KOSTAS SAMPANIS: Autumne (GUITAR HERO): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Click after click, the visitor who wanders on the net is carried away in an endless tunnel of videos of virtuoso guitarists who cultivate their egocentrism with a more quantitative than qualitative approach. In this shapeless and egalitarian mass, however, hides a true aristocracy of musicians and composers of great stature. Kostas Sampanis is an Athenian guitarist and guitar teacher of this caliber and he proposes to make us discover his writing and his playing through his first EP entitled "Autumne".

Asserting such a judgment in introduction must be justified. First of all, there is the respect of a well done work from the Greek. "Autumne" starts and ends with two short, pared-down monologues, 'Remembering You' and 'Farewell', the former an exercise in classical guitar arpeggios whose reverberation and sometimes dissonant chords set up an atmosphere that is both comforting and unsettling, and the latter a melancholy jazz piece played on piano. Between these two pieces we discover the heart of the EP with three instrumental acts.

Three beautiful compositions at the same time close in the spirit but with the clean subtleties which make all the singularity of it. The musicality is the binding factor, with a constancy in the way to make the content evolve under the aegis of the melodic phrasing, gently in 'A Heartbeat Away' and with more relief in the muscular rise of 'Birth' or clearly progressive by the articulation of diversified sequences ('Until We Meet Again'). The touch of Kostas imposes his moderate rock style which marries perfectly with the strong presence of the piano giving body to the jazz tonalities which cross the compositions. More surprising are the Opeth-like impressions which emerge from the association of acoustic and electric guitars (the beginning of 'A Heartbeat Away' which reminds the title 'Windowpane' of "Damnation") and at the moments where the harmonies borrow the minor mode ('Until We Meet Again').

Kostas Sampanis undeniably masters the musical theory, the use he makes of certain modes and his chord progressions are not within the reach of the first amateur guitarist. However, this record exudes a great freshness, rendered by his playing that is both supple and assertive, and that sets to music a precise and fluid writing. A listening made even more immersive thanks to the care brought to the balance between the instruments bringing clarity and impact t and to the judicious choice of a recording which preserves intact all the vitality of the interpretation (one hears the breathing of Kostas in 'Remembering You', the friction of the bends in 'Until We Meet Again').

Kostas Sampanis is the antithesis of the competitive guitarist. Although he has all the technical mastery, he is a storyteller who uses this instrument to tell a story. "Autumne" is a humbling work of a guitarist with natural class who puts his gifts and knowledge at the service of music. - Official website

KOSTAS SAMPANIS

AUTUMNE

AUTOPRODUCTION

GUITAR HERO