"In Greek Mode … one of the more inventive bands in the current Greek roots scene…" is how Chris Williams introduces Mode Plagal in his April 2002 feature in fRoots magazine (UK)."... compared to the king of the Thraecian wedding music, the Bulgarian clarinet player Ivo Papasov,..[...]..Mode Plagal are more radical in dissolving the ethnic references..." writes T. Maas, about their 2001 live appearance in Club Paradiso, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)."… Mode Plagal is hipper than any American record I've heard in a long time… they make a case for fusion that might have saved the genre twenty years ago…" is how Modern Drummer (USA) magazine responded to ethnic-jazz combo Mode Plagal's self-titled debute release back in 1995.Mode Plagal belong to a group of bands who, using the jazz technique, have created a unique musical idiom. An idiom with references to traditional music and verse, to Byzantine sounds, funk rhythms and many other musical elements which do not belong to just one genre, or have not been used per se, but only as influences.The Athens based band was formed in 1990 by Thodoris Rellos (saxophone, voice), Kleon Antoniou (guitars, voice) and Takis Kanellos (drums).
In 1995 Antonis Maratos (bass) joins the band and they release their first album, MODE PLAGAL, on Ano Kato records, Thessaloniki.In 1998, with the addition of Angelos Polychronou (percussion), they release MODE PLAGAL II on Lyra.
This second album was voted No 96 in the annual WMCE (World Music Charts Europe) Top 100, for the year 2000.In 2001, with the addition of Manos Saridakis and Florian Mikuta -who joins the band in their live concerts ever since- (keys), they release their 3d album, MODE PLAGAL III, on Lyra. Unlike its predecessors, whose material was mostly instrumental, Mode Plagal III features a formidable cast of some of the country's finest female vocalists, Yiota Vei, Savina Yannatou, Eleni Tsaligopoulou and Theodosia Tsatsou.
Mode Plagal III pays also tribute to the richness and beauty of traditional greek verse, the aesthetics that define the demotic tradition and the personification in folk poetry of birds and animals, to who the anonymous creator lends human attributes.MODE PLAGAL III was voted No 13 in the Top 20 of the WMCE (World Music Charts Europe) in March 2002, and No 33 in the TOP 100 for the Year 2002.With the recording of their third album, Mode Plagal have completed 12 years of dealing, researching and experimenting on traditional greek music.In 2003, in cooperation with the traditional group Bosphorus from Turkey, artistic direction by Nikiforos Metaxas, they release with Hitch Hyke the album "Beyond the Bosphorus", with new compositions by artists of both groups, and with the voice and lyrics of Vassiliki Papageorgiou.Tracks of Mode Plagal albums are included in international world music releases (World Music Network (UK) - Rough Guide to Greece, 2001, fRoots compilation (UK)- summer 2002, Resistencia (Spain)- "Grecia, Oriente y de Occidente" and more)Mode Plagal have collaborated on stage with many artists, recently with Eleni Tsaligopoulou (1999-2000), with Bosphorus group (2001-2), Yiota Vei and Vasilis Skoulas (2001), Dionysis Savvopoulos (2002-3).They have also recorded for the National Greek Radio (the legendary 3rd program), and for the New National Television (NET).The group, a dynamic live band, has given numerous concerts all over Greece and has appeared in many festivals in Greece and abroad, to name a few: 2nd CYCLADIC JAZZ FESTIVAL, the 5th EURO-SYRIAN JAZZ festival (1999, DAMASCUS), the Athens "MEGARON" Concert Hall (1999), 1st and 2nd ETHNIC-JAZZ festival in Athens (2000-1), NATIONAL PERCUSSION FESTIVAL (Thessaloniki), in Smyrni and Istanbul (TURKEY) in collaboration with Bosphorus, for the 100 years of George Seferis, 2000), GAIA festival (Thessaloniki 2001), the BARBICAN THEATRE (London, 2001), in DEN HAAG, AMSTERDAM, UTRECHT and ROTTERDAM (in collaboration with Anadolu Feneri group, a branch of Bosphorus), EARTHFESTIVAL in SPAIN (2001), in Club PARADISO, AMSTERDAM (2001), NIGMEJEN, UTRECHT, DE WARANTE (2001), BATH FRINGE FESTIVAL (2003), QUEEN ELIZABETH – London (2003) and many more.MODE PLAGAL have managed, up to the highest point, to function and create as a group of autonomus musical nature. Blending jazz, funk, greek folk, byzantine, balcan, african rhythms and more, and balancing with mastery these elements, combing them with their spontaneity and humor - basic element in their work - they manage to show that tradition is alive and always developing and to create their distinct recognizable sound, a musical idiom of their own, fresh, well-crafted and finally downright radical.
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