Music & Lyrics by Mavrothi Kontanis
String Arrangements by Megan Gould
Evolved Beats by Shane Shanahan
Recorded, Mixed & Mastered at Treehouse Sound by Frank Marra
“Dancing in my Dreams” Recorded & Mixed at Theory One Productions by Paul Klimson
Co-Produced by Mavrothi Kontanis, Frank Marra & Paul Klimson
Album Artwork & Design by Megan Gould
Released on April 26, 2013
Press:
“Raw, Smoldering Middle Eastern Rock from Mild Mannered Rebel...one of the most hard-hitting, fearlessly intense albums of the year.”
“Mild Mannered Rebel’s Stunning Debut, ‘Ear to the Sky,’ Dazzles The Senses”
The 50 Best Albums of 2013
Sun-Singed Wings: Mild Mannered Rebel Rises From Aegean Roots to Psychedelic, Modal Rock on Ear to the Sky
A little over a decade ago, American oud player and singer Mavrothi Kontanis had a breakthrough. Though Kontanis was steeped in the Byzantine and Ottoman sounds of his Northeastern Greek heritage, songs just kept coming to him in English. The lyrics—personal, defiant, intense—ran against the more roots-oriented grain of Kontanis’ usual work. But as indie rock-style statements, they made perfect sense.
Like Icarus, the mythological wing-building young man who dared to graze the sun, Kontanis dares, in a soft-spoken, deeply reflective way, to soar and struggle, with his part-acoustic, part-electric band Mild Mannered Rebel. Summoning eerie images of constantly peering icons and moonlit longing, of hope-filled nights and a spiteful sun, Kontanis and his group’s debut album Ear to the Sky seamlessly blend the modes, rhythms, and instruments of the Aegean with the drive, grit, and tumultuous inner world of rock.
© 2014 Mavrothi T. Kontanis. All rights reserved.