SNF Nostos

STAVROS NIARCHOS FOUNDATION

Music

Schoolwave Rewind

The Greek Music Scene

June 30, 2019, 21.30, Great Lawn

Schoolwave Rewind

We met them as school kids, band members on the stage of Schoolwave. They have now come of age, continuing their careers, completing their studies, carving new professional roads, and returning to the Schoolwave stage just for the Summer Nostos Festival. They are schoolwave alumni Apollon Retsos, Danae Nielsen, and the band Astrarot.

Apollon Retsos is a composer and singer. As a student, he participated three times in Schoolwave with his band Musica Ficta. He has opened for Alkinoos Ioannidis, Foivos Delivorias, and Mary and the Boy, and has written music for the play Wonderland staged at the Pallas Theater (2010), Titus Andronicus at the National Theater (2011), as well as for children’s plays at the Acropol and the Badminton Theaters (2011-2014). In 2015, he wrote a cycle of songs based on poems by American filmmaker Tim Burton from the book The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories. He is currently completing his studies in Music Composition at London’s Middlesex University.

Danae Nielsen is a musician from Copenhagen, Denmark. She lives in Athens and works as a graphic designer. At a very early age, she began studying classical piano and harmony, and in 2004, together with four school friends, they formed their first band: Rosebleed. In 2006, they performed at Schoolwave at the age of 17, and in 2007, they signed with Sony Music, releasing an EP Stories and an album White Balloons. In 2014, shortly before breaking up, Rosebleed gave their last concert as a guest band at the Anniversary Edition of Schoolwave. Danae composes her own music, mainly in English verse, but also a little Greek and Danish. She often combines sound samples that she records from city, mountain, house, and sea, creating rhythmic motifs. She builds melodies with voices accompanied by warm synthesizer sounds and loops certain parts. She uses various kinds of musical instruments and objects to produce sounds.

Astrarot started out in 2008 as a school metal band in Thessaloniki. In 2015, after many band members came and went, they integrated elements of metalcore and electronic music into their sound. They have adopted a DIY approach, producing their songs and music videos themselves. To date, they have released three singles and one album titled We Can’t Win. In addition, they have given concerts in Greece and Bulgaria.  In 2018, Astrarot participated in the Schoolwave Festival, which helped them promote their music, culminating in their participation in the GNO’s Happy Birthday Mr. Hadjidakis tribute, where they presented covers of Manos Hadjidakis’s Reflections. The band’s motto is: “If you don’t fight for yourself, no one will bother with you.” 

Schoolwave is a music festival featuring school and college student bands that has been taking place in Athens since 2005. Its philosophy is to treat the musicians as artists and not as “kids,” which is why the bands are provided with a large stage, top-of-the-line equipment, and a team of leading professionals to support them. Thanks to this philosophy, Schoolwave has established itself as the most important youth festival in Greece, attracting thousands of young people every year.