Antonis Antoniou

About

" Cyprus-based Mediterranean-psych-folk at its best "

It’s getting tougher and tougher to remember all the distinctions and awards Antonis Antoniou has won for his latest album, ‘Throisma’ (2022, Ajabu Records), but they include Best Album of 2022 in World Music Charts Europe, No1 in Transglobal World Music Chart and so on. Yes- it’s that good. 

The Nicosian-born sound artist, producer, and activist, is above all a composer whose deep knowledge of music turns various Eastern-Mediterranean and contemporary rhythms and instruments into a creative force. He proved that with his also awarded debut, ‘Kkismettin’(2021), a political concept album, and since then he has taken yet another step forward. His work releases a power that other similar acts have only suggested, but which he realizes with arguably greater clarity than any of them. In ‘Throisma’ (meaning ‘rustling’), Antonis combines Cypriot traditional music, 60s psychedelic rock, and Eastern melodies. Influenced by the island’s unique cultural identity and sociopolitical turbulence through the years, Antonis uses the local dialect, an element that adds texture as well as a double meaning: music as language and language as music. 

Antoniou composes music for theatre, film, and dance performances, and is also the founder of Mediterranean-psych-folk acts Monsieur Doumani and Trio Tekke, where he reworks tradition in quirky ways. His songs breathe in the way of all truly timeless music—shuttling between avant-world contexts and popular celebration, a link to the past that refuses to be stuck there. It’s alive and it’s evolving. And it’s this fusion of his musical education and playful- yet-meaningful experimentation that makes Antonis Antoniou stand out from legions of retro-cosplaying psych acts.