Composer and musician Yiannis Spanos, the father of the so-called New Wave in Greece in the ’60s, died on Thursday at the age of 85.
Spanos’s first release in 1964 ‘Mia agapi gia to kalokeri’ (A summer love) indelibly sealed his mark on the Greek music scene, and he took off from there with several successful LPs and many of his songs are well-known to Greek people.
Spanos was born in Kiato, northern part of Corinthia in the Peloponnese, on 26 July 1934. His father was a dentist who hoped his son would follow in his footsteps.
The young man was drawn to the world of music more than science, and was particularly influenced by his sister’s piano studies, before he moved to Athens at the age of 17 to study at the National Conservatory where he learned to play the piano.
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He travelled extensively and lived briefly in Italy, Germany and the UK, eventually heading to Paris, France, where moved permanently in 1961. On the Parisian artistic scene, he worked at the Rive Gauche as a piano accompanist.
He accompanied many French artists like Cora Vaucaire, Serge Gainsbourg, Béatrice Arnac and Juliette Gréco. It was in Paris and in French that he wrote his first songs; an example is the song Sidonie that was sung by Brigitte Bardot in the film A Very Private Affair.When he eventually moved back to Greece, he was pivotal in the creation of the Greek New Wave genre. He continued composing music, including soundtracks for films; his songs have been sung by many Greek singers including Keti Chomata, Arleta, Giannis Poulopoulos and Dimitris Mitropanos.
He also set to music poems by several Greek poets.
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Despite being 85, he was active until his death Thursday and had been busy preparing for a series of concerts.