“An Ode To The Light” – a lyrical and tensional musical story.

The drummer Christos Asonitis, born in Athens in 1974, after years of active presence in the Greek jazz scene, lives and creates in Munich since 2012. With “An Ode To The Light”,  which is released by Timezone Records, he presents his own compositions and arrangements for the first time as a bandleader.

The listeners experience an electrifying symbiosis of modern jazz and elements inspired by the composer’s personal experiences as well as by historical and mythological events of his homeland. The spectrum ranges from lyrical-melodic moods with fine Greek folkloric elements, polyphonic sound images up to rousing rhythms, which form a virtuosic tension.

Reviews

“Everything on “An Ode to the Light” refers to quality. A dense and impenetrable jazz, built of exceptional virtuosity and exquisite use of any space. At the same time, a transparent jazz, open to different explanation by the listener, vulnerable to feelings and generous in images.”
(Antonis Kalamoutsos, Against the silence, January 2018)

“Christos Asonitis in his debut album “An Ode to the Light” as a bandleader did a serious job. He made an album with his own distinctive sound, without the unnecessary repetitions and babbling.  A job that exudes experience, professionalism and high skill.”
(Vasilis Lioris, Moonshine Radio, Jazz On The Web, February 2018)

“The focus on this album is the community, humanity and interaction (…) cohesion of expression (…) even forms of over ten minutes in length remain interesting and unencumbered by annoying lengths!”
(Oliver Fraenzke, The New Listener, March 2018)

“An album that adorns the contemporary Greek jazz discography (…) Asonitis knows how to prepare and build unique beauty pieces, taking all of his musicians.”
(Fontas Troussas, Vinylmine, October 2018)

“An Ode To The Light” is a wonderful album of European jazz with a few Greek musical “shades”, imaginative orchestrations and high skill levels of all its performers.”
(Thanos Mantzanas, Avgi Newspaper, December 2018)

Personnel

Christos Asonitis – drums, composition, arrangement
Bastien Rieser – trumpet
Mark Pusker – alto saxophone
Maruan Sakas – piano
Lorenz Heigenhuber – double bass
Sound engineering – Peter Brümmer
Mixing – Dimitris Karpouzas
Mastering – Christoph Stickel

Recorded at Gasteig Cultural Center, Munich, Germany