BIOGRAPHY
Floros Floridis
musician / film music - painter
Floros Floridis was born 1952 in Thessaloniki, Greece.
He studied Physics at Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki where he got his diploma.
Exploring his evident creativity beyond science, Floridis then studied classical clarinet under the Romanian professor Konstantin Ugureanou and started his career as a professional musician at the end of the 70s.
Links:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floros_Floridis
https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/Φλώρος_Φλωρίδης
The Musician
He counts as one of the main figures of jazz in Greece, not least because in 1979 Floridis together with Sakis Papadimitriou recorded the first modern jazz album that was produced in Greece - "Improvising at Barakos" (double LP). That moment marked the roots of the Greek domestic scene of improvisation and free jazz which then grew into the one we know today.
His rich and diverse career as well as his ever-progressive vision has been and keeps on pushing his work down often unexplored avenues and certainly beyond the Greek scene from very early on.
Building a name as a top impro and free jazz performer and creator, he had the opportunity as a leader and co-leader to collaborate and record with international improvised-free jazz music names like Peter Kowald, Guenter "Baby" Sommer, Paul Lytton, Okay Temiz, Nicky Skopelitis, Paul Lovens, Phil Wachsman, Carlos Zingaro, Hans Schneider, Louis Moholo, Vincent Chancey, Jean-Marc Montera, Milos Petrovic, Ivo Papazov,...
as well as with prominent Greek musicians Michalis Siganidis, Savinna Yannatou, Dimitris Polizoidis, Babis Papadopoulos, Yiannis Mourtzopoulos,, Kostas Vomvolos, Antonis Anissegos, Yorgos Dimitriadis, Ilias Papadopoulos, Yiannis Anastasakis, Spyweirdos...
in Berlin with Matthias Bauer, Michael Griener, Jan Roder, Chris Dahlgren, Olaf Rupp, Harri Sjöström, Gerhard Gschlössl, Achim Kaufmann, Elena Kakaliagou, Nikolaus Neuser, Dag Magnus Narvesen...
This has resulted in the release of more than 100 albums throughout the years with his contribution to various productions including guests of other artists in Greece as well as abroad.
See Floros Floridis Discography at Discogs
Floridis has played concerts and festivals in Greece, Europe, China, Australia, and the USA with a great number of European and American musicians - Evan Parker, Peter Brötzmann, Ken Vandermark, Irene Schweitzer, Ivo Papazov, Andrew Cyrille, Barre Phillips, Conny Bauer, Johannes Bauer, Hans Reichel, Sirone, William Parker, Steve McCall, Andre Jaume, Barry Guy,...
Some of the international groups, in which he was a founder and/or member, are The Black Sea Orchestra, The Inter-Balkan Orchestra, Mediterranean Ensemble...
Floridis also participated in the well-known Greek group Chimerinoi Kolimvites ("Winter Swimmers") for more than 20 years, "Florina's Brass Band", in the Euro-American Orchestra of Cecil Taylor in Berlin in 1986...
2015",Nickelsdorfer Konfrontationen 2015" ,2016 "Jazzatelier Ulrisberg":with Nate Wooley,Paul Lytton,Sten Sandell,Floros Floridis,Phil Wachsmann.Later in 2018 CD “Featuring”came out..
Has taught at "Aristotelean"university, Thessaloniki improvisation courses,2002 in the music department, as composing method. Also in 2019, lectured at China's universities of Beijing, Fuzhou, Wuhan, and Hanyang about improvisation as a creative method for audio-visual art products...
From 2 November 2022 until 12 November 2022, the sound trips #61 tour was made with the Cyprus vibraphonist Andria Nicodemou.
https://www.parzelledortmund.de/2022/10/30/floros-floridis-andria-nicodemou/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zqrialhlPI
Has worked with the dancer KOFI KOKO from 2016-2017
1) The ADK performance was commissioned for 16 +17 of December 2016
2) IMPULSTANZ festival 2017.
www.impulstanz.com/en/archive/
Film Music
www.imdb.com
As composer in feature,documentaries and short films:
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Soundtrack "Anna's Summer" (2001, by Jeanine Meerapfel)
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Soundtrack ”Fictional Lies On Right Occasions"" (2002, by Jeanine Meerapfel)
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Soundtrack"Marie Langer - Roman der Erinnerungen" (2003, by Lester Y. Cano Alvarez)
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Soundtrack”Faruk's Cafe"short film (2004, by Anna Schwingenschuh, Hakan Kurucu, Vera Bongartz, Jan Bonny, Zrinka Budjimila and others)
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Soundtrack ”Mosconi or to whom the world belongs" (2007, by Jeanine Meerapfel)
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Soundtrack ”Wer sich nicht wehrt, kann nicht gewinnen" (2008, by Jeanine Meerapfel)
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Soundtrack "Der Deutsche Freund" (2012, by Jeanine Meerapfel).
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Soundtrack “Marianne Lange – Rückblicke auf eine streitbare Frau in bewegter Zeit” (2021 by Christa Donner, Sina Vogt, Ute Möhring).
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Soundtrack “Innocence” (2021 by Víctor González).
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Soundtrack “I lost the way'',for Miltos Sachtouris (2021 by Panagiotis Rappas).
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Soundtrack of Documentary film essay"A woman" (2021 by Jeanine Meerapfel).
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1st Prize of German Film critics Award 2022 in music, for documentary film essay "A Woman".
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Jury statement:
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We think of films by Jacques Rivette when we think of this score, of the presence of instruments that, sometimes in the frame and sometimes off, play their own role, like a choir commenting on a puzzled game. One voice or several, often we are not sure. Which lends itself to a film in which the director traces the fading footsteps of her mother, and in which the past flutters like the present because both are made up of too many voices to come together into one clear image, one clear sound. The gentle, improvised, searching free jazz does not simply double or illustrate this searching movement of the camera and the montage. Nor does it create a counterpoint to them. Rather, it is an independent variation of this cinematic odyssey, a complication and vivification of this search outside the film, a modulated air current that blows alongside the film and carries it far along with it.
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The prize for best film music goes to Floros Floridis, for the film "One Woman".
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Laudatory speech: Philipp Stadelmaier
As a composer/film creator
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“Confusion-Diffusion” soundtrack and direction.Co- director Jeanine Meerapfel (2015)
... also on 23 October in Thessaloniki, Greece and on 12 November 2016 in Buenos Aires,Argentina.
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“Moving Sand/Topos” soundtrack and direction.Co-director Jeanine Meerapfel (2020)
Participated in:
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“Going Down” film by D. Mourtzopoulos (1988)
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“O skylos” film by Xanthopoulos (1993)
The Producer
Besides his work as a musician Floridis worked as a producer for the National Greek Radio ERT 2 from 1995 to 1997. Between 1997 and 1999, he collaborated with the LYRA label as a producer, including the production of the albums The Black Sea Project by The Black Sea Orchestra and the second album of The Florina Brass Band. He also founded the label j. n. d. records (later j. n. d. re-records).
As the first impro-jazz-musician in Greece he founded the International Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music of the Municipality of Thessaloniki in 1984 where he was the artistic director and coordinator for the next 8 festivals, attracting some of the top international names of the improvised, free and jazz scene.
For the festivities of the Cultural Capital of Europe – Thessaloniki 1997 he organized the 9 Days of Jazz Festival whereas more recently, he was the artistic director and organizer of the Impro Days Hydra (2008) and Impro Jazz "Megaro of Music" Thessaloniki (2010) festivals.
In 2021set up a series of "streaming" improvised music gigs,"Modern Thursdays" in Terzo Mondo club,Berlin.
The Painter
In the recent years, the not widely known creative side of Floridis as a painter has gained more attention..
In the past, examples of his work had frequently been featured in some of the music albums he has produced but nowadays it is being featured in solo as well as group exhibitions. In some special occasions, himself is introducing his work at the opening of such exhibitions, by playing solo. This gives the audience yet another perspective to his work by combining additional senses......more infos are coming soon,....