Iraklis - Progressive Psych Folk (Greece)

Seeing the recent Greek suggestions, I decided it's time to make my own suggestion.  It's Iraklis, a Prog Greek Pysch Folk band active between 1972 and 1995 founded by Iraklis Triantafyllidis whose most noteworthy releases are the following:

Se Allous Kosmous, double LP, EMI 1976, reissued six times
Pezis me tis Michanes, LP, Polyavlos 1981
I Stigmi,LP, Polyavlos 1984

I've only ever heard the double LP Se allous Kosmous, - perhaps other members could shed some light on the other albums - for which I post a link to the full album. It's a superb piece of work, as suggested Pysch Folk but with orchestral and choral elements. It was a very ambitious project which, according to Allrecords involved 80 instruments and 23 musicians. The album is available commercially both in MP3 format and vinyl LP.

The band has changed its name a couple of times and line-up numerous times, and are now known as Iraklis & Lernaia Hydra. I would suggest that the Pysch team could look at this, but it could also fit into Prog Folk.

Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraklis_%26_Lernaia_Hydra

http://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/review/2124/

http://www.myspace.com/iraklisband

http://www.allrecords.gr/catalogue/SearchandList.php?imageField.x=57&imageField.y=40&showInHome=&hotdeal=&keyWord=iraklis&description=&idSupplier=0&format=0&idCategory=0&status=0&idCondition=&showPictures=1&itemsPerPage=50&sortOrder=1

A bit of everything in here - Folk, Psych, Classical, even some Kraut. The instrumentation includes bagpipes, woodwinds, banjo-mandolin, violin (lots of violin), alongside brass and solo piano, Moogs and Mellotron, male/female vocals, chorals... The Head Heritage review draws comparisons with 666 by Aphrodite's Child and it's easy to see why. The tracklist comprises lots of brief instrumentals, and song lengths are also quite short (much like 666) but they all segue with one another to create a seamless whole. The second half of the album loses its way a wee bit with more of an emphasis on out-and-out folksy stuff and even a bit of standard rock 'n' roll, but looking at the album overall I think it warrants a listen by the Symph Team.

Iraklis was suggested to us back in 2007.

Seconded with Ivan, they can be fit for Psych IMHO (afraid Uwe and Chester have another opinion though).

Now I'm on a business trip so gonna take them to my Team after going home. Thanks for a superb suggestion!

Psych would fit

Edited by AtomicCrimsonRush - February 10 2013 at 06:17

Under evaluation in Psych / Space Team.
http://progfreak.com/Iraklis-155524.html?path=pa/psych

I remember these guys from my days on the Symphonic team.  Can't believe they were never added.  IMHO Prog Folk makes more sense than Psych, but let's see what the rest of the team has to say.