absent without leave profile picture

absent without leave

About Me

absent without leave is the solo project of the 26 year-old George Mastrokostas, based in Athens, Greece. Recording everything himself in his home-studio, he creates a melancholic sound that covers a multitude of styles such as shoegaze, post-rock, ambient and electronica.
To date, he has released his music on labels such as unlabel (uk), duotone (japan), chat blanc (canada), distant noise (uk), fuzzy panda (usa), bsbta (denmark), october man (uk) and also on his own label sound in silence (greece) and has collaborated for split releases with artists like yellow6, kimonophonic, lope, doogie and cono norte 3.
He has played several gigs in Greece at various venues, including synch festival 2007 (among other artists like mum, !!!, front 242, fischerspooner, alexander hacke and many others), support gig for section 25 (from legendary factory records) and has been personally invited by artists like piano magic, god is an astronaut, manyfingers and sigmatropic to open their concerts.
His music has been played on some of the best radio stations worldwide like BBC 6 Music, Resonance FM and others too.

forthcoming: releases on labels such as enraptured (uk), symbolic interaction (japan), 9.12 (canada), friend of mine (japan), happy end music (finland), a split with port-royal on sound in silence (greece) and remixes for port-royal, televise, carta, epic45 and jatun.


postcards from nowhere is distributed by:
www.normanrecords.com
www.smallfish.co.uk
www.pulserecords.co.uk
www.tonevendor.com
www.linusrecords.jp
www.distantnoiserecords.co.uk
resound ep - 10€ including worldwide shipping!
resound ep is also distributed by:
www.normanrecords.com
www.linusrecords.jp
www.myspace.com/chatblancrecords

GIGOGRAPHY

21.06.08 - european music day (old port - neoria, chania, crete)
w/ dr. walker, palo, linny berret & lee fraged, nikolas valsamakis, giorgos stefanou, omni4m & stau55

07.06.08 - kasbah (patra)
w/ naono & melorman & figurant (in yesterday's play)

24.11.07 - kinky kong
w/ manyfingers

24.07.07 - synch festival
w/ mum, !!!, front 242, fischerspooner, alexander hacke & many others

20.04.07 - small music theatre
w/ sigmatropic

26.03.07 - mylos (thessaloniki)
w/ afformance, since time & shortcat

22.02.07 - bios
w/ piano magic

08.02.07 - small music theatre (post-rock/ambient festival)
w/ misuse, spyweirdos, hues and separation, afformance & red light

11.01.07 - planet music
w/ section 25 & tilbury on cloves

28.11.06 - vinyl microstore (yuria 2006)
w/ small hours society

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 10/12/2005
Band Members:

George Mastrokostas: guitar, bass, drum machine, keyboards, looper, glockenspiel, music boxes, samples and programmingguests:

Charalambos Theocharis: guitar and looper (live), bass and cello (postcards from nowhere)Maria Vitsa: lyrics and voice (bon voyage)
Discography:
inland
(album, self-released, 2003)
semper e.p.
(e.p., self-released, 2003)
lost shadow
(single, self-released, 2005)
affiliate program vol.3
(compilation, bsbta, 2005)
bon voyage
(album, unlabel, 2006)
lope / yellow6 / absent without leave / kimonophonic
(4-way split, bsbta, 2006)
reborn e.p.
(3" e.p., duotone records, 2006)
these waves...
(compilation, sound in silence, 2006)
a small frame of reference
(compilation, october man recordings, 2006)
absent without leave / cono norte 3
(3" split, sound in silence, 2007)
bon voyage (2nd edition)
(album, sound in silence, 2007)
the silent ballet vol.3 : unfolding a broken heart
(compilation, the silent ballet / lost children, 2007)


absent without leave / doogie - among friends
(split, fuzzy panda recording co., 2007)
yuria 2006
(compilation, vm recordings, 2007)
drifting skywards 3
(compilation, cold room, 2007)
fugues
(compilation, fugues, 2007)
resound e.p.
(3" e.p., chat blanc records, 2008)
postcards from nowhere
(album, distant noise records, 2008)
Influences: some bands i like in no particular order: piano magic, hood, labradford, boards of canada, bowery electric, slowdive, sigur ros, mogwai, godspeed you black emperor!, my bloody valentine, future sound of london, the sundays, flying saucer attack, ganger, stereolab, sierpinski, yellow6, portal, isan, gnac, pan american, 2 by bukowski, arab strap, mazzy star, colleen, the cure, this mortal coil, new order, depeche mode, joy division, the album leaf, ride, pixies, radiohead, the field mice, sonic youth, low, flowchart, kimonophonic, july skies, epic45, amp, silver mt. zion, textile ranch, the chap, windy and carl, rothko, seefeel, port-royal, landing, do make say think, stars of the lid, dissolve, kraftwerk, cocteau twins, dead can dance, arbol, tortoise, pansonic, efterklang, fridge, amina, disco inferno, bark psychosis, yann tiersen, 100 pets, the delgados, mum, air, novak, quickspace, broadcast, cranes, belle and sebastian, trembling blue stars, nick drake, saint etienne, blueboy
Sounds Like: absent without leave
Record Label: enraptured, chat blanc, unlabel, duotone, bsbta...
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

interviews

a new absent without leave interview can be read here:http://www.avopolis.gr/greek/interviews/default.asp?id= 204another interview featured in the weekly free press pass to port can also be read online...
Posted by absent without leave on Sun, 11 May 2008 02:08:00 PST

some more "postcards from nowhere" reviews

http://leonardslair.wordpress.com/ "Absent Without Leave is the musical alias for George Mastrokostas from Greece. From his Athens-based home studio comes 'Postcards From Nowhere'; an entirely instrum...
Posted by absent without leave on Sat, 24 May 2008 05:06:00 PST

"postcards from nowhere" reviews

www. normanrecords. com :"The Distant Noise label (Luga, Televise, Yellow6, Schengen etc) goes from strength to strength with 'Postcards From Nowhere' an eight track long player from Absent Without Le...
Posted by absent without leave on Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:51:00 PST

"resound ep" reviews

www. normanrecords. com :"Absent Without Leave. That's what people say about my brain. I'd apply that more to my memory. I can't remember who I am some mornings and have to adopt the alter ego Brian D...
Posted by absent without leave on Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:48:00 PST

live reviews

24.11.07  kinky kong w/ manyfingershttp://www.mixtape.gr/t.asp?sec=1&sub=3&u id=107 24.07.07 - synch festival w/ mum, !!!, front 242, fischerspooner, alexander hacke & many othershtt...
Posted by absent without leave on Sun, 13 Apr 2008 12:07:00 PST

forthcoming releases

Hope you are all well. I'm really happy to announce some of my forthcoming releases. In early October I will release a 3'' cd called resound e.p. on the Canadian chat blanc records. This will be in a...
Posted by absent without leave on Thu, 06 Sep 2007 04:20:00 PST

synch review

A review (written in greek) of the third day of synch festival can be found here:http://www.lipsradio.com/forum/showthread.php?p=38326 ...
Posted by absent without leave on Mon, 06 Aug 2007 05:41:00 PST

live review (written in greek)

You can read a review of our concert with sigmatropic on April 20 @ small music theatre here: http://goth.gr/forum/viewtopic.php?t=584 ....
Posted by absent without leave on Sat, 26 May 2007 06:07:00 PST

interview and live review on tranzistor.gr (greek)

You can read an absent without leave interview (greek) and a live review of our concert with piano magic on February 22 @ bios on www.tranzistor.gr here: interview: http://www.tranzistor.gr/index.php?...
Posted by absent without leave on Tue, 27 Feb 2007 03:33:00 PST

absent without leave / doogie - split

an absent without leave / doogie split, called among friends, is out now by fuzzy panda recording co. it's a limited edition of 100 handmade and hand-numbered copies (it's available in several colors ...
Posted by absent without leave on Tue, 27 Feb 2007 05:47:00 PST