Clio K

Clio K is a French-Greek harp player, improviser and composer. Clio K is playing the harp with a style and a sound of her own, and her compositions and improvisations sublimates the usual aesthetics of the classical Harp.

Born in Paris to a Greek family, in a cosmopolitan atmosphere, Clio K learned the classical harp for 20 years under the guidance of Elisabeth Valetti and then Helene Breshand (both classical harp teachers that also wrote a history for the modern harp playing and improvising). She afterwards learned the Turkish saz with the turkish master Talip Ozkan for years, while studying ethnomusicology at the Sorbonne University: both experiences helped her shift her musical interest towards improvised music and Traditional musical systems. She spent six years in India, where she slowly developed her understanding of the Indian melodic and rhythmic systems and played extensively with and for Indian Musicians (Sivamani, AR Rahman,Talvin Singh). At the end of the journey towards the East, she finally found herself again at ease with more modern aesthetic idioms, in the linage of Debussy and Alice Coltrane.

In the confluence of free jazz, contemporary music and oriental music, the harp of Clio K incorporates different influences into a unique melodico-rythmical language. The CD Ariadne, at the crossroads of Clio K’s artistic life, weaved together the golden threads of her personal musical.

Clio K with a sound that refers to Alice Coltrane and Oriental jazz, released a new album, “Jasmine in November” .This second per- sonnel album of Clio K presents colourful collaborations: the drummer Nikos Sidirokastritis plays in all tracks, the French jazz Flutist Magic Malik plays and sings in three tracks, the ney player Harris Lambrakis also put his meditative sound in three other tracks, while Vasiliki Konstantellou sings her own versions of My Funny Valentines, Corcovado.

The harp and improvising of Clio K also resonates in healing im- provisations sessions, as she believes, following the french poet Arthur Rimbaud, that the musician is a visionary and a healer. And like Alice Coltrane that she adores, she is also a yoga teacher in the linage of Satchidananda.