Fear of Empty Spaces – The Unchronicled

Wikipedia states the following:

“In philosophy the horror vacui stands for a theory initially proposed by Aristotle stating that nature abhors a vacuum and therefore empty space would always be trying to suck in gas or liquids to avoid being empty.  The theory was for a long time widely accepted and still supported by Galileo Galilei…

In visual art, horror vacui (literally: fear of empty spaces, also known as cenophobia) is the filling of the entire surface of an artwork with detail.  The term is associated with the Italian critic and scholar Mario Praz, who used it to describe the suffocating atmosphere and clutter of interior design in the Victorian age….”

This is where the Athenian band Horror Vacui took their name from in 1993.

I think most of them were students at the School of  Fine Arts in Athens.  With the following line-up they managed to release a mini LP titled “Mia trilogia gia ton Angelo – O Pothos” (engl. A trilogy for the angel – The Lust ελλ. Μια Τριλογία Για Τον ‘Αγγελο – Ο Πόθος): Tasos Sagris – vocals, Jellina Palla – vocals, Costas Kousoulos – guitar, Thalia Ioannidou – keyboards, Vangelis Sagris – keyboards – Debby Tsafou-bass and Tasos Siondis – drums.

Their album was released in 1994 through Fifth Dimention Records on vinyl and it was re-released on CD format in 1997 with the bonus track “I Nostalgia tou Angelou” (engl. The Nostalgia of the Angel ελλ. Η Νοσταλγία Ενός Αγγελου).

In 1995 their track “Ta hromata tis Iridas” (engl. The colours of Iris ελλ. Τα χρώματα της Ιριδας) was featured in the compilation “The Thing From Another World Vol.1” while in 1997 they participated with the track “The Subterraneans” in the compilation “Sub Collection No 2“.

Their music style ranged from experimental to new wave with dark and bitter Greek lyrics.  They split due to constant line up changes, leaving behind a great album which was highly admired by the Greek audience.

Of course there were many other bands with no releases at all.  Some of their members later joined other bands or formed new ones.  Some of them disbanded altogether, leaving no traces behind them.

In the first category falls the guitar player/singer Thanos Amorginos.  In the early 90’s, he was playing with the glam rock band Alley Rats.  Although Alley Rats never released a track, Thanos Amorginos eventually joined the band Last Drive for five years, and recorded with them the albums “Fuckhead Entropy” in 1992 and “Subliminal” in 1994.

He produced the 7″ singles of the bands Rockin’ Bones and Cosmic Teds and later he joined the band, Earthbound (Babi Bone is his brother).  Amorginos also formed The Spacecakes, an electro-funk jam band who split after the sad and unexpected death of drummer Michalis Kamarikos.  Once again, there would be no album release.

The next band didn’t have any releases either.  None of their members released anything, at least so far, but their keyboard player, Costas Brelas, is the owner of the Greek music portal “Postwave.gr” with thousands of visits every day.

The name of this dark wave band was Insomnia and they were formed in Athens back in September of 1989.  Apart from Brelas, the rest of the members were Aristos Vasilopoulos – vocals, Giorgos Aggelopoulos – guitar, Michalis Papanikolaou – bass, Giannis Kaoudis – drums.