Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd of April 2005

Floros Floridis : Reeds (clarinets, saxes)
Babis Papadopoulos : Electric Guitars, Loops, Effects

Two musicians meet for an unusual duo. Floridis comes from Jazz and improvisation, Papadopoulos from Rock (ex-Tripes). Making music together, they intermingle their roots, explore new ways of musical dialogues, discover melodies and grooves. Out comes a strange mixture of jazz-rock-pop full of humor, anger and sometimes a certain melancholy. A reflection of our times.
They have performed in different locations: Athens, Thessaloniki, Patra, Heraklion, Madrid a.o.

Their first CD:
F.L.O.R.O. II - F.ictional L.ies O.n R.ight O.ccasions
Artwork : Floros Floridis
Babis Papadopoulos / Floros Floridis;
j.n.d. Re-Records 004; Thessaloniki, Greece, 2003

Track Listing:
1. Rough options
2. Lullaby for a Dragon
3. Jammin' flees
4. As I
5. Talking lines
6. Folk etc
7. Hommage to Tin Pan Alley
8. Fearless Guys
9. Walking on the Edge
10. Smoothing

Review : F.L.O.R.O. II  by   Ken Waxman  jazzweekly.com
Good taste is timeless, as the slogan states, and so is good improvising. More than that, it's also timelessly distinctive, as these discs show...
...recorded in January 2003, finds Floridis maintaining his improvisational integrity, but keeping up with the times in a partnership with Babis Papadopoulos on electric and acoustic guitars, loops and effects. A multimedia CD it also includes a video of the musicians in Floridis' hometown of Thessalonki.

There's no doubt on the second CD that Babis Papadopoulos is playing a guitar, when he isn't playing loops and, effects, that is, and Floridis adds bass clarinet and overdubs to his arsenal as well here. Nearly 25 years of collaboration and refinement has also gone into Floridis' improvising skills, so that this session is also tighter than the previous one. Plus the variety of sounds and genres hinted at on Barakos are better expressed electronically.
On "Talking lines," for instance, the folk-blues created by Papadopoulos and his bottleneck guitar playing don't sound as much like Greek rebetikas, but as a Hellenic twist on the Mississippi Delta sound. As his effects move to the foreground, Floridis appears to be playing a electrified and amplified clarinet, alternating sweet, contralto sounds with bird-like yawps.
"Fearless Guys" begins with deep, resonating, bass clarinet swoops leavened by wiggling fingerpicking and backed by loops. The reed's restrained split tone are sometimes echoed by guitar chords until Floridis squeals out altissimo lines, while fuzztone from Papadopoulos almost make it appear they've gone into Boogie Rock territory. Perhaps Floridis' experience with Skopelitis, a Bill Laswell acolyte, inspired the dense droning reed tones that mix with wah-wah pedal effects.
Elsewhere, as on "Walking on the Edge" and "Jammin' flees," the output turns downright folksy -- with a twist. On the former, for instance, as circular breathed multiphonics from Floridis invested with irregular vibrations get softer and softer, the guitarist accompanies with mid-Atlantic rhythm guitar licks, sorta like Moussaka meets Stax-Volt. Both instruments become almost stentorian until the piece fades. On the later, Papadopoulos appears to be finger picking an amplified bouzouki, while Floridis puffs out a tone that could as easily come from a harmonica. After a variation of trading fours, the reed line becomes more legato and the string accompaniment could be used to back up a cowboy singer.
Finally there are tunes like "Lullaby for a Dragon" where the saxman takes advantage of overdubbing, and circles and echoes his bass clarinet pedal point with double-tongued, clarinet and soprano saxophone lines. He becomes his own World Saxophone Quartet, then gets into false registers and spetrofluctuation, seemingly playing through a detached mouthpiece. Meanwhile Papadopoulos' elongated lead lines contain so many notes in rapid succession that they could arise from an electric piano not a guitar.
Insight into the impressive work of Greece's most consistent experimental reedist, F.ictional L.ies O.n R.ight O.ccasions II is a session for all improv fanciers, while Improvising at Barkos, with its undoubted historical importance, could be a second choice for many._

Babis Papadopoulos  

Floridis - Papadopoulos - Apostolakis  


website :  Floros Floridis  


Floros Floridis in first person Interviewed by Fontas Trousas  

Φλώρος Φλωρίδης - σε πρώτο πρόσωπο Συνέντευξη: Φώντας Τρούσας  

ΜΠΑΝΤΑ ΦΛΩΡΙΝΑΣ "Όλοι Δικοί Μας Είμαστε" του Φώντας Τρούσας