88 EAST: A bridge between two Worlds
PianOLAternA is now 88 EAST.

The piano. Simple, imposing and still. An instrument deeply associated with the musical tradition of the West, with 88 keys and an entire world hidden within.

But what happens when the piano turns East?

When it leaves behind the salons where we are used to finding it and moves closer to the music of the streets, the small tavernas and gathering places, to our joys and sorrows, to wine and tsipouro? When its keys begin to follow the folk modes, amanés, taksims and melodies that have travelled between the two shores of the Aegean and across the Eastern Mediterranean?

The piano becomes a meeting place for musical worlds that may seem far apart, but are not. Waltz and Balos, retro serenades and zeibekiko, songs from Smyrna and Greek urban folk music, a kalamatianos and a taksim — all find their place within the same circle.

A circle that begins and ends with 88 keys.

88 EAST.

88 keys. A piano journeying East.

Through piano and voice, Haris Tsalpara brings the two ends of the thread together.