These five levels could be a key to unlocking more sides of the project and there will be definately further work in the future to that direction.

Working tools:

The application of this fusion experiment, obviously does not happen for the first time. The most common practice is for musicians of one culture to approach a music tradition of another. The result is many times fascinating as music transforms into something different, new and fresh.
In different parts of the world music traditions have travelled and fused like in the case of
NTS & The Soul Sauce ft. Kim Yulhee, where Korean musical culture meets ska and Reggae,
 

1.3 Fofoulah. Audio example.

In order to attempt to answer these questions, I have created my own method to examine the evolution of the concept of Rebetiko within the context of my project. My approach is based on dividing the sound of Rebetiko into three main categories. I wish to clarify that this division is not based on research of the original form of the music, but is rather my own way of creating a timeline to illustrate the process of how the music transforms from one form into something new, which emerges through the collaborative processes used in this project. 

 

 

Here are the categories on which we based this timeline:

 

Rebetiko 1.0 - The original versions of recorded material from 1920 until 1960.


Rebetiko 2.0 - The contemporary versions of the original compositions. These versions are close enough to the originals in terms of structure, lyrics, phraseology and tempo but of course every artist chooses to contribute to the song according to own aesthetics and artistic identity.

 


Rebetiko 2.1 - Our version of the music, as a spinoff of the contemporary versions (Rebetiko 2.0).


In this version we have approached the music on five levels:

 

(i) Melodically: We try to preserve the melodic lines and the vocal lines as closely as possible to the original versions in order to anchor the music to the roots of each song.

(ii) Rhythmically: We have kept the original time signatures but this is the only thing that remains as a connection to the original piece. Rhythmical traditions from South Caribbean and South America are the new hosts of the Rhythms. Here the concept is to explore how these rhythmic traditions react in their new environment to odd meters, eastern scales and Rebetiko songs.

(iii) Harmonically: We approach collectively the original chords and harmonies of the Rebetiko and explore how the music might be open to harmonic alterations.

(iv) In terms of Lyrics: The lyrics remain the same with the original, as the stories were such a big part of the way of life and the Rebetiko culture itself.

(v) Final result: Here we explore if and how the merging of all of the elements above would make sense and feel organic.  

1.1. NTS & The Soul Sauce ft. Kim Yulhee. Audio Example.

1.2 Wicked Aura. My wiched Aura. Audio Example.

and also in the case of Fofoulah where Gambian sabar beats and Wolof rap, meet electronics and dub textures when visiting the U.K.

Wicked Aura where Afro-Brazilian rhythms meet Rock, Dub/Reggae,  DrumNBass and more,

     During the last two years I have begun my own exploration of this music in a totally different context. Combined with research for my degree in Global Music at Sibelius Academy, I introduced this music as blank canvas to musicians and dear friends who had not been previously exposed to it. This was the basis of the project called Rebetiko 2.1. The core idea of the project was to make a spin off version of Rebetiko and Greek urban folk by combining it with diversely different traditions. Sometime at the end of 2019, this project started feeling very warm and familiar to me, so much so that I decided to name the project ´Home´. As we went through the process of experimenting with the rebetiko based music and opening it up to rhythmic traditions of world (such as Samba and Maracatu from Brazil, Tumba from Aruba, Cumbia from Colombia and Zouk from Guadeloupe and Martinique), the purpose of the music gradually changed. We gradually developed from the starting point of each musician simply playing his or her own pattern or role, to a stage of more interaction between the elements. This process continued with more and more interaction and integration, arriving at a place where you could perhaps still make out characteristics of several traditions, but the resulting music was its own organic entity that could no longer be defined by the separate parts that created it. In this project, the transcultural outcome can be seen a result of musicians from diverse cultural and musical backgrounds exchanging and merging their unique musical ideas and approaches, with the aim to create something new that is unique to that particular combination of people and influences. As Schippers states, ´´Transcultural ´´Refers to in-depth exchange of approaches and ideas.” (Schippers. 2010. p.32) For example in the field of music education it suggests” programs in which many different musics and musical approaches are featured on an equal footing” (Schippers. 2010. p.32).In this project, the transcultural outcome can be seen a result of musicians from diverse cultural and musical backgrounds exchanging and merging their unique musical ideas and approaches, with the aim to create something new that is unique to that particular combination of people and influences.´´

My name is Vasileios Katopodis.

I come from Greece with my roots spreading from the mountains of central Greece and a village called Fournas, to a small island in The Ionian Sea called Meganisi, all the way to the Beautiful Pera of Istambul. I am currently making new roots all the way to the European North and the loving Helsinki.  

I became a musician by love, excitement and curiosity. 

 Music helps me to stay grounded and to heal.

 

I am a student of Global music at Sibelius Academy.

 

I play instruments that feel like an expression of me, such as Bass, Percussion, guitar and oud.

 

For me, music has to be moving and have purpose. 

 

Background of the project: 

Ever since I came across the deeper meaning s of what we today call Rebetiko urban folk music, I have been magnetised by it. I am trying to wrap my head around it without truly understanding yet what the aspect of the music is that will not let me go. I heard this music in my childhood, but it was considered still low class and underground by my surrounding community. Although I did not pay much attention to it, I continued listening in a passive way. I was exposed to the rhythms and the melodies, but I never got interested in the core of the music. Perhaps it never fully grabbed my attention due to my age at that time, or maybe the fact that I associated it with the popular music of the 90´s in Greece, due to the sound of the instrument called Bouzouki. I was more interested in music that I found ground breaking, that had the element social resistance, that came to me from abroad, that caused a feeling of raw and pure power and that formed a community with ´´my kind of people´´.

 

 

I could not be more wrong.

I came across Rebetiko again at the age of 25 here in Finland. A band called Antama made up of Greeks living in Helsinki and Finns who loved Rebetiko welcomed me to play bass with them. As I wanted to play music I gladly accepted, and we started rehearsing. I soon realised that there was more to this music than I originally thought. Now, after 10 years of living with Greek urban folk and rebetiko, I have realised what I had been searching for in other genres I actually had in front of me all this time. Music sung in my own language, using rhythms that intrigued me, all told through the stories of another time. Everything was there, the clash of the classes, the community, the experience of being an outcast to the bourgeois and the struggle for survival. Above all, the feel of the music went straight to your heart, making you laugh and cry with it. It was music that came from somewhere else after all. Since then, I continue to practice and play Rebetiko in its conventional format with good friends in small groups made up of bouzouki, guitar and singing, exploring and trying to understand the origins of the music and its original form.

Short bio:

Lets finally start to look how the work Forming the Working group for Rebetiko 2.1 a.k.a. ´´Home´´ materialised and what was the method of  aproaching the music. 

REBETIKO 2.1 /Home. 
A transcultural Approach to Global Music in a Local Context.

Vasileios Katopodis

´´Rebetiko is a musical and cultural expression directly linked to song and dance that initially spread among the urban lower and working-class populations in the early twentieth century. Rebetiko songs are now a standardized repertoire in almost every social occasion involving music and dance. The element is performed in public and performers encourage audience participation. The practice is open to all and bearers could include any Greek or Greek-speaking person who enjoys this form of music and dance. Rebetiko songs contain invaluable references to the customs, practices, and traditions of a particular way of life, but above all the practice is a living musical tradition with a strong symbolic, ideological and artistic character. Initially, transmission occurred exclusively orally, through the live performance of songs and the instruction of younger performers with older instrumentalists and singers. This non-formal method of learning is still important, but the recent spread of sound recordings, the mass media and cinema have reinforced other methods of transmission. In the past decade, Rebetiko has increasingly been taught in music schools, conservatories and universities, contributing to its wider dissemination, and the musicians and people who enjoy Rebetiko continue to play a key role in keeping the practice alive.
The Rebetiko genre is an interesting patch work of musical traditions carried from Greek-origin Immigrants from Minor Asia moving to Greek islands on first stage and to Athens and Piraeus on second stage, with The local Inhabitants. Those traditions were created, before they travelled in places like Izmir or Istanbul, where several ethnic minorities such as Greek, Venetian, American, Armenian, Arab, Jewish and more, coming from different religious backgrounds, were co-existing harmonically with the Turkish local population.´´ (UNESCO, 12.COM, Jeiu Island, 2017)

   In the 1920’s, the violent and unwilling immigration, forces people to travel in a try to find new homes and life close to the good life that they had before. In many cases the above-mentioned traditions were the only thing these people carried with them when they had to flee their homes in a hurry. Even in these difficult times though wonderful things happened musically and in terms of traditions simply because the music travelled along with the immigrants.

My project Rebetiko 2.1: ´Home´ focuses on two main questions that are of great interest to me:

1) What are the effects of music with strong cultural characteristics traveling and blending with musical influences from elsewhere?
2. How can the concept of Rebetiko be re-imagined for a group of multi-cultural musicians in Finland, in order to create a framework for new musical ideas to emerge?

Introduction: