Author: anto

Stefanos is the music producer & composer of Zen Garden. He was born in Athens. He started playing the guitar at the age of 10 and he is self-taught. When he was 15 years old, he joined ëVice Humaní as a guitar player and he participated in their live shows and CD- LP recordings. Between 1995 and 1998 he played with several groups such as Glower, Agnoun, On-Off and others.

Since 2000 he practices on music technology (samplers, synthesizers, music production) and instrument learning and experimentation (percussion, strings, piano).

In 2003, Stefanos orchestrates and produces the “Mayas to the Atlantis” record by Tom Baton Kee (Native American flute Keeper), with whom he also performs live touring in Greece (percussion and guitar), as part of the Cultural Olympics.

Between 2004 and 2006 he participates in the (IEK) – college AKMI Music Technology competition and connected with PLANETWORKS record company. Soon after that, collaborations with Dj Viton, Dallas, Mike& Stef, and others follow.

His love for theatre music and live orchestration begun in 2006, when he worked for the orchestration, sampling and sound design of the ìPersiansî, the famous ancient Greek drama by Aeschylos, presented by the National Theatre of Greece (directed by Lydia Koniordou, music by Takis Farazis). He followed the play all the way from Epidaurus ancient Theatre to the tour around Greece and New York (New York City Centre), playing live samples, percussions and strings.

In 2006-2007 he composes, orchestrates and produces music for the “Deva” Dance-Theatre performance,. directed by Silvia Macchi, of the Synergion of Arts dance group, in collaboration with Roxani Garefalaki. Together they also scored the soundtracks of short films ‘Gaia’ and ‘Long Distance Drunk’ (by Post Bukowski Project), the parts of the music orchestration for the documentary Chania/Ecotourism (directed by V. Kalaitzis). Since 2007 he has also been collaborating with “Taki Street Percussion” music group and the “Afro-Cretan” Band
by L. Grigoriou, doing sampling, production, playing guitars and keyboards in their live shows around Greece.

…n 2008 he composes music for the dance theatre production “Facts and Faculties” (produced by Fygein Adynaton,
choreographed by Natasa Aretha).

In 2009 he cooperates with Takis Farazis in writing the music for the short film “of memory”, a film about the work of sculptor Venia Dimitrakopoulou (directed by F. Koutsaftis). In the same year he works as a sound engineer for the Athens and Epidaurus Festival in the production of ìOrnithesî play (directed by S. Hatzakis, music by Minos Matsas).

He also contributed with sampling in theatre productions such as Mana, Mitera, Mama directed by S. Hatzakis (Veaki Theatre) and Troades (Theatre of Neos Kosmos). In May 2010 he improvises live with both electronic and natural instruments for the dance theatre “Roes” for the Greek Choreographersí Dance Festival.

Moreover Stefanos is involved with the making of sound design and music for tv-commercials, and short-films and as a member of the Tomako team, a visual productions group, he created sound design and soundtrack compositions for company presentations such as
Nike and Heineken, as well as the audiovisual introductions of popular Greek artists live shows (Ploutarxos, Vertis).

Since 2007 Stefanos has been the main composer and producer of the band Zen Garden. info & bio :

http://www.facebook.com/zengardenofficial

Stefan Torto has released three personal albums under Cosmicleaf records: “Ambion” (2011), “Astral Visions” (2011) and “Oceanian Dreams” (2012).

Also many of his tracks are included in short film productions, documentaries and commercial presentations. Various songs were included also in the compilations :

ëGoa Beach vol.18í by Yellow Sunshine Explosion, “Ethnoscapes” by Atmospheric records,
“8 years Cosmicleaf” by Cosmicleaf records and more.

Naturelement is a psychill electronica music project by the talented 29 years old producer Dimitris Dritsas.
Dimitris started his journey into music at the dawn of the underground psychedelic scene in mid 90’s,
collecting experiences and influences from outdoor festivals and parties in the magical Greek landscape. He has been performing in several local parties,
in some breathtaking outdoor as well as indoor locations
where his music served the listeners with an all-embracing feeling for nature elements.
In 2003, Dimitris decided to express his thoughts and ideas through music production
and he attended piano and sound engineering seminars, while building his ownstudio. After years of experimentation and a full album release Chill-o-Matta, his sound has matured and developed offering listeners musical journeys to the inner self and the nature elements surrounding us all.

Momentum is Aristides Katsinopoulos’s solo project , born and raised in Athens-Greece.
His first experiences with electronic music was at the early 2000’s, when he started following the music wave and collecting music from various electonic genres. Ambient seems to satisfy his musical taste and starts exploring the depths of music production. He, mainly, focuses on ambient & downtempo sounds,with deep atmospheric soundscapes and textures. Aristides’s musical proccess is always on progression in order to discover new paths of expression.

Side progects : Sygnals with Alex(R.I.P.) & Daoine Sidhe

Memphidos is Dimitris Sakkas from Greece. Born in 1986 and deals with graphic design and motion graphics. In his free time writing music in order to escape from reality,
with landscaped melodic music and hardcore sometimes.
Puts himself on a journey of creative sound and video.
Always looking for interesting new music which sometimes combines with images. Producing music since 2000, has participated in several groups with different types of music.
Ambient – idm and breaks nailed him at the first years, being surprised by these styles and the multiple feelings arising. Released his first album called Dirty Sky at 2009 through internet and free for download, by “33 recordings”.
The second album was released at 2010 again from “33 recordings” and called The sun in our souls.

FF is axed on dub and electro-dub sounds, trip hop, dNb and contains various other influences of electronic music.
Inspiration came from hearing the french dubby scene, and being an active member in Vlastur live band. Still being at an experimenting phase, nobody knows it’s future tendencies, which remain obscure and unrevealed.