The Byzan-Tones

For thousands of years, a secret cult of musician-mystics has zealously guarded the sources of most of the world's most popular musical forms. But in around 2004, for unknown reasons, guitarist and musicologist George Barba Yiorgi, a long-time acolyte of this musical underground, decided to finally "go public' and recruit a band to perform a "pure, unadulterated" version of what some are calling Whirled Music- the missing Eastern root that lies in wait, like a half-buried city of dreams, lurking deep in the grooves of modern genres from rock to techno to you-name-it, waiting for the day when we all come out to dance...

With help from former Annabouboula producer (and namesake) George Sempepos, Barba Yiorgi started assembling THE BYZAN-TONES off the streets of the modern-day Byzantium: New York City. The goal: To present a new direction for 21st century party music using as inspiration, the swingin' sounds of pioneers like surf master Dick Dale and Egyptian guitarist Omar Khorshid; and building on the legacy of the legendary Psychedelic Greek Funk group, Annabouboula, the '60s acid-world-folk-rockers Kaleidoscope, and many others.

The first recruit was the electric oud and bass of Queens, New York's own CEMAL ZUBER. Yiorgi and Cemal evolved the early Byzan-Tones sound using the age-old traditional sound of a vintage Roland TR 808, which was soon replaced by the percussive wizardry of ETHAN DONALDSON. The Byzan-Tones continued refining their approach in sporadic appearances at New York nightclubs in front of amazed and delighted audiences.