Mode Plagal is an originally

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

group who perform traditional

Greek music The music of Greece is as diverse and celebrated as its History of Greece, history. Greek music separates into two parts: Greek folk music, Greek traditional music and Byzantine music. These compositions have existed for millennia: they originat ...

blended with

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

and other international styles. They have been described as "the preeminent ambassadors of the much-maligned vernacular Greek music in the 21st century" The

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

-based band was formed in 1990 by Thodoris Rellos (

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

, vocals), Kleon Antoniou (

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

, vocals) and Takis Kanellos (

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

). They were joined in 1995 by Antonis Maratos (originally percussion, later

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

); in 1997 by Angelos Polychronou (percussion); and in 2000 by Florian Mikuta (keyboards).Mode Plagal official website
/ref> After two albums of instrumental music, ''Mode Plagal'' and ''Mode Plagal II'', they added vocals for their third album, ''Mode Plagal III''. In 2002, they collaborated with Turkish group Bosphorus, led by composer Nikiforos Metaxas, to record the album ''Του Βόσπορου Το Πέρα'' (''"Beyond the Bosphorus"''). Critic Fiachra Gibbons wrote of Mode Plagal: "On first hearing, they are a driving, straightahead jazz-funk outfit. Listen longer and the restless Greek spirit, audible in the transcendent sax of Thodoris Rellos, becomes evident, drawing from

rembetika Rebetiko (, ), plural rebetika ( ), occasionally transliterated as rembetiko or rebetico, is a term used to designate previously disparate kinds of urban Greek music which in the 1930s went through a process of musical syncretism and develope ...

- the Greek blues - and the dance music of the Balkans, Thrace, Asia Minor and all points east." In 2008, they released the album ''Η Κάθοδος Των Σαλτιμπάγκων'', recorded with Cretan band Hainides, and in 2010 they released ''Στην Κοιλιά Του Κήτους''. In 2014, they released ''Πέρα Από Τα Σύνορα'', a collaboration with Hainides and the musician

Psarantonis Antonios "Antonis" Xylouris (; born September 6, 1937), nicknamed Psarantonis (), is a Greek composer, singer and performer of Lyra (Cretan), lyra, the bowed string instrument of Crete and most popular surviving form of the medieval Byzantine ly ...

(Antonis Xylouris). Mode Plagal, ''Discogs.com''
Retrieved 29 June 2020

Discography

*''Mode Plagal'' (1995, Ano Kato Records,

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

) *''Mode Plagal II'' (1998, Lyra Records) *''Mode Plagal III'' (2001, Lyra Records) *''Beyond the Bosphorus'' - collaboration with Bosphorus (2003, Hitch Hyke Records) *''In The Belly Of The Beast'' (2010, Lyra Records)

References

External links

Mode Plagal website Review of ''Beyond the Bosphorus'' at RootsWorld
Musical groups established in 1990 Greek musical groups Musical groups from Athens 1990 establishments in Greece {{Greece-band-stub