Kohma is the improvising duo of George Mizithras (turntables, tapes, electronics, cracked media - (https://www.facebook.com/giwrgos.mizi) and George Kokkinaris (contrabass - https://kokkinaris.bandcamp.com) or at least one of the outfits that someone can trace them nowadays being both busy bees of the local free improv / electronics scene. Both play either solo or in various groups and combinations. Mizithras at least according to my little knowledge is mostly into cracked electronics (& electronics in general) though Kokkinaris is balancing between more classical musics trained schemes and paths but also in free improvised grounds too. On Sunday, March the 3rd they organized a workshop in the 'gallery n', which is actually nothing but a name occasionally used by the Greek composer (also viola da gamba player, performer, e.a.) Nicoleta Chatzopoulou for her studio when is used as a place for small concerts or such workshops. You can get more infos on the gallery and her work here: https://www.nicoletachatzopoulou.com I won't say much about the workshop as I didn't attend it so I don't wanna mumble about something I didn't experience. However the whole event was divided in two parts. The workshop that started in the evening and after a while turned to a session of 'soul kitchen' actually cooking by Virgina Viel (excuse me but I don't know more infos on her or her work) to continue around 20.30 with the duo improvisation of Mizithras and Kokkinaris. Must admit that was my first acquaintance with their work, and I enjoyed a lot the skills and work of George Mizithras, not to underestimate of course Kokkinaris. Perhaps I write so as I am a lot into turntablism, cracked everyday electronics and so.. On one hand you had Mizithras playing with this turntables and tapes and on the other Kokkinaris whose playing sounded to me as someone who is still balancing between a more classical trained background but who slowly breaks into new grounds in the fields of improvised musics and on. Some parts of the set were great, while some others gave me the feeling that if they continue improvising together even more sooner or later a more moving language will emerge. That is not to underrate their set. On the contrary the contradiction between the amplified set of Mizithras and the acoustic set of Kokkinaris created a promising atmosphere, perhaps it didn't turn to a real blaster but this is a duo in their first efforts so there's more to come I guess. What I enjoyed a lot was that both were allowing space for each other to say his own words while playing something that I always considered it important in a music dialogue. In many cases Kokkinaris's playing reminded me later of his recent 'Touch' CD and the eight solo improvisations it includes. Overall it wasn't a bad introduction to their work but turned a good free improv night out! Editor's Notes: For those of you on Facebook, you can watch a brief excerpt from the performance by Kohma at Noise, Silence, What Now #2 here: https://www.facebook.com/events/306740153523998/permalink/316004375930909/ You can listen to an earlier performance by Kohma here:
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