Tango with Lions is the stage name of Berlin-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist
Kat Papachristou. Officially formed in 2007 by Kat, acoustic/folk/surf band from Athens, Greece. They began as a changing collective of musicians and by now they have grown to be a band with a stable line-up.
The band was officially formed during a summer-time jam in 2007, in a beach house with former
members Johniethin and Dana. Johnniethin's blues-folk guitar playing and harmonica style, met cellist Stavros' confident melodies and Dana's delicate clarinet sound to complete what the debut album "Verba Time" represents. Since the recording sessions during 2009-2010 with producer Ottomo at Fab Liquid Studios, the line up has changed, with Yannos now playing guitars and the appearance of drums.
Tango with Lions is seen as a collective of day-dreamers, hard-workers and music-lovers. Her
debut album Verba Time, released in 2010, received enthusiastic reviews, while the song In A Bar has broken a record of views on YouTube. The album "Verba Time" got released by InnerEar Records on June 21st, 2010 and was warmly welcomed by critics and audience. Tango with Lions are currently giving concerts along with preparing new songs.
The second album "A Long Walk" was released in 2013, followed by third album The Light, in 2018.
In 2020, she created and released the handmade poetry book “Have I ever told you” with a 2-track digital album.
TANGO WITH LIONS - VERBA TIME 2010
Inner Ear welcomes Tango With Lions and their first studio album, entitled “Verba Time”. An atmospheric work, of acoustic style, full of intense folk elements, lyrics that whisper secrets and bewitching vocals, “Verba Time” is one of the most pleasant music surprises held in store for us by the last days of this spring. Εver wondered how it is to dance tango with lions? Or how such a
dance works out in a restless girlish mind? In the usb era, how does time run through the tiny memory of some floppy disks? But let’s get things from the beginning. Kat (Katerina Papachristou) has collaborated with many English-speaking bands in the Greek indie scene, as a musician and singer, until Tango With Lions were formed in 2007. Tango With Lions is a changing musical collective that owes its name to the images that take place in Kat’s mind, every time she gets ready to write a new track.
12 vignette-songs, music and lyrics by Kat, composed in the period 2007-2009, are the fragments from a music diary that includes thoughts, emotions, images of daily life, influences from favourite films and books, very personal lyrics but also symbolisms referring to social and political issues that concern her. The album was recorded sporadically in the last two quarters of 2009, in Fab Liquid Studio, by Ottomo,
who is also the producer of the record. In the album, whispering vocals and strong acoustic rhythms run through 12 bold and atmospheric “vignette” tracks, that is, each track tells a little story. The songwriter (Kat) combines images, thoughts and emotions of daily life with larger social and political issues that concern her. The name of the album is a play on “Verbatim” – a Japanese floppy disk brand. The project, according to the artists, is about reaching out, about communicating, about coming out of isolation.
Inspired by Nick Gentry’s painting, “Verbatim”, which graces the cover artwork of the album, “Verba
Time” came up as a title through a wordplay from the famous floppy disk brand, but it immediately developed to a message of communication: in these days of complete isolation that we are going through, it’s about time to begin to communicate with people around us and express our thoughts. It’s Verba Time!
Tango With Lions – Verba Time
Label: Inner Ear – INN021, Inner Ear – 520034 77003 8 9
Format: CD, Album
Country: Greece
Released: Jun 2010
Genre: Rock
Style: Folk Rock, Acoustic, Indie Rock
TRACKS
01. House On Fire 3:34
02. In A Bar 3:31
03. Pilgrim Said 2:33
04. Policeman 2:25
05. On The Floor 3:14
06. Right From The Start 2:21
07. Black 3:50
08. Red And Yellow Rooms 2:46
09. Underskin 3:14
10. Sad Big Blue Eyes 3:19
11. Angel's Arms 2:57
12. Prayers 2:24
LINE - UP
Cello, Mandolin – Stavros Parginos
Clarinet, Backing Vocals – Ntana Papachristou
Electric Guitar, Harmonica, Backing Vocals – Yiannis (Johnniethin) Maniatis
Music By, Lyrics By, Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Classical Guitar, Piano, Organ, Percussion – Katerina Papachristou
Performer – Tango With Lions
IN A BAR LYRICS
I wanna meet a friend in a bar tonight
the evening is long so long i hardly move
a can in my hand a picture in my mind
a voice i need to hear, a laugh i need to show
we're lonely, babe in a boat,
again, i need to see a friend tonight
or see the people in a bar
i wish they could not see me at all
how i wish i could describe their pain or my pain
The mystic light,
the choir of smoke the smell of wood,
the pose, the joke
the dirty little world inside
that needs to come out needs to come out
I wanna meet a friend in a bar tonight
the evening is long
if only i had that strength to see those people,
all so lonely as me
all so lonely,
all so lonely as me.
MP3 @ 320 Size: 99 MB
Flac Size: 205 MB
TANGO WITN LIONS - A LONG WALK 2013
Their debut album, “Verba Time”, has received enthusiastic reviews and the song “In A Bar” has broken a record of views on youtube. Tango With Lions return this spring with their highly
anticipated second album, “A Long Walk”. Their musical path during the last four years could be compared to a long walk. The project of Kat (Katerina Papachristou) began as a changing group of musicians and has grown to be the stable lineup of the band that recorded “A Long Walk”. With the compositions and lyrics of Kat as a starting point, the band took their time to arrange the 10 album songs with continuous pre-production and rehearsals during the last two years. The recordings began in summer 2012 and were completed in January 2013 by Thodoris Zefkilis in SCA studio.
As in “Verba Time” so here, every song is a small story, but this time the stories are self-contained, with
routes through dark dreams, night trips, sunny fantasies, memories and stories of love and separation. In Tango With Lions’ long walk bittersweet melodies and dreamy lyrics encounter rich arrangements. The result is unique: atmospheric electricity with dark outbursts, mystic trombone melodies, an old piano and a dark and solid rhythm section, always maintaining the special atmosphere that hovers around Kat’s voice.
A Long Walk, is about stories as well but the style here is more introspective. Lyrics hauntingly speak
of dreams and fantasies and memories dark and sunny, evoking both love and separation. On a sonic level, this is a more eclectic project, with trombones and electric guitars and deep pianos. These are songs that would be especially suitable in the soundtrack of some gritty urban romance film.
Tango With Lions – A Long Walk
Label: Inner Ear – INN077
Format: CD, Album
Country: Greece
Released: Apr 2013
Genre: Rock
Style: Folk Rock, Acoustic, Indie Rock
TRACKS
01. Slippery Roads 4:25
02. A Long Walk 4:47
03. News 4:32
04. Rainy Fall 3:05
Cello – Stavros Parginos
Vocals [Contributed Vocals] – Dimitris Geronikolas, Evaggelia Xinopoulou, Evie Kourtides
05. Kite 5:05
06. People Stare 4:32
07.Obituary 5:55
Cello – Stavros Parginos
Vocals [Contributed Vocals] – Dimitris Geronikolas, Evaggelia Xinopoulou, Evie Kourtides
08. Where Heroes Die 3:36
09. Over The Neon Lights 4:09
Vocals [Contributed Vocals] – Dimitris Geronikolas, Evaggelia Xinopoulou, Evie Kourtides
10. Playground 3:24
Cello – Stavros Parginos
LINE - UP
Katerina Papachristou – voice, acoustic guitar, piano
Yannos Paramithiotis – electric guitar, vocals
Nikos Vergetis – drums, percussion, vocals
Jim Staridas – trompone, vocals
Thodoris Zefkilis – bass, vocals
SLIPPERY ROADS LYRICS
Slippery roads would take me to your house.
A smell of whiskey in your car.
Danger signs warn me to stand still to not move towards
this silence I crave.
Up on the mountains where I grew up.
Up on the mountains of slippery roads.
MP3 @ 320 Size: 113 MB
Flac Size: 279 MB
TANGO WITH LIONS - THE LIGHT 2018
Singer-songwriter Kat (Katerina Papachristou) and her band Tango With Lions are back after
five years of absence from discography and while their previous two albums – “Verba Time” (2010), “A Long Walk” (2013) – have expanded their loyal audience beyond Greek borders. Their long awaited new album, “The Light”, will be the first release of Inner Ear for 2018.
“The Light” documents a desire to emerge towards the light through nine stories-questionmarks of
introspection. Stories of separation, pleasures, deconstruction that motivate either nihilism and sinking into darkness, either excessive optimism or the acceptance that darkness and light can steadily coexist in music. This natural coexistence is the thread that unites the songs of “The Light” musically and lyrically. Nine songs, different in style, reaffirm that the atmosphere in Tango With Lions’ music is created through images that lure the music, with the lyrics being the key link.
The album began to take shape in 2015 and was completed in the summer of 2017. It was recorded at
SCA studio with sound engineer and band member Thodoris Zefkilis, with additional recordings from AKRON studio, where it all began with sound engineer Vangelis Fampas. The mastering of the album was made in Pytzamax studio by Yannis Paxevanis.
Tango With Lions – The Light
Label: Inner Ear – INN149L
Format: CD, Album
Country: Greece
Released: 018
Genre: Rock
Style: Acoustic, Indie Rock, Folk Rock
TRACKS
01. Back To One 3:07
02. Proof Of Desire 4:13
03. Last Thrill 3:48
04. The Light 4:46
05. Phoenicia 3:06
06. Restless Man 3:30
07. What You've Become 2:43
08. The Go-Betweens 5:02
09. L'Ombre 3:13
My dear friend, something i don't know. Thank you !
ReplyDeleteI'm always happy when i can add another one to my Greek collection.
I have all of your entries except two.
One of the Purple Overdose which is very expensive and Vagina Lips.
The problem with these crappy lps is that the postage is so expensive. I wanted to buy the 1st one from Greek provide and the one you posted. Postage 19e. I said no. It's a shame the lps have a relatively normal price.
And it's a shame that you don't actually bring any new bands from Italy. I probably have beetween 150-200 from 1980 to the present.
Today i get it from amazon:
Chelsea 4 cd box Cherry Red Rec.
William Penn and his Pale - Swami
60's S. F. Band lp
Death Valley Girls- under the spell...
the other later
Doc Mc Williams Anthology 1967-1969 Cherry Red Records
Various Blank Generation US/ Canadia Punk 5 cd box ( i'm particularly looking forward to this one. I know a lot, but even more is unknown. You know how much i like the US punk.
I had a do-cd in my Walkabouts collection found which was recorded just one day before the Vienna concert in FANTASTIC sbd
quality 2 cd. It's the "same" concert as in Vienna. I'm very happy. I was already wondering how i was going to get the Vienna concert. That is now unnecessary
It's a good idea that you brought samples. Yes that sound very good.
ReplyDeleteI ask you for another Greek band and here are "Tango With Lions". Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. You're the best of the best.
ReplyDeleteLinda.
Thank you Linda for your beautiful comment.
DeleteIf the albums are as good as the two videos, then I am hooked. Thank you for ALL OF YOUR wonderful posts.
ReplyDeleteI am from Thessaloniki, but I never heard of this band before. Thank you for introduce me in their sounds.
ReplyDelete