"Κita me" (Look at me) is a modern rendition of a folk song from the region of Drama, a city in Northern Greece, called "Look at me my sweet love" which speaks of the era when one left the countryside to fight or go to the city for work, most likely never to return. It is a hymn to true love and the hope of 'next meeting'.

Kita me

"Karotsa" (Carriage), or "Black was the carriage" as it is called in Alistrati of Serres, where it originates from, is a dark lament. Legend has it that it refers to the girls who were abducted by force from their homes and families in the past, in order to exploit them in any way possible. Everyone sings with one voice about Lenaki, Katinaki and all the stolen girls who suffer somewhere enslaved.

Today, as illegal human trafficking has become a global industry, the song remains unfortunately very relevant and not just a memory of the dark periods of human history. PAGAN honor this unique legacy and start their performance at the historic Kytarro in Athens.

"Black was the carriage and white were the horses,
they stole our Lenaki, damn, at dawn..."


The band:
Evelyn Assouad - Vocals
Vasilis Prodromou - Acoustic guitar
Markos Pavlou - Gaida
Dimitris Bizos - Electric guitar
Stavros Tsumanis - Electric bass
Sotiris Ntouvas - Drums

Director - Marlene Kaminsky
Sound engineering - Akis Gorakis
Live sound effects and recording mixing - Nikos Papadopoulos / Soundflakes Studios
Lighting Design - Marietta Pavlaki
Live video - Aristotelis Papakonstantinou and associates
Hairdressing construction - Konstantinos Kolioussis
Makeup - Olga Falei
Media Manager - Ioannis Pitarakis
Management and Booking - Gaidaros Donkey Production

Special thanks to Chris "El Tio" Vogiatzis, Petros Vogiatsis, Tasos Nousias, Costas Vlaxogiannis and Christos Tasios.

Karotsa

Karotsa | Live at Kyttaro Club Athens(Radio Edit)

The song "Yiannis, Your Handkerchief" is perhaps the most emblematic folk song of the diaspora. With a handkerchief symbolically wiping sweat, blood, and dirt from the hard work done to survive abroad, "Yiannis" says he washed it in five rivers, but it was so stained that it didn't get clean, only dyed them. In the "desolate foreign lands," each Yiannis is usually a frightened outcast, hidden from social life in ghettos and his humble room. In this rendition, the band PAGAN also incorporated an original melody in a slow rhythm, where the bagpipe weeps for the lost years of the diaspora that won't come back, but can serve as a reminder to future generations that "where there is land and homeland," without humanity, solidarity, and understanding, does not exist.

Gianni | Live at Kyttaro

PAGAN GIANNI LIVE KYTTARO 2022

Cover photo - Miguel Katimertzopoulos
https://www.facebook.com/michael.kat.1232

Recorded & produced by TSUMANI
https://www.facebook.com/stavrostsumanis
Mixed and mastered at Soundflakes Studios by Nick Papadopoulos
https://www.soundflakes.gr/
Video - Ioannis Pitarakis 
https://www.facebook.com/i.pitarakis

Nona

"Σφαγή" (Massacre) - Major streaming services:
https://pagan.band/sfagi/

This folk poem originates from the wider region of Epirus and Central Greece, and its age exceeds two centuries. It is written in iambic fifteen syllables, while over the years a verbal insertion (crunch) was added to the first half verse, "- my countryman, reigned -", in order to adapt the poem to the rhythmic pattern of the song. The "crunch" was something common in folk dance songs and it was a peculiar technique that served the asymmetric structure, so that the verse could correspond to the dancing moves and movements. The rhythm is “Tsamikos” (6/8).

Voice - Evelyn Assouad 
Electric guitar - Dimitris Bizos  
Acoustic guitar - Stavros Tsumanis
Drums - Thanos Tselempis
Bagpipe (gaida) - Markos Pavlοu
Electric bass - Stavros Tsumanis

Composed, arranged and produced by Stavros Tsumanis
https://www.facebook.com/stavrostsumanis
Recorded, mixed and mastered at Soundflakes Studios by Nick Papadopoulos
https://www.soundflakes.gr/
Bagpipe recording - Akis Gorakis
https://www.facebook.com/13CustomDrums-199733083377442
Painting - Christos "ΚΥΩΝ" Ziogas
https://www.facebook.com/KYWN.ZIO
Lyric video - Ioannis Pitarakis
https://www.facebook.com/i.pitarakis
Εnglish translator - Sissy Anastasiadou
English subtitles - Mark David Mullender

Special thanks to Katerina Polychronopoulou

Το δημοτικό αυτό ποίημα κατάγεται από την ευρύτερη περιοχή της Ηπείρου και της Στερεάς Ελλάδας, και η ηλικία του ξεπερνάει τους δύο αιώνες. Είναι γραμμένο σε ιαμβικό δεκαπεντασύλλαβο, ενώ στο πέρασμα του χρόνου προστέθηκε μία λεκτική παρεμβολή (τσάκισμα) στο πρώτο ημιστίχιο, το «- Έλληνά μου, βασίλεψε -», για να προσαρμοστεί το ποίημα στη ρυθμική αγωγή του τραγουδιού. Το «τσάκισμα» ήταν κάτι σύνηθες στο δημοτικό χορευτικό τραγούδι, και αποτελούσε μία ιδιότυπη τεχνική που εξυπηρετούσε την ασματική δομή, έτσι ώστε ο στίχος να αντιστοιχεί σε χορευτικές φιγούρες και κινήσεις. Ο ρυθμός είναι τσάμικος (6/8).

Sfagi

Sfagi (Massacre)

The dense amorphous forest of their art is rising in the depths of their water path.. 
Major streaming services:
https://pagan.band/hydro/

Voices: Evelyn Assouad
Drums: Sotiris Ntouvas
Guitars & Bass: Stavros Tsumanis
Bagpipe (gaida): Georgi Makris 

Composed, produced and mixed by Stavros Tsumanis
https://www.facebook.com/stavrostsumanis
Mastering: Nick Papadopoulos at Soundflakes Studios
https://www.soundflakes.gr/
Artwork photo - Stavros Tsumanis
https://www.facebook.com/stavrostsumanis
Digital Artwork - Ioannis Pitarakis 
https://www.facebook.com/i.pitarakis

ΠAGAN band performs the song “Hydro” for the ZAGORI “GO GREEN”  campaign.
https://www.zagoriwater.gr/index.php/el/news-el-gr/tvcs-el-gr/item/373-go-green

Hydro

Light and Darkness became one..
melodies found Mother Earth..
and Infinity was created..

The name ΠAGAN comes from the Latin word “paganus” (a person from the countryside). This is also the philosophy that underlies the identity of our music: a return to roots. Following the Industrial Revolution, which saw the emergence of technological rhythms, people became distanced from their instincts and their ancestral means of expression. The band’s mission is to mingle these two realms – the realm the primeval and the contemporary – by combining traditional musical instruments with the electric and the electronic sound. Dynamic rhythms, primeval voices, earthly and cosmic melodies: these are some of the elements of the ΠAGAN music.

PAGAN

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