Lolek

About

" Greek neo-folk with a modern edge "

Lolek’s blurred musical creations are rooted deep in post-war rebetiko influences, the 90s Greek alt-rock scene, industrial, and post-punk, mixing them together with gravel-voiced laments. With his all-Greek background and his elliptical flow, the Athens-based artist  demands comparison to prominent local folk/rock figures like Giannis Aggelakas and international lyricists like Leonard Cohen. 

His new album, ‘Agria‘, released in September 2022, further emphasises what Lolek is good at: connecting with society’s seedy underbelly, always keeping a place in his songs (all sung in Greek) for the downtrodden and the lonely. The album’s ten tracks (including a cover of a famous Greek folk song and an adaptation of Philip Larkin’s poem ‘This Be The Verse’) work as a testament to disappointment, self-destruction, or being accepted by your family and society.

Born Giannis Anagnostatos, he started using the nickname Lolek while he was a drummer in Bolek & Lolek, before going his own way with a solo career. His debut album, ‘Alone‘ (2009), contained musical portraits of a world dominated by compassion and betrayal, love and rage, expressed through lo-fi pop and power ballads (‘Now Cry!‘), alt rock (‘These Guns‘) and romantic valses (‘A Valse of True Romance‘). 

Between  his sophomore album, ‘Ahinos’ (meaning ‘sea urchin’) in 2011, which was his first entirely Greek speaking album, right through to today, Lolek has taken a more difficult and challenging path, choosing experimentation over minimalism. He prefers to sculpt his individual chronicles on a microscopic level, with intense attention to detail.