CRYO is the first album by the duo of Greek experimental cellist Nikos Veliotis and Swedish pianist Alex Zethson. Veliotis is a classically trained pianist, who devoted himself to experimental music more than thirty years ago, performing solo and with several groups (Looperwith Norwegian percussionist Ingar Zach and Swedish reed player Martin Küchen) and innovative improvisers like Rhodri Davies, Angharad Davis, John Butcher, Fred Van Hove, Taku Sugimoto, and Klaus Filip. In 2008, he founded Mohammd, with electronics player ILIOS and bassist Coti K, and since 2015, it morphed into MMMD duo with ILIOS. Zethson is a member of Mats Gustafsson’s Fire! Orchestra, Goran Kajfeš’ Tropiques, and Martin Küchen’s Angles, and runs the Thanatosis Produktion label.
Veliotis and Zethson met in Athens when Tropiques played at the legendary record store, gallery, concert venue and label Underflow in March 2019, where Veliotis was invited for an opening solo set. The day after, they entered the Athens studio Artracks and recorded CRYO, consisting of two extended pieces.
The atmosphere of these untitled pieces is close in spirit to the slow-shifting, low frequencies monolithic soundscapes of MMMD. These pieces explore slow-evolving forms and complex, deep-toned cascades of sounds, blend organically Zethson’s piano’s bass register rumbling sonic clouds and overtones into Veliotis’ dark and woody cello and transform into massive tsunamis of sound. Together Veliotis and Zethson create intense and unsettling, chilly and dark drones, with cinematic qualities of a horror film (and MMMD created a soundtrack for the medieval horror cult film, Hagazussa, Antifrost, 2018). CRYO was meticulously mastered by Mell Dettmer, who has collaborated with drone metal bands like Earth and Sunn O))).
