Chaostar, Siva Six, Anna Stereopoulou // Fuzz Live Music Club, Athens, Greece // 25.04.2014

Walking in the venue, my first thought was about the performance of Chaostar since I had never seen them before. Could they approach their majestic compositions as they presented them through their albums? And how the opening acts would prepare the audience, judging the so different kind of music that they play? The result was more than my expectation!

The first opening act was Anna Stereopoulou a talented music composer from Athens who managed to create an audible result influenced by her Greek stimuli and influences, along with contemporary trends from abroad. A music kind in which she tends to define as “sonic moving images”. Despite the prerecorded backing tracks that were her only “company” on stage, she created a beautiful musical atmosphere consisting in interesting compositions . A nice performance which was certainly a pleasant surprise for us. After 30 minutes Anna left the stage getting a warm round of applause as a reward to her efforts.

The second support act was Siva Six a group which is probably the best known and most acclaimed band of modern dark electronic/industrial sound in Greece. The fact that the majority of the audience were seated, mitigate against the dancing character of the band’s music genre. Hopefully this didn’t seem to affect the band and for the next 45 minutes they mainly performed tracks from the album “The Twin Moons” as also from their latest work “Superstition EP”.

Harsh EBM elements, melodic structures, along with industrial sounds and dark melodies created a particular sound. Definitely I would like to see them on stage in different circumstances so that there won’t be the contradiction between the dancing fans and the rest of the seated audience.

I understand that the concert’s concept -among others- was to prove the coexistence between different musical genres, however I see no reason on placing so many seats in the venue something that affected the band’s performance.

Siva Six ended their show with a great cover of “Blade Runner” which originally composed by Vangelis Papathanasiou.

Few minutes after Siva Six left the stage, it was time for Chaostar to perform a show that proved to be one of the best I’ve seen so far this year, and certainly a highly distinctive one. For the next 1 hour an 15 minutes we were fortunate to enjoy a multidimensional piece of art, a kind of music which is difficult to be categorized in a specific music genre. Lush soundscapes, oriental sounds, dark melodies as well as some elements of extreme music even dubstep made truly a standout piece of geographically unchained music.

Chaostar has been born out of Christos Antoniou‘s deep desire to create music that has a more Classical approach. In my opinion this artist is a musical genius, one of the most talented people in the wider music scene. On stage alongside with him were very talented musicians. Most impressive from all was with no doubt Androniki Skoula the female singer whose interpretation was completely stunning. During songs like “Sorrow Descending” and “Omorfi Kori” we were able to admire her celestial vocals and her excellent stage performance which gave a “theatrical” touch to the show.

Chaostar performed songs mainly from their latest work “Anomima” including my favorite one “Truth will prevail” (with the excellent dubstep outro!), alongside with songs from their previous albums like “Misery’s King”, “The Scarlet Queen” and of course a remarkable Rammstein cover in song “Sehnsucht”.

In conclusion this night we witness a distinctive show with bands from different music genres, proving that music has no boundaries. I wish to see more bands follow Chaostar’s music path and artists who will not hesitate to experiment in different sounds.

Report: Thodoris Tsiolakis
Photos and Videos: Sofia Theodorou