, since the disenfranchised defended in those lyrics some fifty years ago have sadly not ceased to exist, alas the immigrants and the uprooted come from other peoples in our time. Moreover, as a lyricist myself, I added some words where I felt I offered something substantial.

I long for the opportunity to meet and share with you this material that me and my colleagues had the honor of approaching in our own way. I long, bearing the agony of the student intact within, to stand before you and before the great, the mythical teacher, Yannis Markopoulos, hoping that ourselves have blown some wind from our souls onto the sails of his beautiful songs, watching them as they sail to the future. I would like to particularly thank Christos Lainas for his passion and commitment to our collaboration, as well as Fanis Sinadinos, whose help was critical in the birth of this endeavor.”

An idea was born in 2019, conceived by my daughter Lenga: a meeting of two musical worlds, a journey made by Pavlos Pavlidis through my work, a take on my music as seen through his own keen and restless eyes. I gave Pavlos my blessing to plan his own journey without my active involvement, and steadfastly kept my distance throughout the process so that he might envision and chart a personal course as he worked, thus allowing the emergence of a genuine encounter. This journey taken by Pavlos, tracing my own path, has been transfigured into an album – “Beyond the Sea” – set for release in the coming days.

My thanks go to Pavlos for the love he has shown my work and with which he approached this project, and to all those who worked to make it happen.

12 of the songs of the music performance are available from United We Fly record label

“Beyond the Sea” will be available in its physical and digital formats from January 20, 2023 at the e-shop and Bandcamp of United We Fly. Visual artist Stefanos Rokos once again collaborates with Pavlos Pavlidis, delivering two impressive artworks especially for the album’s release.

1988: Mora Sti Fotia [Babies on Fire], with Pavlos Pavlidis on guitar, release their first album, one of the best in the history of Greek rock music.

1989: Pavlidis leaves Mora Sti Fotia and moves to Paris, France where he sets up Brancaleone studio with Nikos Kantaris.

1992: He returns to Thessaloniki and forms Xylina Spathia [Wooden Swords] – a name derived from the titular book by Pantelis Kaliotsos. A few months later, their iconic debut album is released. Behold “Xessaloniki.”

1994: Following the release of their second album, “Pera Apo Tis Polis Tis Asfaltou” [Beyond the Cities of Asphalt], the popularity of the band skyrockets, proving emphatically that they belong to those rare cases of bands that conquer the mainstream without losing an inch of their originality.

1998: They play at Rockwave Festival (Athens) in July and support The Rolling Stones in September at the Olympic Athletic Center of Athens Spiros Louis (OACA), appearing before an audience of 80,000 people.

2003: After the release of two more excellent studio albums – “Mia Matia San Vrohi” [A Glimpse Like Rain] and “Enas Kiklos Ston Aera” [A Circle in the Air] – as well as the release of an album of live recordings (“Live”), Xylina Spathia call it quits.

2004: Pavlos begins anew with his first solo album, “Afou Loipon Xehastika…” [Now That I’ve Been Forgotten…].

2006: He is now joined on his side by B-Movies, an excellent band, as the album “Alli Mia Mera” [Yet Another Day] amply attests to.

2008: In March, he performs along with the B-Movies at the stunning Apollon Municipal Theater in Syros. This mesmerizing evening is captured across a double CD and a DVD with a 72min documentary.

2016: Pavlos Pavlidis and the B-Movies appear at the Stereoleto music festival in Saint Petersburg, Russia and release their sixth album “Mia Pirkagia Se Ena Spirtokouto” [A Fire in a Matchbox]. It will be their last album.

2017: Two of the most significant representatives of Greek rock come together for their first joint concerts: Pavlos Pavlidis and Giannis Aggelakas join forces on stage, with the year assuming landmark status at once.

2018: The song “Ena Alliotiko Paidaki” [A Child Like No Other], dedicated to the memory of murdered Zak Kostopoulos, is released. The video, featuring cameo appearances by figures of the Athenian artistic scene, is directed by Marina Danezi. In the same year, he appears in the role of James Joyce’s “Ulysses” at the Athens Festival.

2021: On March 28, he takes the stage of Principal Club Theater in Thessaloniki for a concert filmed by Christos Sarris as part of the STAGES A/LIVE program of the Onassis Foundation, while he begins another chapter in his life’s great book; accompanied by Hotel Alaska – Fotis Siotas (violin, loops), Dimitris Tsekouras (bass), Giorgos Theodoropoulos (keys), Thanos Michailidis (drums) – he releases the album “To Mavro Kouti” [The Black Box].