 Coherent States belongs to those prolific 'tape' labels (no matter they have co-produced a vinyl LP and a couple of lathes and CD-Rs too) that have emerged in the Greek scene during this decade. It certainly belongs to my favorite ones regarding its sound. No matter that at the moment there are also extremely interesting CDR/tape labels around the country such as Several Minor Promises from the isle of Corfu and its industrialish ambient sounds; the ever amazing nekubi from the city of Kavala with its stellar hip hop/trip-hop, soul/funkish sounds; Numb Capsule from the city of Edessa and its more techno, ambient sounds; E.D.A.; Panos Alexiadis's superb Thalamos (the latter two from Athens); and more to mention spanning a variety of genres from techno to harsh noise or improv to electroacoustics turning this way our local scene to a weird and challenging garden of sounds. Coherent States has made an impact not also for the label's sound but for the packaging of their releases, including in many -if not all- cases extra limited editions of the (already) limited ones. Besides their releases so far they have offered a couple of memorable label showcases in various venues of the city of Athens. The most recent of which included a superb mini fest that took place in the Boiler bar (located in Athens's downtown) on Thursday the 3rd of May.  The night started with the lo-fi guitar noise sounds of Dead Gum, solo project of Panagiotis Spoulos, the mastermind behind the great Phase! records and tons of other projects. A show that can be just a lo-fi guitar bliss or can turn to a more noisy or even industrialish nightmare depending on the way Panagiotis develops each set. This one was of those I enjoy attending in recent years. Short as it has to be, lo-fi noisy with those industrialish touches that has to have at times plus his manipulated voice that created the opening atmosphere of the night.  Dead Gum Following was the duo of Kostis Kilymis and Judith Hamann that took us to more improvised electronics/music territories with Judith Harmann's manipulated cello sounds and Kostis's throbbing electronics, which made a different yet also interesting atmosphere. Guess it was the set that needed as a balance between the Dead Gum and the Sick Llama set that followed.
It was the first time I attended a Sick Llama set and gotta be honest, I was expecting to listen to a harsh noise set or something like that. Instead I was totally surprised to find me in a more lo-fi, tape, noisy atmosphere that was extremely entertaining for my ears (& guess the rest of the audience's too) with sounds and performance like style features that slowly led to a noisy set which made me a nice impact.  Sick Llama And then came the night's closing set, the one of Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson. Gotta admit it was the set I longed to see as I have been a big fan of Siggy's work for a long time and I was curious what we were about to attend. Siggy played a record and manipulated sounds he had already prerecorded and actually did one of the most amazing performances I've attended the last few months (even more I think) in Athens. To be honest, as Nicolas Collins has once said, spending close to nine hours a day in an office in front of a PC I usually get bored going out to attend a concert and see someone sitting in front of a laptop getting even bored than his audience does. And luckily this was exactly the opposite. A physical performance of almost repetitive sentences that brought to mind some of the most beloved Scandinavian text sound faves, not even to mention all time sound/concrete poetry fave ones, leaving us all with some of the most intense and loving memories, and it worked fine as the night's closing.  Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson That was all about this so well structured and so great balanced (regarding the sound of the sets) night. The second event Coherent States organized a week after the aforementioned showcase was a magic night at the National Observatory of Athens. Built on the hill of the Nymphs, in the area of Thisseio, near the Acropolis in 1846 and a sister building extremely opposite (where the memorable night took place) a bit later remains one of the city's most beloved places to visit. And we are very lucky as in recent years the Observatory's administration has been more open to the public not just for public visits (compared to the past) but also a series of various interesting performances (dealing not only with sound but with visual or applied arts as well) have taken place in its area.   So on the Thursday on May the 10th and divided in two groups thanks to the limited space of the building we had the chance not only to be inside one of country's most historical buildings, sitting around one of the first telescopes of the Observatory ordered and built in 1902, but we had the rare chance to attend one of Panos Alexiadis's truly adventurous sets. Being active into creating music and sounds for more than two decades in the local scene and spanning various sound genres (from death/black metal projects to ambient and electroacoustics) he has achieved to create a special voice of his own regarding his sound and last Thursday's set was nothing but another proof of it. Having not seen him performing for sometime I enjoyed a lot the way he played with his sound layers and the way he built his soundscape making it fit to the surrounding area. It was also a stunning experience the idea of opening just a little the tholos of the observatory and the few light inside the building together with the natural light coming from outside plus Panos's sounds created a truly flabbergasting experience.
Being in the first group that we attended the performance that took place between 21.00-22.00 missed the second group's experience as the set was a bit altered but also incredible as I was told. And definitely what also turned this event to an amazing and unforgettable night was the arrangement of Coherent States with the team of the Observatory to use that historic telescope for star observation allowing us (also we were very lucky regarding the weather as well) to observe the planet Jupiter (and its surrounding satellites) that turned this night to some of my most unforgettable ones! Bravo Coherent States for those two stellar days!
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