Savvas Ysatis (born July 1, 1968) is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

ian.

Early life

Ysatis was born in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

, and developed an interest in the synthesizer through exposure to electronic music by artists such as

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the ...

and

Jean Michel Jarre Jean-Michel André Jarre (; born 24 August 1948) is a French composer, performer and record producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and new-age genres, and is known for organising outdoor spectacles featuring his music, accompanie ...

in the late 1970s. At age 15, he left Greece to move to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where he acquired some musical equipment and began experimenting. His early ambient solo work was produced under the moniker Omicron. He met and started working with

Taylor Deupree Taylor Deupree (born April 30, 1971), is an American electronic musician, photographer, graphic designer and mastering engineer. He is most known for the founding of the 12k, 12k record label, along with his work as a member of Prototype 909, and ...

in 1993 and released a number of albums and tracks, with a variety of styles and under a few different names. Ysatis and Deupree released their ambient work as Seti, their jazzy

trip hop Trip hop (sometimes used synonymously with "downtempo") is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as a psychedelic music, psychedelic fusion of hip hop music, hip hop ...

as Futique, and their more dance-oriented work as Arc. Most of Ysatis' work while in New York was released on the Instinct label.

Recent activity

In 1997, Ysatis returned to Athens to help the growing Greek electronic music scene. He founded the Sonar label with radio DJ

Giannis Papaioannou Giannis Papaioannou ( el, Γιάννης Παπαϊωάννου; January 18, 1913 – August 3, 1972) was a famous Greek musician and composer born in Kios, Ottoman Empire (now Gemlik, Turkey). In English his name is sometimes romanticized as ''Ya ...

. He also started the Allou project with vocalist Elias Aslanoglou, which has signed with the V2 label.

Musical style

Ysatis' early work, as characterized by his Omicron releases, and his work with Deupree for SETI, focused mainly on

ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It u ...

. The Futique project was a completely different combination of trip hop and jazz. The Arc project fit somewhere between the two other projects, with a stripped-down

Detroit techno Detroit techno is a type of techno music that generally includes the first techno productions by Detroit-based artists during the 1980s and early 1990s. Prominent Detroit techno artists include Juan Atkins, Eddie Fowlkes, Derrick May, Jeff Mil ...

style, with a little experimental edge. His latest solo work on the Tresor label moves to a classic

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

feel.

Bands

* Omicron * Sound Track *

Seti The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is a collective term for scientific searches for intelligent extraterrestrial life, for example, monitoring electromagnetic radiation for signs of transmissions from civilizations on other p ...

(with Deupree) * Futique (with Deupree) * Arc (with Deupree) * Skai (with Deupree) * Allou (with Aslanoglou)

Discography

* ''Symbolis'' EP (as Omicron) (1993, Instinct) * ''Acrocosm'' (as Omicron) (1994, Instinct) * ''SETI'' (as SETI) (1994, Instinct) * ''The Generation and Motion of a Pulse'' (as Omicron) (1995, Instinct) * ''

Pharos The Lighthouse of Alexandria, sometimes called the Pharos of Alexandria (; Ancient Greek: ὁ Φάρος τῆς Ἀλεξανδρείας, contemporary Koine ), was a lighthouse built by the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, during the re ...

'' (as SETI) (1995, Instinct) * ''Globetrotter'' (as Omicron) (1996, Radical Ambient) * ''

Ciphers In cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption—a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is ''encipherment''. To encipher or encode i ...

'' (as SETI) (1996, Instinct) * ''12K'' (as Arc) (1996, Instinct) * ''Luv Luv'' (as Futique) (1996, Instinct) * ''Electronic Dance Music'' (as Omicron) (1997, Radical Ambient) * ''Paging Mr. So-and-So'' (as Futique) (1997, Shadow) * ''Arc vs. Tiny Objects in Space'' (as Arc) (1998, Instinct) * ''Tower of Winds'' (as Savvas Ysatis & Taylor Deupree) (1998, Caipirinha) * ''Go Low'' (1999, Shadow) * ''Alright'' EP (1999, Tresor) * ''Highrise'' (1999, Tresor) * ''The Cooler'' (as Sound Track) (2000, Caipirinha) * ''Select'' (2001, Tresor)

Compilations

Ysatis' work appeared on the following compilation releases: * ''Chill Out!'' (1994, Instinct) * ''Chillout: Phase 2'' (1994, Instinct) * ''Plug In + Turn On'' (1994, Instinct) * ''Plug In + Turn On X 2'' (1994, Instinct) * ''Trancefusion, Volume 2'' (1994, Instinct) * ''Instinct Ambient Collection'' (1995, Instinct) * ''Ambient Systems, Volume 2'' (1996, Instinct) * ''Exit to New York'' (1996, Radical Ambient) * ''Ambient Systems, Volume 3'' (1997, Instinct) * ''Earthrise Shadow, Volume 3'' (1997, Shadow) * ''Trip Hop & Jazz, Volume 3'' (1997, Instinct) * ''Caipirinha Music Sampler: Re-Inventing Culture'' (1998, Caipirinha) * ''Digital Reflex'' (1998, Instinct) * ''Pure Abstrakt: Adventures in Dub'' (1998, Shadow) * ''Ambient Systems, Volume 4'' (1999, Instinct) * ''Microscopic Sound'' (1999, Caipirinha) * ''Annex 2'' (1999, Tresor) * ''Tresor, Volume 7'' (1999, Tresor) * ''Orbit Lounge'' (2000, Shadow) * ''Tresor, Volume 8'' (2000, Tresor) * ''Ambient Boxed: A Guide by Instinct'' (2001, Instinct) * ''State of E:Motion, Vol. 9'' (2001, E:Motion) * ''Blunted, Volume 3'' (2003, Shadow) * ''Tresor, Volume 12'' (2004, Tresor)

External links

https://www.facebook.com/SavvasYsatis.official/ *https://www.discogs.com/artist/159-Savvas-Ysatis {{DEFAULTSORT:Ysatis, Savvas Greek electronic musicians 1968 births Living people