Skraut is a Greek free improvising trio with unorthodox instrumentation – Harris Lambrakis (who leads his own quartet and performs with vocalist Savina Yannatou and Primavera En Salonico) plays the Middle-Eastern bamboo flute, ney, Simos Riniotis plats on drums and various small objects and Girogos Varoutas is playing on real-time audio processing. Unearthed is the debut album of the trio and true to today’s global network it was mastered in New York by sound artist Taylor Dupree, and its cover artwork was designed in Finland by Ateljee Gammelin after it was recorded and mixed in Athens.

Skraut is influenced by the seminal sci-fi movie Stalker (1978), directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, and the spiritual-mysterious traditions of the East. But its music radiates a unique and timeless, surreal vision of its own, simple, mostly meditative but enigmatic in its own right, that succeeds in exploring surprising timbral qualities.

Skraut attempts to deconstruct the listener’s concepts of time and space and to suggest a distinct, organic congregation of organic sounds and technology. Unearthed offers seven instant compositions, each one with its own otherworldly, ethereal ambiance. In these improvisations turned into compositions, subtle acoustic vibrations and resonating noises patiently and slowly emerge and blend into an abstract sonic entity. The melodic contours of these compositions are blurred and replaced by elusive, disorienting patterns and carefully crafted multiphonics. This album asks the listener to dive deep into its sonic universe and let its electroacoustic sounds embrace and caress you.

Eyal Hareuveni

Harris Lambrakis (ney), Simos Riniotis (drums, objects), Girogos Varoutas (live audio processing)