Bio

"Loxandra" was found in 1997 in Thessaloniki (Greece) from percussionist Loukas Metaxas and kanun player Dimitris Vasiliadis. Kyriakos Tapakis was also "Loxandra's" oud player from the beginning. They start playing musik from the "café aman", (the places that the Rum played the songs of Turkish "meyhane", after they came in Greece) and it was the first band in Greece that specialized in this kind of music, with the same instruments that used originally, like in the past! (Without bouzoukis, lutes, guitars, modern drums etc, that came later in this music). When the band reformed in 2003, from D. Panagoulias, D. Vasiliadis and L. Metaxas, they worked with a great deal of Mediterranean music like Greek Turkish Arabic Balkan Gypsy and Sefaradic traditional, Ottoman classical, music from Azerbaijan, Black Sea, Armenian and many other, with respect in tradition but with an approach of their own influences. Members of "Loxandra" or as a band, they have work with musicians like : Ross Daly, Nikos and Yasemi Saragoudas, Kariofillis Doitsidis, Kudsi Erguner, Ziad Rajab, Domna Samiou, Christos Tsiamoulis, Eleni Vitali and many others... They play in festivals, concerts, music scenes, weddings, private parties and they have play for a number of belly dancers from Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Germany and the U.S.of America. In our first c.d. we collaborated with Panagiotis Drakopoulos-vocals, Ira Kritarashova-vocals, Markos Skoulios-ney and Y. B. Bal-tanbur. On stage, we ussually work with Ira Kritarashova-vocals, (and of cource Sakis Yiorgou), but we work and collaborate with many other singers and soloists (like Haris Symeonodis-vocals, Hristos Barjopoulos-vocals, Giorgos Zahariou-clarinet, Panrelis Stoikos-trompet, to name a few). Loxandra ensemble are: Sakis Yiorgou-vocals,oud. Kyriakos Tapakis-oud,fretless bass,fretless quitar. Dimitris Vasileiadis-qanun. Kyriakos Petras-violin. Nikos Aggousis-Doitsidis-clarinet,kaval. Loukas Metaxas-percussion. Dimitris Panagoulias-percussion. Leonidas Palaskas - sound engineer. Some of our Influences: Greek, Turkish, Arabian, Balkan's, Gypsy tradition, Black Sea, Armenia and Azerbaijan!!!