Giotis Damianidis

Entasis was born in 2018 with a first concert in Thessaloniki featuring Akira Sakata, Giovanni Di Domenico, Giotis Damianidis, and Christos Yermenoglou. That initial encounter led to the release of Hōryū-ji on El Negocito / Mr. Nakayasi Records. Following the untimely loss of drummer Christos Yermenoglou, the band reshaped its sound and lineup, with Aleksandar Škorić taking over on drums and Petros Damianidis occasionally joining on double bass. Between 2022 and 2025, Entasis toured extensively across Europe and released Live in Europe 2022 and Hyperentasis, further expanding their raw, ritualistic approach to improvised music.

Akira Sakata: alto saxophone, clarinet, vocals, bells
Giovanni Di Domenico: piano
Giotis Damianidis: electric guitar
Aleksandar Škorić: drums

occasionally: Petros Damianidis — double bass

https://akirasakata.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-europe-2022

https://defkaz.bandcamp.com/album/hyperentasis

photo by Davide Belotti

Masahiko Satoh & Giotis Damianidis is a duo that brings together two singular voices of improvised music across generations and geographies. First meeting and performing in Japan in 2024, the Japanese pianist and the Greek guitarist immediately revealed a deep musical affinity, one in which distance, age, and stylistic background dissolve into a shared language of risk, listening, and spontaneous form. Their debut recording Thousand Leaves documents this first encounter with striking clarity and intensity.

Satoh’s expansive pianism—rooted in jazz history yet open to classical, free improvisation, and beyond—intertwines with Damianidis’ amplified guitar, whose raw textures, distortion, and rhythmic drive draw as much from rock and experimental music as from jazz. Without compromise, the two voices collide, converse, and align in real time, creating music that is both volatile and precise. Following the release of Thousand Leaves, the duo has toured Europe and continues to deepen its collaboration through ongoing performances in Europe and Japan.

Masahiko Satoh - piano
Giotis Damianidis - guitar

https://giotisdamianidis.bandcamp.com/album/thousand-leaves

photo by Laurent Orseau

Dark Ballads is a duo by Giotis Damianidis and Audrey Lauro, built on feeling, space, and deep interaction. Electric guitar and saxophone—an often-used pairing—are approached here from a different angle: not through raw voltage or explosive dialogue, but through ambience, restraint, and emotional weight.

Their music unfolds slowly, carving moods rather than gestures, letting silence, texture, and breath shape the narrative. Sound becomes atmosphere, and atmosphere becomes emotion—fragile, tense, and intimate. Dark Ballads moves in the shadows between composition and improvisation, where each note feels necessary and each pause speaks.

The duo’s self-titled album is released on Mr. Nakayasi & Silent Water Records.

Audrey Lauro: alto saxophone
Giotis Damianidis: guitar, effects

https://mrnakayasi.bandcamp.com/album/dark-ballads 

photo by Davide Belotti

Don Kapot is a Belgian power trio driven by raw groove, sharp improvisation, and an unstoppable sense of momentum. Blending jazz, krautrock, afro-inspired rhythms, and psychedelic propulsion, the band builds hypnotic structures where repetition and freedom constantly push against each other. Physical, focused, and fiercely alive, Don Kapot’s music thrives on trance, friction, and collective energy.

You can find their full discography on their Bandcamp or via the W.E.R.F. Records label: 

Don Kapot (2018): Their self-titled debut.

Hooligan (2021): An album with a strong "afropunk" vibe.

I Love Tempo (2023): A fourth studio album co-produced by Greg Saunier of Deerhoof.

Remedy (2024): An EP showcasing a "Death Grips-style" hip-hop backdrop mixed with improvisation.

Antistrofos Illigos (Reverse Vertigo) (2025): A recent release featuring improvisations inspired by the poems of Greek poet Argyris Hionis. 

Giotis Damianidis: bass, guitar & effects
Viktor Perdieus: baritone saxophone & keyboards
Jakob Warmenbol: drums & electronic samples

https://donkapot.bandcamp.com/album/antistrofos-illigos

https://donkapot.bandcamp.com/album/remedy 

https://donkapot.bandcamp.com/album/i-love-tempo-2 

https://donkapot.bandcamp.com/album/hooligan 

photo by DansTonConcert
 

The Miracle operates in a distinctive zone of improvised music that can be described as free ecclesiastical funk: a raw synthesis of free improvisation, ritualistic and ecclesiastical atmospheres, and strong, grounded rhythmic energy. The band’s music moves between trance and eruption, drawing on collective intensity while leaving space for abstraction and devotion-like focus.

Their first album, released independently, is dedicated to Derek Bailey and his seminal work The Mirakle (Tzadik Records), which stands as a key inspiration for both the sound and the philosophy of the band—an approach rooted in freedom, risk, and deep listening.
The new album, Ciao Bell, is scheduled for release in July 2026 at Akra Festival, Heraklion.

Giovanni Di Domenico: hohner pianet
Giotis Damianidis: bass and guitar
João Lobo: drums

https://mrnakayasi.bandcamp.com/album/the-miracle

photo by Davide Belotti

The Navarro / Barkatsas / Damianidis / Škorić Quartet is an international electric jazz group based in Brussels, bringing together musicians from Panama, Greece, and Serbia. The band’s music is grounded in improvisation and strong rhythm, drawing equally from electric jazz, raw groove, and the energy of punk and experimental music.

Each member brings a distinct cultural background into the sound. Afro-Caribbean influences from Panama shape the phrasing and pulse of the music, Balkan rhythms from Serbia drive its intensity and shifting meters, while Mediterranean melodic sensibilities from Greece add color and contrast. Rather than blending these elements into a fixed style, the quartet uses them as living material something to stretch, break apart, and rebuild on stage.

The project began in 2023 as a trio featuring guitarist Manos Barkatsas, drummer Aleksandar Škorić, and electric guitarist/bassist Giotis Damianidis. Early performances in Brussels and Crete quickly established a shared approach based on close listening, physical playing, and openness to risk. In 2024, the group expanded with the addition of trumpeter Aquiles Navarro, whose presence gave the band a sharper edge and a stronger sense of direction. His trumpet brings both clarity and urgency, cutting through the dense electric sound while remaining deeply connected to rhythm and groove.

The quartet has completed two studio recording sessions at Studio Grez in Brussels for their debut album, capturing the band’s energy without smoothing out its edges. They have also successfully completed their first Balkan tour, performing for diverse audiences and further strengthening the group’s identity as a live band.

On stage, the Navarro / Barkatsas / Damianidis / Škorić Quartet delivers music that is direct, physical, and immersive. There is space for improvisation, but the focus remains on connection between the musicians, with the audience, and with the moment. This is not background music or genre exercise, but a live experience built on intensity, rhythm, and trust.

Aquiles Navarro: trumpet
Manos Barkatsas: guitar
Giotis Damianidis: electric bass and baritone guitar
Aleksandar Skorić: drums

photo by Marko Dašić

Dans Kapot started in 2020, with the meeting of Alexandros “Greco” Anastasiadis and Giotis
Damianidis and their common desire to bring their two genres into a creative dialogue. Setting off from a few improvised performances, the collaboration extended to the latter’s band Don Kapot (consisting of Jakob Warmenbol and Viktor Perdieus) and a group of dancers into filming their video clip “Whononogono” and their first explosive public appearance in the festival Dansand in Ostende 2021.
The success of the event inspired the group to play a series of performances with an interactive character, which were played in schools, streets and squats in 2022. The piece was rightfully named “Op Straat”. Everyday spaces got transformed into stages and everyday moments into spontaneous colorful parties. Kit King joined the group at this phase. Having operated in a guerrilla manner, the group was naturally curious to explore the possibilities of their work within the setting of a creation and a stage environment, using their previous experiences. The first full creation started with the support of Werf Records and Jazzlab and Margherita Dello Sbarba joined the group, co-directing it artistically along with Alexandros.
The group entered a close collaboration, in a phase combining performances in the street, work in progress shows and rehearsal phases, which all led to premiering the inside show “A Small World” in September 2024.
They are continuing to operate in a hybrid format, performing their shows along with fully improvised
performances in theaters and unconventional venues.

A small World

A Small World is a celebration of the place inside us which is made of connection, made of dance and music, a place of common history and common present. Six performers start from the bare act of dialogue between body and sound, which gradually unfolds all the complexity of the connections within a group of people.

The audience is invited in a circle surrounding the stage, which becomes a space where joy exists along with grief, compassion along with excitement, images along with poetry, a performance as much as a ritual of creating a small world full of hope. The piece shifts from exuberant energetic scenes to intimate moments exposing the sensitivity of each person’s bodies, all culminating towards inviting the audience to join a communal act of celebration.

Direction/Choreography: Alexandros Anastasiadis, Margherita Dello Sbarba

Creation and performance: Kit King, Margherita Dello Sbarba, Alexandros Anastasiadis, Viktor Perdieus, Jakob Warmenbol, Giotis Damianidis

Music: Don Kapot

Dramaturgy: Greet Van Poeck

Costume design: Dolça Mayol, Margherita Dello Sbarba

Light design: Max Maes & Ryoya Fudetani

Stage technician: Max Maes

Distribution:  Daan Agency

Movement assistant: German Jauregui

Outside eye: Giulia Tornarolli

Coordination: Alexandros Anastasiadis

Production: Katrien Debois

Co-Production: Jazzlab Series, Kunstencentrum KAAP, Werf Records, , Kunstencentrum NONA. With the help of CC De Factorij, Ultima Vez/Wim Vandekeybus, GC PIanofabriek, Enthusiast Music Asbl

and the support of the Kunstendecreet of the Flemish Ministry for the Arts, Youth and Media

Op Straat

Op straat is an interactive, vibrant performance that brings music to the neighbourhoods, smiles in people’s hearts and sweat in their bodies. It awakens thepower of dance along with music, sharing it with a live audience in an everyday setting. The street intervention blends the uplifting and genre mixing music of the band “Don Kapot” with the energetic and extrovert performance of the dancers.
Starting with a promenade act the 6 performers bring the audience to the place where the instruments are set and gradually build up to a colourful and powerful
show. Op straat begun in the streets of Brussels in 2022 and continues to play
throughout Belgium.
 

Duration: ~ 30 mins
Direction: Alexandros Anastasiadis, Giotis
Damianidis
Performance: Margherita Dello Sbarba, Kit King,
Alexandros Anastasiadis, Giulia Tornarolli
Music: Don Kapot 
Costume design: Margherita Dello Sbarba,
Alexandros Anastasiadis
Management: Alexandros Anastasiadis

https://vimeo.com/1020996920 

photo by Thomas Geuens