Loukianos Kilaidonis
Loukianos (Lucianos) Kilaidonis was a Greek composer, lyricist and singer.
Kilaidonis was born in Kypseli, Athens on July 15, 1943. He studied and finished the a course at the Architecture School of Metsovio Polytechnic School, but never worked as an architect.
In the beginning of the 1970s, he wrote his first music piece, which was for a theatre play by Kostoula Mitropoulou called Our City. The songs in the record released are sung by Vicki Mosholiou and Manolis Mitsias.
His next record was Red String lyrics by Nikos Gatsos with Dimitra Galani and Manolis Mitsias. In 1973, Microastica was released with lyrics by Yiannis Negrepontis, and for the first time Loukianos Kilaidonis sang in his own songs. This work is not only a milestone in the artistic life of Loukianos, but also in the whole of Greek artistic life. Before Mikroastika was released as a record they were illegally distributed at the time of the dictatorship in Greece, and became a symbol for a whole generation. His next record Simple Lessons of Civil Economy was again with lyrics by Yiannis Negrepontis.
In 1976, Loukianos composed Media Luz his only instrumental record.
From 1978 till 1991 he released 5 completely personal records: ‘I am a poor and lonely cowboy’, ‘Stay cool guys’, ‘ Low Flight’, ‘Songs For Bad Guys’, ‘Why I Will become A Carpenter’ and a record with songs of the 50’s that Lucianos loved and sang : ‘Fifties and dry Bread’. He also released a double record with theatrical music titled ‘Lets Go Maestro’.
In 1993 he released a double record titled: ‘OH! My sweet Home country’ which is a chronicle of the musical life of Greece for the last 50 years. This work represented in a record, for the first time, categories of songs that belonged to the oral tradition. They range from school songs, songs of the neighbourhood, of the street, of camping, of the church school, of the scouts and also of the Ionian Islands and Rebetika.
At the same time he continued to compose music for the theatre and the cinema. For ten straight years he exclusively composed the music for the Free Theatre (extracts from this music are in the record ‘Let’s go Maestro’) and he is also the main composer for the plays by the Thessalic Theatre.
He also collaborated with the National Theatre, the State Theatre of Northern Greece, the Public Theatre of L. Trivizas, and also the Children’s Theatre Scene by Xenia Kalogeropoulou.
He composed music for the movies: ‘The Hunters’ and ‘The Theatre Crew’ by Theodoros Aggelopoulos, ‘Eleftherios Venizelos’ by Pantelis Voulgaris and ‘The Athenians’ by Vasilis Alexakis. He also composed music for many TV series.
Throughout these years Loukianos staged many concerts in the whole of Greece and Cyprus. The most well known of all is the famous ‘Party in Vouliagmeni Beach’, that took place in 1983 and was attended by approximately 70.000 people. The ‘Party in Vouliagmeni Beach’ was considered as the Greek ‘Woodstock’. In this Loukianos was the first artist who organised an event in a natural environments out of courts and theatres. The last years in his concerts he adds many theatrics and visual elements, turning them more into musical theatre plays, the show ‘Oh! My sweet home country’ in Lycabetus Theatre in the summer of 1993, was named as the first Greek public musical. This show was also presented in Cyprus, Rhodes, and New York with great success.
Another theatrical show of his is ‘Our Best Years’ written by Vangelis Goufas.
His last recorded work was: ‘New Kipseli – New Orleans’ that came out from his collaboration with the famous band from New Orleans: The Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
From 1995 and until 1999 he developed, with his wife Anna Vagena, their own Art Venue ‘Metaxourgeio’, in a completely renovated old building, located in the centre of Athens. This venue started working in October 1999 with the presentation of the show ‘Microastica’ by Lucianos Kilaidonis and Yiannis Negrepontis.
Though Kilaidonis still had concerts in Greece and abroad, he mainly presented musical shows in ‘Metaxourgeio’. These included Celebration for the welcoming of 2000, musical show with a title ‘The West meet the East’ with rebetika songs and songs from Smyrna, with the group of Nikos and Jasmine Saragouda, a musical show titled ‘Diamonds in the Mud’ and ‘Happy 1950’ with Greek Jazz of composers from the 40s-50s with the band Take The Money And Run, and others.
Kilaidonis died on February 7, 2017.