AKRITAS

Stavros Logaridis was the leader of this band. He was previously in the band POLL which was a very good greek flower power band with hippy and romantic lyrics and some elements of greek folk music, the greek Crosby, Stills & Nash perhaps. (The two other main members were Kostas Tournas and Robert Williams. Kostas Tournas made an excellent prog-folk record called "Aperanta Horafia" (Endless Fields) with greek lyrics - worth checking out. After that he continued with a nice Ziggy Stardust-like album and then recorded many albums of average pop-rock and ballads)

When POLL disbanded Logaridis wanted to create something more complex so he formed Akritas. The only album ever released is in my opinion a great prog album especially for 70's Greece where imported records were hard to get, and there were no concerts of foreign bands so musians were based mostly on their own inspiration and the Greek tradition. Not as folky as POLL but still with a Greek flavor it reminds me of early Yes without, unfortunately, the technical skills to back it up. Although divided into small songs, it is meant as a single piece concept album though the (greek) lyrics do not focus on a particular story. It is worth noticing that the lyrics were provided by Kostas Ferris who also wrote the lyrics for Aphrodite's Cdild - 666. If the band was more daring they could have surely developed their very good ideas and melodies further. Anyway, it is an above average quality album and I would like to award 3+ stars but since that is not possible I have to go to 3.

After the indifference of the public, Akritas disbanded and Logaridis released more commercial rock music trying to appeal to the mass audience. He rarely succeded although he is still trying... What is interesting though is that in his 1979 album "Manoula Ellas" (Mother Greece) he included an instrumental theme that some years later Vangelis used for the main theme of Chariots Of Fire and won the Oscar!! He used it without crediting Logaridis or asking the rights to it and never to this day admitted it is the same theme. However, although differences do exist, those who have listened both (myself included) tend to agree with Logaridis.