Larry Gus
On ne remerciera jamais assez Panagiotis Melidis d’avoir abandonné l’informatique pour se consacrer entièrement à la musique. Plutôt que de répondre à un nombre incalculable de hotlines, le grec endosse en effet depuis plusieurs années le pseudonyme de Larry Gus. Sous cette identité, il compose des morceaux où s’entrecroisent pop et influences ethniques. Une fusion des espaces et des époques effectuée avec une fluidité désarmante. Ce style à la fois léger et luxuriant a tapé dans l’oreille du label DFA qui a fait de Larry Gus l’un de ses poulains.
Nouvel album ‘Subservient’ déjà disponible.
English
Panagiotis Melidis started writing music as Larry Gus (λάρυγγας [larigas], greek for larynx) in 2006, after his previous band, the bass and drums duo Ginger, parted ways. Initially his music combined sample-based constructions and psychedelic pop melodies, merged into an infinitely dense amount of layers and polyrhythms. He soon became known for his energetic and chaotically uninhibited improvised live performances which involve intricate layerings of vocals, drums, electronics along with lively stage banter.
On his latest DFA album, “I Need New Eyes” (a title inspired by a Marcel Proust misquotation), moving slowly out of his sample-based roots and using clearer songwriting structures as his starting point, he stares intensively into his obsessions, insecurities, anxieties and inadequacies, namely failure, humiliation, subservience, submission, and comparisons with other musicians’ careers, always through the prism of a provincial outsider.
He has performed at numerous festivals across the world (Sónar, Pukkelpop, Lowlands, Nuits Sonores, Moogfest), he has toured with Cut Copy and YACHT in the US and he is a Red Bull Music Academy alumni (Tokyo 2014).
Panagiotis currently lives and works in Athens, Greece, where he moved back with his wife and son, after living for five years in Milan, Italy.