Demetrio Stratos

Innovative Italian-Greek Vocal Experimentalist

Born: 22 April 1945 in Alexandria, Egypt Died: 13 June 1979 in New York, USA Singer, song-writer, musician, multi-instrumentalist, music researcher and lyricist. Born in Alexandria from a Greek Orthodox family, since the early childhood he began to study piano and accordion at the "Conservatoire National d'Athènes". In 1957 he moved to Nicosia, Cyprus, and later, in 1962, finally settled in Milan, Italy, attending the School of Architecture at the local "Politecnico" and giving birth to his first student band. He also started performing as keyboardist and - later - as singer, both in pubs and recording studios. In 1966 he joined the beat group I Ribelli, enjoying a remarkable success with such hit singles as "Pugni chiusi" and "Chi mi aiuterà", and the following self-titled album "I Ribelli" (1969). After the group split, he was signed to label Numero Uno, on which released "Daddy's Dream" (1972) - a unique and rather unsuccessful attempt to establish himself as a "commercial" singer. That same year, Demetrio founded Area (6), who would become one of the most innovative and influential Italian prog-rock bands ever. In the meantime, he started his lifelong involvement with experimental studies on human voice used as a musical instrument, a first step towards the achievement of unprecedented levels of voice manipulation. His fame kept growing up along with his many collaborations with famed artists and participations in live festivals, tours and exhibitions throughout the world. In 1979, Stratos finally left "Area", then focusing exclusively on vocal research and on his career as a solo artist. Unfortunately, in April of the same year he was diagnosed with aplastic anemia (a severe blood disorder), and transferred from Milan to New York, where he died on June 13, the day before a great fundraising live concert organized by his friends musicians was held. The concert - which took place, as planned, at the "Arena" of Milan on June, 14, and was attended by an estimated audience of 60,000 people - was then released as a tribute double album.